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The Spectacle Blog
Brian Ledbetter at Snapped Shot calls our attention to a Canadian academic who has spotted the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy’s secret agenda at work in kiddie TV:
Research by the University of Alberta’s Augustana Campus contends that children’s programming can carry underlying political themes that may surprise parents. After analyzing 23 episodes of Thomas and Friends, a show about a train, his friends and their adventures on a fictional island, political scientist Shauna Wilton was able to identify themes that didn’t seem constructive for youngsters.
“While the show conveys a number of positive political values such as tolerance, listening, communicating with others and contributing to the community, it also represents a conservative political ideology that punishes individual initiative, opposes critique and change, and relegates females to supportive roles,” said Wilton, an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Augustana Campus.
The Thomas and Friends TV series is shown in 130 countries around the world. Wilton noted storylines in several episodes that divided the characters into different social classes and punished those who tried to gain individual power. “Any change is seen as disrupting the natural order of things.” As well, of 49 main characters listed in the show, only eight were female, reflecting a general trend among children’s programming, Wilton said. (Emphasis added.)
Coming soon to a PBS station near you: “Barney Is Gay (That’s Why Dinosaurs Are Extinct),” and “Let’s Deport Dora the Explorer.”
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More Blog Posts by Robert Stacy McCain
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/12/09/thomas-the-tank-engine-and-his
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Jocon307| 12.10.09 @ 12:23AM
LOL, Gay extinct Barney & Deported Dora, very funny. You definately get the laugh of the day award for that!
Liberal Reader| 12.10.09 @ 12:50AM
McCain --
Popular culture -- driven entirely by the free market that creates it -- is a seething, corrupt sewer. One watches music videos and most television programs and films and wonders how stupid, vapid, and morally insane a culture can actually be before it collapses into a debased chaotic wreckage. America is fast becoming a suburb casino of Hollywood, and it can only end in tears. 2 and a half million people are in prison in this country, and the public schools are -- as you point out -- groaning with mediocrity.
Your critique here seems mighty thin. Maybe this political scientist is a little off-track, but I hardly see this as a good example of what is wrong with education or entertainment designed for children.
At any rate, I hardly see how the relentless privatization of the country can cure any of this. The new "conservative" agenda seems to have a vision of America in which everyone is locked behind closed doors, armed to the teeth, watching Glenn Beck blubber and weep on cable television.
What can save this country is a revitalization of the civic spirit. Great public works, a massive increase in spending on education (together with a massive increase of standards for teachers and students), and a campaign to improve civility and respect for the law -- before people wind up in front of judges to receive their sentences.
Dai Alanye | 12.10.09 @ 6:00AM
"Great public works, a massive increase in spending on education…"
Sure, that should work, because throwing money at our problems has always worked so well in the past.
Terry Baker| 2.8.10 @ 9:05AM
Throwing money at the problem of "World War II" was what finally ended the Great Depression?
Throwing money from the bottom of society to the top of society has been our main direction since...care to guess if there's any change to be expected from this except what we now see?
JohnD| 12.10.09 @ 8:06AM
I noticed what they say above myself when I used to watch it with my son, who has now outgrown Thomas and moved on to other pursuits.
Thomas the Tank Engine does reinforce many principles we conservatives hold dear, like respect for authority, order, hard work, and self-discipline, but in many cases it is more monarchist. Sir Topham Hatt, runs the railway with an iron fist, and tolerates absolutely NO challenge to his authority.
I used to tell my son as we watched Thomas, "If I worked for Sir Topham Hatt and he talked to me the way he talks to Thomas and the other engines, I'd punch him right in his fat face." My son used to laugh at that.
Thomas| 12.10.09 @ 9:43AM
First a disclaimer. I am no relation to any character in the television show.
Having watched this series with my youngest child for quite a while, I can safely say that all of this is a load of piffle. People put on their preconception specs, project their personal prejudices into the show and see what they want to see.
The social science professor stated the following, "it also represents a conservative political ideology that punishes individual initiative, opposes critique and change, and relegates females to supportive roles,". Perhaps this is true of Conservatives in Canada, but it is hardly the case in the US. This is simply another example of an academic, very likely liberal and most definitely female found exactly what she knew deep down in her heart that she would find in this show; an evil Conservative message that stressed, hard work, cooperation, respect for authority and responsibility for ones own actions. Evil thrives in the most unlikely places.
Now the most important thing to realize is that Thomas the Tank Engine is a British television production from a series of books written by a British writer. So I guess it's conservative message is aimed at the former British Commonwealth, eh?
Motown Mike| 12.10.09 @ 9:56AM
As a conservative, a train buff, and an academic, I think this revelation about Thomas et al. is great! It gives me a new research idea. Watch for my book:
"The Political Lives of Steam Locomotives."
First premise is that steam locomotives are like big government: a lot smoke, fire, huffing and puffing, but more than 90% of the energy goes up the smokestack. Yet, they are always good at railroading you.
china racking | 1.7.10 @ 1:24AM
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