Hey Duggee, the children’s TV show, beloved by preschoolers and parents alike, has come under fire for introducing a gender-neutral raccoon.
In the award-winning Cbeebies show, Duggee is a cartoon dog who runs a clubhouse for young animals known as the ‘squirrels’. In each episode, the squirrels earn a badge (and a hug) by learning about something new.
In ‘The Sibling Badge’ episode, one squirrel, Roly, finds out he will be gaining a baby brother or sister, prompting Duggee to teach the squirrels all about siblings.
In a scene to help explain, the squirrels meet various animals and their siblings. After being introduced, via the voiceover, to ‘Arlo and his siblings’ and ‘Lucy and her sibling’, they then meet raccoon, Wren, and ‘their siblings’, prompting accusations of an attempt to introduce non-binary pronouns into the show.
Parents have complained, and it has been called ‘inappropriate’. The BBC denied that the character was ‘non-binary’, A researcher from campaign group Transgender Trend, Shelley Charlesworth, said: ‘Its target audience is still learning to speak and this only confuses…There is no way that a child of three to five can understand non-binary they/them pronouns, and using these neo-pronouns takes no account of child development.’ She accuses the BBC, who produces the programme along with Studio AKA, of breaking its impartiality code.
All of this seems a suitably bonkers response for a show whose regular characters include a giant roller-skating ostrich with a Scottish accent, named Hennie, a wonderfully camp crab couple called John and Nigel, and a French ‘artiste’ mouse suffering from a permanent case of ennui.
In reality, the raccoon moment in question amounts to a two-second cutaway and is a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. Raccoon Wren is not being introduced as a new character. In fact, this particular episode first aired last year, and I don’t believe Wren has returned since (as mother to a four-year-old and 23-month-old, I am a regular Duggee viewer).
A BBC spokesperson said, ‘Wren the racoon is not a non-binary character.’ And a BBC source said that the use of ‘their’ was merely to ‘avoid the repetition of his and her’.
Much as I loathe any attempt to force identity politics and ‘worthiness’ into children’s books, shows and entertainment – ‘Antiracist Baby’, I’m looking at you – I do think this time we need to give the show the benefit of the doubt.
There are so many other examples of insidious attempts to insert ideologically and politically charged themes into children’s entertainment, which absolutely should be opposed. Just look at the now ubiquitous and highly inappropriate initiative Drag Queen Story Hour, appearing at a library near you. And just last month, the BBC was criticised for celebrating two American drag queens as ‘inspirational mums’ on their CBeebies site.
Meanwhile, browse any bookshelf in the children’s sections of bookshops or libraries, and you’re sure to come across a whole host of worthy tomes on climate change, gender swapping and being kind, always at the cost of a good storyline that can hold a child’s attention. At one of my local soft-play cafes, we can’t read any of the books on offer, which include ‘Dear Greenpeace’ and ‘It’s great to be kind’ because the storylines are so incredibly tedious that my children physically shut the book two pages in.
Hey Duggee has no such problems when it comes to holding the interest of young children. Duggee’s clubhouse is world where anything can happen and where children are introduced to the truly limitless possibilities of an imagination. In “The Carrot Badge”, the squirrels help hippy bunnies celebrate the “carrot solstice” at “Carrot-henge”; in “The Cheese Badge” they all don hazmat suits to hunt down the world’s stinkiest cheese, which has gone awol; and there’s even an attempt to unravel the mystery of the universe itself, as things get metaphysical in “The Why badge”, with squirrel Betty asking “why are we here?”.
My feeling is, let’s save our parental ire for the situations that really warrant it and not target a show that so obviously has children’s joy and imagination at its heart.
As the ultimate test for “The Sibling Badge”, I got my four-year-old son to watch it with me. “Did you like it? What did it make you think about?” I asked at the end. “It made me think about having another baby sister,” was the rather worrying reply. More fool me for asking.
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