Outmoded social stereotypes abound down by the sea in 'Balamory' (Balamory)

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	Balamory
Date:	08/07/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bright and cheerful and the kids seem to like it

Disadvantages: Doesn't send a message I would want any daughter of mine to necessarily accept

CBeeebies - the speciality kid's TV arm of the BBC came in for some over-the-top criticism recently, in a newspaper article that claimed the programming output was too politically correct for its own good.

The apparently harmless "it's time for lunch" jingle that they play every day around 12 noon for example was singled out for making reference to such dinnertime dishes as 'poppadums and peas', 'guacamole' and 'lots of pilau rice' - all of which the reviewer seemed to think were a bit too right-on to be borne, which in itself came across as somewhat daft attitude, considering that the kids who watch CBeebies live in a multicultural society, etc.

All this has some reference to my over-the-top criticism of the CBeebies programme 'Balamory' - a TV show aimed at pre-school-age toddlers - in the sense that if CBebbies programmers are indeed being overly politically correct, I can't see that this has really affected this particular show nearly enough.

'Balamory' is set in a Highland village populated by colourful, friendly characters who live by the sea in Scotland. It quite impressively set - it looks like whoever makes this programme has actually bought - or leased - some real houses for the fictional characters to live in in an authentic Scottish location; these have then been painted in a range of bright, sunshiny and pastel colours to make an attractive setting for the series as a whole.

The English laird of Balamory, for example, lives in a sugar-pink-painted (some of it rendered in CGI, thankfully) castle - and this is where my objection to what really should be a harmless kids' TV show begins.

Basically the problem with 'Balamory' is that it perpetuates all sorts of social stereotypes - in particular I would say not especially positive female character stereotypes - that are a bit too old fashioned to have a place in a modern TV show.

Admittedly, the town's schoolteacher (it's at the primary school, mind you) is a woman but all the other intellectual, creative and artistic characters featured are men. The aforementioned Laird of Balamory also happens to be an inventor, and his advice is regularly sought by all the other characters, the males as well as the females. One step down the cultural pecking order from the head honcho we have PC Plum, a dithering if well-meaning Scottish person, who may not be the most authoritarian or efficient of Bobbies but is a man none the less, and again relatively speaking as a police constable, in a power-holding position. The American artistic one whose name I can't recall is another man, and well, he gets to design and make and paint fun things, whereas the women - well apart from the school teacher, we've got Josie Jump the sports instructor who's good for leaping about and being cheerful, one district nurse and a couple of women who run the local newsagent / sweetshop.

So while 'Balamory' might well be representative of the role of women in modern society, but it's not exactly bristling with positive role models them (or indeed for Scottish nationals) is it? Where's the female research biologist who runs the Balamory Marine Laboratory? Or the Lady Mayoress of the town? How the pair of sisters who might in any other fictional setting manage the town's Heritage Lottery Fund and act as curators for the local museum? But no. There's none of that, for in 'Balamory' we see women cast in traditional community care and retail roles, which you might argue is 'harmless' and 'fun' but on the other hand, it is all aimed at little kids which means that this sort of thing could easily be seen as a subliminal and insidious reinforcement of a form of paternalistic societal control....

Or perhaps I have too much time on my hands and am reading far too much into all this.

Just don't get me started on 'Pinky Dinky Doo', a lead female character in a CBeebies cartoon who spends much of her time worrying about the state of her hair

Summary: Colourful, harmless, fun or is there a more sinister, underlying agenda?