Home
Log in / Sign Up
    Private Messages   Advanced Search   Rules   New User Guide   FAQ   Advertise   Contact Us  
Forum -> Parenting our children -> Preschoolers
Latest PBS Arthur Episode - Mr Ratburn gets married...
Previous  1  2  3  Next



Post new topic   Reply to topic View latest: 24h 48h 72h

SixOfWands




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 4:28 pm
PinkFridge wrote:
And I didn't know Francine was Jewish till this thread.


Yes.

And even there, they were trying to break stereotypes. The Jewish character isn't rich Muffy. Its Francine, who lives in an apartment and whose father works for the sanitation department.
Back to top

urban gypsy




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 4:28 pm
Fox wrote:
But on to other concerns: most of the families in Arthur are homospecific. Francine's family is made up of all chimpanzees; Arthur's family is aardvaark; Buster's parents are both rabbits, etc.

Mr. Ratburn's new husband does not look like a member of the Rodentia genus or even a Mustelid. So it seems like a lot of boundaries are being pushed!


This is the most incredible observation and truly the take home message of this thread.
Fox you win the internet again today!!! Not worthy
Back to top

mommy3b2c




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 4:30 pm
urban gypsy wrote:
So many kids shows have veiled references and questionable characters like you wouldn't believe. Even older classics (I'm looking at you, He-Man and She-Ra!)

I have mixed feelings about this particular example. On one hand, I feel like for so many children, gay parents are a fait accompli. It's not their choice, they have done nothing wrong, and they deserve to feel themselves represented in the media. On the other hand, I feel like the entire discussion of s-xual orientation needs to be presented at an age-appropriate time, and preschool is not it.

I think Doctor McStuffins is another show for tiny kids with gay parents. I really wish there was some kind of content warning on material like this so parents can choose for themselves whether they will allow their kids to watch it or not. Does anyone know of any website that posts alerts for stuff like this?


What does doc mcstuffins have to do with gay parents?
Back to top

urban gypsy




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 4:37 pm
imorethanamother wrote:
Wait. WHAT veiled references are in He-Man and She-Ra??


Man-At-Arms is a fabulous queen, of course!
He-Man himself is of rather questionable orientation....
Also I recall one episode where Teela (She-Ra's friend) gets hooked on drugs
There is a lot of trippy stuff in those shows
Back to top

urban gypsy




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 4:38 pm
mommy3b2c wrote:
What does doc mcstuffins have to do with gay parents?


LOL you're the 3rd person to ask on this thread. Scroll up I posted an article about it.
Back to top

imorethanamother




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 4:59 pm
urban gypsy wrote:
Man-At-Arms is a fabulous queen, of course!
He-Man himself is of rather questionable orientation....
Also I recall one episode where Teela (She-Ra's friend) gets hooked on drugs
There is a lot of trippy stuff in those shows


This is all blowing my mind. Teela? I know I watched about eleventy billion of these shows, but all I recall about the plot is:

-Long, long musical introduction to the show, showing He-Man/She-Ra turn into the alter self

-"Oh, here I am, just strolling along in my garden, playing with my sidekick animal"

-Cut to villain throwing back head, laughing maniacally

-Introduction of villainous sidekicks. Exposition, exposition (two minutes). More repeated footage of villain laughing, being mean to their sidekicks.

-He-Man/She-Ran turn into their alter selves. Considering we see it in the intro, and about twice an episode, this is clearly to kill time.

-They save the day!

-"I'll get you next time, you absurdly buff heroic adversary! Next time!"

-Loooong credits.

Total new material per episode: Five minutes.

When was there time for anyone to develop drug habits? I vaguely remember Man At Arms being some kind of father figure, looking overly concerned. That's it.
Back to top

amother
Honeydew


 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 5:03 pm
I would never let my kids watch Arthur. So chutzpadik and some of the messages are not so great. Even before this.
Back to top

Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 5:33 pm
I once took a book out from the library titled “The flower girl wore celery” and from peeking inside I saw it was a cute story about a Jewish wedding.
Well then I sit down to read it to my kids and... turns out it’s two kallahs under the chuppah.
Thank goodness my kids couldn’t read yet so I pretended that the second kallah was the kallah’s sister and was wishing her mazel tov.
Back to top

amother
Orange


 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 5:41 pm
urban gypsy wrote:
I just posted upthread with an article answering this question.
Not Doc's parents, but one episode had a family with two moms.
The show creator and executive producer is a lesbian mom.
In television, it is common to have different directors for each episode so they have limited creative input (compared to an "auteur" film director)
Also, it's likely that frum director you reference has no problem with gay marriage, or he wouldn't have participated in the project, so I'm not sure what you think that proves.


I see it was just one episode and long after he left the show. Smile

It doesn't prove anything, but I hope he would have mentioned this fact.

Anyway, my kids have classmates with 2 mothers so I am not too worried.
Back to top

bigsis144




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 7:29 pm
Ravenclaw wrote:
I once took a book out from the library titled “The flower girl wore celery” and from peeking inside I saw it was a cute story about a Jewish wedding.
Well then I sit down to read it to my kids and... turns out it’s two kallahs under the chuppah.
Thank goodness my kids couldn’t read yet so I pretended that the second kallah was the kallah’s sister and was wishing her mazel tov.


I never read this book, but it sounds exactly like something PJ Library would send out...
Back to top

amother
Amber


 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 7:34 pm
for good kids videos look up merideth levande
Back to top

imasoftov




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, May 14 2019, 8:09 pm
urban gypsy wrote:
Man-At-Arms is a fabulous queen, of course!
He-Man himself is of rather questionable orientation....
Also I recall one episode where Teela (She-Ra's friend) gets hooked on drugs
There is a lot of trippy stuff in those shows

Back to top

seeker




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, May 15 2019, 12:01 am
amother [ Honeydew ] wrote:
I would never let my kids watch Arthur. So chutzpadik and some of the messages are not so great. Even before this.

Really? It's been a while but according to my fuzzy childhood memories I thought Arthur was one of the better quality children's programs. The kids seem so normal and deal in such normal healthy ways with normal social problems that come up between kids and families.
Back to top

flowerpower




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, May 15 2019, 12:28 am
Ravenclaw wrote:
I once took a book out from the library titled “The flower girl wore celery” and from peeking inside I saw it was a cute story about a Jewish wedding.
Well then I sit down to read it to my kids and... turns out it’s two kallahs under the chuppah.
Thank goodness my kids couldn’t read yet so I pretended that the second kallah was the kallah’s sister and was wishing her mazel tov.


Reminds me when I got my toddler a horse and buggy toy with two princesses on the wagon at Marshalls. It said “the romantic getaway” on the box. It was a win for me though because two princesses are better than one when playing with dolls...
Back to top

amother
White


 

Post Wed, May 15 2019, 12:36 am
My kids watch Arthur on PBS app. I don’t prewatch the episodes. I asked my dd if she saw the episode where he gets married. She gave a chuckle and said she did. She knows about gay marriages and has seen it on Ellen, Master Chef, and more. It’s part of the world now. We don’t make a big deal over it. Maybe I’m wrong?
Back to top

amother
Rose


 

Post Wed, May 15 2019, 7:07 am
its cultural invasion and propaganda
Back to top

urban gypsy




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, May 15 2019, 10:30 am
amother [ Rose ] wrote:
its cultural invasion and propaganda


it is, but that argument cuts both ways
if we don't like it then we can make and watch our own shows
Back to top

Ravenclaw




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, May 15 2019, 1:08 pm
flowerpower wrote:
Reminds me when I got my toddler a horse and buggy toy with two princesses on the wagon at Marshalls. It said “the romantic getaway” on the box. It was a win for me though because two princesses are better than one when playing with dolls...


It don't know what that was, but it may have been Frozen. In which case they are sisters, not lovers.
And "romantic" can be used in a platonic sense. I use it all the time that way.
Back to top

urban gypsy




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, May 15 2019, 1:09 pm
Ravenclaw wrote:
It don't know what that was, but it may have been Frozen. In which case they are sisters, not lovers.


I am so relieved to hear this you don't even know. I was so stressed by that post that I couldn't even bring myself to reply LOL
Back to top

Fox




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, May 15 2019, 6:24 pm
This brings up an interesting issue that has been raging on conservative Twitter in recent weeks:

What is the difference -- and what should be the difference -- between acknowledging realities of a pluralistic society and giving our approval to it.

I think the mini-controversy that set things off was an openly gay contestant on one of the singing contest shows. His parents, Evangelical Christians, claimed that they love him unconditionally but do not approve of homosexuality.

Well. You can imagine how that set off the LGBT activists and media. They claimed in all caps and with as much vitriol as will fit into 140 characters that the parents are simply bigots and that "unconditional love" must by definition include approval of their son's s-xual orientation.

The conservative gays argued back that it is reasonable to demand that society tolerate LGBT citizens to the point of giving them civil rights and not throwing them off buildings, but that demanding that everyone approve of them is neither realistic nor a desireable precedent. They argued that, in fact, demanding that everyone endorse your s-x life is a whole lot more than affirmation than most of us want to give one another, whatever our preferences.

Of course, Twitter being what it is, the insults were flung with gusto until the next outrage surfaced.

But I think it's an interesting question that most of us on Imamother grapple with, especially when it comes to chinuch.

I wanted my kids to be worldly enough that they could function outside the frum world, and I also wanted them to understand that the trade-off in a society where we aren't persecuted for our religious practices is putting up with other people's practices of which we might not approve.

At the same time, it's quite one thing to quietly acknowledge that rats sometimes defy nature and marry aardvarks and quite another to accept the kind of indoctrination that schools in the UK are fighting against and that activists with various agendas constantly push.

I've come to believe that there's no perfect answer. Personally, I opted for the "families come in lots of varieties, but that doesn't mean that all varieties are equally good and healthy." That makes me a bigot in some quarters and retweeted in others.
Back to top
Page 2 of 3 Previous  1  2  3  Next Recent Topics




Post new topic   Reply to topic    Forum -> Parenting our children -> Preschoolers

Related Topics Replies Last Post
What's the latest you would go away for Shabbos if invited
by amother
10 Today at 9:55 am View last post
Latest megilla in boro park
by amother
4 Sun, Mar 24 2024, 1:19 pm View last post
by cnc
Married children
by amother
4 Tue, Mar 19 2024, 12:08 am View last post
Selfish married daughter
by amother
13 Mon, Mar 18 2024, 11:19 pm View last post
[ Poll ] When was the latest you stopped using a stroller?
by amother
14 Tue, Mar 12 2024, 12:41 am View last post