Dear Muppets,
One of the best things about having kids is getting to introduce them to the things you loved when you were young. One of the worst comes when they don’t see those things quite the way you always did.
I was really excited this morning when my 4-year-old son, Bennett, raced up to me to say he’d just seen the greatest YouTube video ever — and it starred the Muppets! I love the Muppets! I’ve even written about them before on this blog! Bennett started describing it to me in his adorably excitable way.
“Daddy, you won’t believe what they were sitting on… BRANCHES! Isn’t that CRAAAAZY? And there were BIRDS! They were going, ‘Tweet, tweet!'”
“Wait a second, dude,” I said, in my older, excitable way. “Was this song called ‘Rockin’ Robin’?”
“YES!!!”
“I REMEMBER THAT!!!”
“WOW!!!”
“LET’S WATCH IT RIGHT NOW!!!”
“OK!!!”
I grabbed Bennett’s twin sister, Sutton, and the three of us ran to the iPad. As the video played, Bennett and I giggled and sang along. Sutton just watched.
“Daddy,” she said, about halfway through, “there aren’t a lot of girl Muppets.”
Cue the record scratch here.
I’m not going to pretend that this was news to me. Sure, everyone knows Miss Piggy, and any true Muppet fan is aware of Janice, who in fact, sings lead vocals on “Rockin’ Robin.” Other than her, though, it was a total sausage factory on those branches, the same way it is in the Muppet Theater, the Muppet movies, the Muppet TV specials and everything else Muppet-related.
The 3rd most popular “girl Muppet”
Think about it. After Miss Piggy and Janice, what other female Muppets are there? Camilla the chicken?
I don’t want to play up this moment too much. It’s not like my daughter burst into tears or stormed away declaring she didn’t like the Muppets anymore. She was just making an observation. And that is exactly why I’m so upset.
At 4 years old, my daughter has already figured out that sometimes, there just aren’t a lot of girls. Some people create entire realms of characters where women are an afterthought or a token, where one or two females can represent every feminine characteristic they intend to portray. The boys come in endless varieties, each with their own lovable quirks. There’s Kermit, the avuncular optimist, Fozzie, the goofy vaudevillian, Swedish Chef, the, well, Swedish Chef… and then there’s Miss Piggy, the girl.
What really hurts about this is how otherwise inclusive the Muppets are. Muppets come in all shapes and species, all colors of the rainbow, some have different accents or dress in a unique way. The only blind spot the Muppets seem to have is the one that covers, you know, roughly half of the entire world’s population — and 100% of my daughter.
I realize this isn’t a new thing. The Muppets have always been a boys’ club. What’s changed, of course, is that I have a daughter now, and I want her to feel as welcome and included in this fun little fantasy world as I do.
Sutton and 1/1,000,000,000th of her stuffed animal collection
I could very easily steer her toward other pop culture choices. Believe me, she knows about princesses and Strawberry Shortcake, properties that were created specifically for her gender and where girl characters typically outnumber boys. But she wants to like the Muppets, and I want to share them with her without her feeling like she needs to sit on the sidelines while her brother and I geek out over their videos.
The Children’s Television Workshop has done a good job of integrating new female characters, like Abby Cadabby, Zoe and Rosita. There’s no reason the Muppets (who are owned by Disney and operate as a separate entity) can’t do the same.
Come on, Disney. This is on you. I know you know how to market things to little girls, so let’s get on this, OK?
I am not wagging a finger at you so much as I am waving dollar bills in your face. My son owns about half a dozen stuffed animals, including Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo. My daughter owns about nine squijillion. Many of them are your characters. If you make some new girl Muppets, we will buy the toys. We will buy the original doll, we will buy the “young” version of the doll, we will buy the Classic Animator edition of the doll, the Barbie version of the doll, the pillow pet of the doll, the miniature figurine of the doll. The last time I counted, I believe Sutton had six Rapunzels, and she’s never even sat all the way through Tangled. Whatever you churn out and squeeze onto the shelves of the Disney Store, we will charge on our Disney credit card and take home with us. You will have us on the hook for years and years, for hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars.
What I am begging you for is the opportunity to make you considerably richer. If that’s not win-win, I don’t know what is.
Look, I realize my timing is terrible. The next Muppet movie, Muppets Most Wanted, comes out in March, and from what I’ve seen, it’s just as testosterone-heavy as all the other Muppet films. No new girl Muppets, although there is Tina Fey — who, by the way, I’m pretty sure will be with me on this.
It’s almost like one of those Pictureka pictures, where the goal is to find two female characters before the time runs out.
Maybe you can squeeze in a few reshoots or CGI in Beaker’s mom or something. Bring back Skeeter if you want to. I’m not picky. At the very least, you’re probably in development on the next Muppet movie after this one. (I hope so. I hope there are a hundred more Muppet movies on the way, ones both my kids will want to see with me.)
If you’re still in need of ideas, here’s one for you. After we watched the video this morning, I told Sutton she should create her own girl Muppet. Then at preschool, that’s exactly what she did. When I picked her up at the end of the day, she couldn’t wait to show me her drawing. Her name is Rosada.
Rosada, according to Sutton, is nice, quiet and as smart as a bug. She likes Milano cookies, her shoes and her bag that her mother got her. She is not a ladybug.
A four-year-old came up with this. What have you got?
Sincerely,
Jerry Mahoney
jerry-mahoney.com 
You know. As a little kid, I loved the Muppets. As a parent, I’m relearning that enjoyment of them with my two kids, who both adore them.
Both my kids are boys.
I didn’t notice the sad lack of female characters until reading this. Go you, Jerry, for pointing it out and eloquently stating what you’d like to see happen.
PS, Sutton’s “Rosada” may be my new favorite Muppet-think they’ll go for it?
Oh, thank you so much! I adore the muppets, and I’m 27 weeks pregnant with two girls!!!!!
Hopefully they will add more female muppets as well as female puppeteers. Then we will seek more animal muppets, handicapped muppets and what about gay muppets, muppets with learning disabilities, ethnic muppets etc etc etc – guess we’ll have spin-offs from Sesame Street eventually. Love reading you.
I love this! I had never noticed that the muppets were so light on the female persuasion. It doesn’t dim my love for them but it does add a new perspective. Definitely time for change.
I agree with anonymous above!!
Thanks, fishducky –
I’m a mom and I was a little girl who, from the age of two, was obsessed with the Muppets and all things Miss Piggy. I loved all the Muppets, not just Miss P, and came to love all of Jim Henson’s creations unconditionally. Because at the root of it, no matter what they look like, who gave them a voice or made them move, it was Jim Henson who created that spark that hooked me. Isn’t that what we should teach our kids to focus on? Not what the Muppets look like, but the lessons they taught us and the way they made us feel?
Isn’t that what I’m doing? They make my daughter feel excluded. They teach her the lesson that she doesn’t matter, because she’s not a boy. It’s great that you and I got different lessons from the Muppets when we were growing up, but you can’t expect everyone to feel the same things. And I agree Jim Henson is a genius. What does that have to do with it?
I don’t think I can explain it any differently. It just makes me sad that someone could feel excluded when Jim Henson was all about inclusion. I’ve never seen any episode of the Muppet show that directly or indirectly taught a child they didn’t matter for any reason. Maybe instead of focusing on the girl/boy aspect, you could show her how little that means in comparison to someone being funny, kind, silly, and creative. Isn’t that the message you got as a kid? Just because she’s a girl doesn’t mean the message has to be different. Maybe what I’m trying to say is don’t let her lose the forest through the trees?
My kids did not like the muppets – in fact my little girl said they were “weird” and when we watched the first movie I found myself gritting my teeth a bit as the humour was so VERY sexist and 70’s lol I’m thinking when they are a bit older we might try again (who knows, it may be like new food where they have to try it a number of times to like it) but I have found myself steering away from Disney (I have a tom-boy daughter who scorns princesses needing rescuing) and towards Pixar (also owned by Disney) who seem to have a more balanced idea of female characters. We are also a big fan of Brave (the movie) – no love interested just one fiercely independent butt kicking girl (with crazy hair). 🙂 I think Sesame Street will eventually show the Muppets the way as they have branched out admirably from where they started. For now the only Muppets in our house are the one’s in A Muppet Christmas Carol.
I love how you challenge Disney with the imagination of a four year old. Poor Disney. From what I can tell, Sutton’s going to be hard to out-do.
“She is not a ladybug.” Describing-by-not-describing. Brilliant. Seriously.
Wow- I never realized that before either. Well spotted Sutton and good for you for creating a pint-sized activist :-)!
Amen, brother! Jerry Mahoney For President!!
The observation came as a surprise to me as well. The smurfs are worse, there is only one girl unless some were added for the last film. I think with the muppets there is hope they just need some more people like your daughter to gently kick their fuzzy bums.
You’re so right about the Smurfs. They did sort of add another girl for the movie, so at least that’s progress.
Wasn’t there a redheaded sassette smurf?
Yes, she was added in later. Still, 99 boys and 2 girls is a bit lopsided.
C’mon, folks! Am I the only one who watched Fraggle Rock? My daughter and I watched every episode from the entire run, and loved all of it.
I LOVED Fraggle Rock! Yes, great female muppets there.
Fraggle Rock? Sounds like separate but equal to me. My daughter and I want girl Muppets!
And you deserve Girl Muppets! But consider showing her Fraggle Rock too, it’s great.
Separate but equal? Are you calling Fraggles the blacks of the muppets? 😉
But seriously now-
I know she’s too little to understand this explanation, but in a couple of years she may, and in the meantime, you have some time to ponder how you will explain it:
An anonymous person above made a very good point about not losing the forest from the trees or whatever. I leanerd a lot about feelings and friendship from shows like the Muppet Babies. Have you ever seen it? Fantastic show (yet very dated, lol!) The muppets aren’t quite as “moral-based” as the Muppet Babies, but still, they do make you feel pretty good when you watch them. They are tons of fun. All of Henson’s creations were full of whimsy and fun.
We as adults have all lived long enough to see many issues progress in this country. Some rapidly, some not so rapidly, and of course not without plenty of growing pains and a few scars. Absolutely use your and her optimism and activism to speak your mind and nudge these companies in the right direction, but in the mean time, don’t forget the value of their ancestors and predecessors. They were all positive steps in our national culture and history.
Wonderful post Jerry. I loved the Muppets too, and can honestly say that I didn’t notice an absence of Muppettesses all those years ago, but now come to think of it, you are SO right!.
I hope you’ve patented Rosada for Sutton. Not every little girl will have her own personal Muppet.
I’m sure Disney will take forever to make Rosada a muppet (holy cow, do I love Rosada!) but I would definitely chip in to have a stuffed animal artist make her real! Sutton deserves some lady muppets. Crafters like this one (there are plenty more on etsy and the rest of the intertubes) could make two, on for her, and one for mupppet studios…
http://www.childsown.com/
And of course, the voices are all done by men- Miss Piggy-Frank Oz, Janice-Richard Hunt, Camilla- Jerry Nelson.
Another great point, which kind of explains everything, of course.
The current performers are men, too.
That is exactly why I said more female puppeteers! Anyone out there remember The New Zoo Review? Henrietta Hippo.
Yes, yes, a million times yes. It’s not just Muppets it is almost everything that is targeted at both genders. My 4 year old son tells me I can be Izzy when we play Jake and the Neverland Pirates and it infuriates me that already he peg holes females. I tell him “No thanks. Want to be someone else.”
Raising girls is so treacherous. Kudos to the parents doing the hard work of teaching them to respect themselves in a society where they are not equally represented in entertainment and culture. The setup of a token female translates to real life-men do not question the lack of women in the workplace or while socializing. And women are pitted against each other to be that one woman. It is hard to be supportive of fellow female coworkers when you both feel like you are fighting to occupy a single space.
Agreed – it is not just muppets. I teach science at a girls’ school, and when we do engineering projects with Legos they love using the little people (“minifigs”) …but they’re very quick to classify them by gender. They overwhelmingly prefer the “girl” minifigs, which they identify based on the length of the plastic hair. Long hair or ponytail? Girl. Short hair? Boy. More irksome: hats, astronaut helmets, etc. also are classified as “boy”.
Jerry — you owe it to the world to print out the entire character profile of Rosada — Sutton has her whole backstory worked out. Don’t skimp out.
And hey you people who claim Fraggle Rock is the place for female muppets — PARDON ME, MR AND MRS ROCKEFELLER — we didn’t all have HBO as children. And i still find Fraggle Rock to be very weird and creepy. Maybe I just associate it with The Dark Crystal, but it’s the same thing. Muppets-not-being-Muppets.
Sutton for President!!!
Still love the Muppets today….you must search You Tube: Sesame Street/Birdwalk Empire………..Hilarious!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppGXF8_OvCc
Love love love this post!!! And FYI you can buy muppet-quality Whatnot puppets via FAO Schwartz – mine is named Kay ThePal and I use her on videos and in cabaret settings. When she’s old enough to manipulate, you may consider having her design her own and produce her own Muppet plays/videos.
Thanks for the tip. Hadn’t heard about those. A little pricey, but maybe Santa will bestow Rosada on Sutton. 🙂
I have been a muppet fan my whole life, and I never even noted it. I guess I have been used to not being represented as a female so long, I just got used to it. We can do better. And by better I don’t mean a pink frilly useless princess. How about some nice empowered but nice females? Miss Piggy was never my favorite. I thought she was pushy. lol.
I don’t see how a lack of Female Muppets should cause your daughter to some how feel left out as you and your son geek out. You, OP, are encouraging gender segregation with it by not realizing that girls don’t need 50/50 on muppet gender. In fact if I recall correctly throughout the show there are many muppets in the background of many of the shows whose gender you can’t tell. I fail to see the problem with a little girl playing with Kermit the frog, much like I don’t see a problem with a little boy playing with Miss piggy. To me? the simple fact there is few female muppets displays that girls and hold their own among many many boy muppets. I’d rather not see my classic childhood show turn into one of the many “pink is for girls, Blue is for boys” Marketing traps.
Who said I wanted “pink is for girls, blue is for boys”? Let’s have some pink boys and blue girls, too. And my daughter loves Kermit and the other boy Muppets. I just don’t like that those are her only options. You teach your daughters what you want. I want mine to feel like she matters to the Muppet people, and barring that, at least her dad. She mentioned the lack of girl Muppets. What kind of dad would I be if I responded, “Oh, be quiet and play with Kermit!”? That’s not really what you’re suggesting, is it?
absolutely awesome (and 80% of the reason i’m a screenwriter).
Technically, there are a bunch of other female Muppets. There’s Wanda (of Wayne and Wanda fame), Hilda the seamstress, Miss Mousey, Gladys…and if you extend past The Muppet Show to the various specials and other shows, there are more, including Fozzie’s mom. Unfortunately very few of them are prominent or used often for people to think of them as regular players (for some reason, the first season has quite a few side female characters, many middle-aged, and most of whom disappeared in later seasons). As others have said, though, there is at least better female representation on Fraggle Rock with the truly fantastic Mokey, Red, Marjory the Trash Heap, and Ma Gorg.
I was waiting for a Muppet superfan to post a comment like this. Look at the picture I posted of Muppets Most Wanted. Those are the core Muppets, and the apparent cast of the upcoming movie. 18 boys and 3 girls. Sound fair to you?
Muppets Most Wanted will reportedly bring back a female characters from The Muppet Show: Annie Sue Pig, preformed by Louise Gold. Since they have the original puppeteer, she’ll probably have at least one line.
That’s good news.
Thanks for writing this, man. My daughter is a bit older now, but I’ve gone through this very situation. Disney should really introduce Skeeter (Scooter’s twin sister from Muppet Babies) into the puppet group of characters to help round out the numbers.
They actually did a comic book story about Skeeter being placed into the adult Muppet world. I’d say it’s worth checking out!
A major issue is when they actively try to make a “female” character, it tends to fail, because “female” is not a personality. Amy Mebberson’s Skeeter is brilliant, because she’s a “character” first, female second. Action-loving, trash-talking, messes with her brother but still loves him. I don’t think “you’re a girl” was ever brought up at all.
Hmm, I guess you fail to realize that Sesame Street is also part of the Muppets line-up. If you watch SS you will realize that there is a large number of girl muppets. Maybe you should teach your daughter to enjoy life, and think with an open mind, and not grow up to be bitter.
I guess you fail to realize (or to read in my post) that Sesame Street is NOT part of the Muppets line-up. It is owned by the Children’s Television Workshop. That’s why there’s no crossover between the groups anymore.
I’m going to teach my daughter that she matters. To me, you’re the one who sounds bitter.
No one is bitter. But he right. There needs to be more Girl muppets. And from his comment about how many stuffed animals she has and her lovely picture of Rosada she does enjoy life. And shame on you for criticizing a man standing up for his daughter. And all little girls.
Jerry makes it clear he’s talking about the Disney-owned, Muppet Show-associated characters.
I never even noticed! I hope my daughter enjoys the muppets as much as I did growing up. She’s only 6 months old, but I’ve played a few songs from the movies (need to find the movies on DVD still!).
Miss Piggy was always my favorite, but now that I’m older, I see how the way she acts and dresses (kind of promiscuous?) and as one of the “main” characters isn’t the best. I hope they come out with new female characters… Fully dressed… Maybe in a turtleneck, lol!
You make excellent points here – and I loved the fact that you never devolved into the snark and sarcasm that marks so much online commentary. I’m sure you’re an awesome role model for your daughter about how to raise issues without being rude or condescending. I’d love to read more!
Thanks. I try to save the snark and sarcasm for when people make idiotic comments. 🙂 Hope you’ll check out some of my other posts if you liked this one. There’s lots more here!
I remember growing up in the eighties watching “The Muppets” with my dad and whining about there not being enough girls. I couldn’t relate to the material girl Piggy or the Hippie Janice and today I have a daughter who is also neither a material girl or a hippie.I realize that there are tons of shows for girls today though, but WHY can’t there be shows that are GEARED for one gender or the other? My daughter loves the new Paw Patrol and wants to have a Paw Patrol birthday party.. Is it so hard to series makers to understand that moms who are having a 90% girl populated party CAN NOT make a party out of a series that has 5 boys and 1 girl? Im going to have to tell my kid ‘No’ because her girly guests aren’t going to want treat bags with boy characters on them.. the same holds true with muppets. If you create more female characters, you create more revenue for yourselves and a happier audience. Its a WIN-WIN.. oh and here’s a hint a fun-loving intelligent girl who knows how to dress and looks cute but doesn’t make possesions her WORLD would be a good place to start
oops.. typos every where. I meant Cant there be shows that ARENT geared for one gender or the other and have equal representation..
What you should do is submit her drawing to http://www.budsies.com and they will make a doll/Muppet that looks exactly like the picture. 🙂
This is fantastic. Thanks, I may actually do this! 🙂
I grew up with and LOVED the Muppets! Still do! I love when my nieces or nephews want to watch them at our sleepovers. I think it’s pretty cool that your 4 year old daughter noticed the lack of girl power within the Muppets. I’m 30 and didn’t realize until now!
You are awesome!
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What a smart little girl you have! I loved the muppets as a child and adored the quirky Janice. Perhaps I did not notice the lack of female muppets because this was the norm at the time. Now there are so many more female characters for children that your daughter was able to see what was lacking at that time.
I might be wrong, but I thought the reason the Muppets didn’t have many females early on was Mr. Henson did most of the voices. That being said… it would be nice if they created some new strong female characters. 🙂
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I never liked the muppets my parents tried to get me to watch them and I just wasn’t that into them mostly because miss piggy was the only girl and she was a snob. when I was younger I was a tom boy I couldn’t stand miss piggy because she was all girly girl. I just thought it was weird. I remember thinking “really I hope all girls aren’t like this.” Even now I’m a nerd girl so I really don’t have many other girl friends so the lack of girls in the muppets isn’t a big deal to me. it’s that of the girl muppets there is miss piggy(the most popular one). Why does she have to be all girly girl. I mean at least have a few other types of girls don’t have to make it 50/50 because lets face it in the real world things aren’t 50/50. that’s just my opinion. But I’m not knocking you for sticking up for you little girl. I have a boy so I don’t know what I would of said.
Not a Muppet, but here is a puppet girl who also loves Milanos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJg3KCIpqhY
Thank you so much for sending this! I just showed it to the kids, and they went bananas for it! I have a feeling we’ll be watching it about a million more times. 🙂
They’re puppets and some people have way to much time on their hands. Worry about men and women being equal in the real world instead of a TV show. And please don’t let ur daughter watch any NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA games.
Ouch, that seems a little harsh. Imaginary, creative, pop-cultural worlds reflect the real socio-political world and vice versus. Going out of one’s way to support one’s daughter is the best use of time I can possibly imagine.
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I agree that going out of ones way to support a daughter is the best use if time, so like I said find some real world issues to teach her how to be a strong, well rounded , equal in society instead of trying to use the muppets which is an imaginary fantasy world. It’s puppets for gosh sakes. I highly doubt there was ever any intentions that the number of male puppets to the number of female puppets was meant to reflect the imbalance of women to men in society or to teach our children that for goodness sakes. Like someone said earlier, Jim Henson did the voices for most so it may be as simple as that. We are all entitled to our opinions so I am just sharing mine. No disrespect intended to anyone else’s opinions.
I appreciate your last comment:-). It’s just that differing opinions on the significance and reflective capacity of pop culture, particularly for children, doesn’t equal “too much time” on one’s hands. It just equals a different opinion and perspective:-).
I agree with last comment!
There is room for only one Miss Piggy!
How about Fraggle Rock? There are more female fraggle leads.
I’m going to be a bit of a devil’s advocate here. Please don’t take what I am about to say as mean.
#1 – The Muppets are already an ensemble cast. The original show had a large number of female muppets (look at the opening number) but at the same time, you are right that “many” of them remain background-only in the show. You also have to remember it was produced in the 1970s, and as hard as you may wish it, those episodes aren’t going to be rewritten/remade today.
#2 – Right now the Muppets are a rebuilding franchise. They are one movie in from an almost decades-long hiatus and obscurity in the direct-to-video market. One of the BIGGEST risks they could take is in shoehorning in too many new characters at once. “Muppets Tonight”, when they tried to introduce a “blacker muppet” (the rastafarian-looking fish-creature Clifford) and started trying to make Rizzo the Rat and Pepe the Prawn prominent, ran into this precise problem. The more characters they forced in, the harder it was to work with core dynamics and interesting interactions.
#3 – If the Muppets had a running TV show, it would be easier for them to do this. Part of the reason you’ve seen it on Sesame Street is that CTW has ALWAYS had the benefit of adding or removing characters as they chose. Actors move on, characters come and go or get relegated to the background. Cycling in characters for sketches on a weekly-run, years-long program is decidedly easier than trying to rewrite the cast for a franchise that’s currently only existing in movies.
Now, that being said, I took a little while and came up with a list of a number of old muppets that you probably missed:
– Annie Sue, Ms. Piggy’s “rival” for the prime singing part.
– Gladys, the cafeteria lady (from early Swedish Chef sketches)
– Hilda, the costumes manager
– Lydia, one of the backup singing pigs
– Mary Louise, who pairs with a singing frog
– Mean Mama
– Miss Kitty, one of the purple monster-types
– Miss Mousey, another of Piggy’s rivals
– Mildred Huxtetter, who dances with George the Janitor in the dance/joke scenes
– Mrs. Appleby, den leader of the Frog Scouts
– The Lautrec Sisters – part of Rizzo’s family of singing, dancing rats
– The female trumpet player of the Orchestra (most members of the orchestra are unnamed)
– Wanda, of Wayne and Wanda
– Winny the Bird
– Zelda Rose
– Jill the Frog
– Yolanda the Rat
– Bertha, the Muppet construction forewoman
Does this mean 100% parity for the women on the show or in the muppet universe? Not at all. But I think there’s a lot being overlooked here, and I think that some of the people above have it right; teach your daughter that it’s not the gender that matters to life. Who you are is what matters most.
Maybe I should sum it up in the words of another great thinker:
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” – E.E. Cummings, writer of Winnie The Pooh.
You make some excellent points, but you might want to double-check the writing credits of e.e. cummings. 🙂
Oh and another thing: have you considered, as you watch the Muppet Show, how many of the guest stars are women? 13 out of 24 in just the first season, I could keep counting but I know the ratio is pretty consistent.
A lot of commenters seem to have missed or forgotten a significant point: Jerry didn’t point out this disparity to Sutton: Sutton pointed it out to Jerry. While we can certainly try to teach our children that gender doesn’t matter, when a 4-year-old girl sees that girls are almost an afterthought, it becomes quickly clear to her that gender DOES matter, when girls are an afterthought. This is very similar to a problem a lot of actors run into: when a role doesn’t specify race or ethnicity, the role is usually given to caucasian actors: It can be tough for an actor of a racial “minority” to get work, because of this. Both Margaret CHo and Garret WOng have commented that asians get very few roles outside of very stereotyped asian characters. Will Smith has repeatedly had to lobby and campaign to get roles that weren’t specifically described as African American. Race, gender, etc. SHOULDN’T matter, but they actually do, when they mean you get passed over sim;y because it never occurred to somebody that a person of your description could do the job.
Great idea! My daughter would probably be more interested in the Muppets if there were a few more ladies.
If it makes you feel any better, I actually didn’t notice at all the very gendered nature of most pop culture and children’s media when I was growing up in the ’80s. When I found a character I really loved and wanted to emulate, I simply made up my own stories starring myself in the same kind of environment and adventures that those heroes of mine would find themselves in. Sure, Indiana Jones is about as hetero male as you can get, but in my mind I too could run off to the Middle East or India and find buried treasure. Thankfully, I was too young to understand the geopolitical challenges the region throws at even the strongest and savviest adventurers, so in my mind it was all a simply fabulous life I would have someday, when I was old enough to actually travel on my own.
Perhaps on a subconscious level I *did* notice but chose not to care. It helped that I was a voracious reader and could absorb the narrator’s voice as my own, so it wasn’t too difficult a leap to make to imagine myself in the hero’s shoes, whether the hero is a boy or girl. It also helped that I was a budding writer, so I could make up my own stories and take them wherever they led me.
It sounds like your little girl is already using that technique to insert herself into these otherwise gendered narratives, and good for her. While feeling left out of the mainstream culture can be devastating to a child, it can also encourage the imagination and allow her to pursue her own path and use her intelligence and creativity to forge an interesting life. I use myself as an example: while being a minority girl in school meant never seeing myself in most books and films during my childhood, it also freed me to imagine a life outside the norm, and now at 42 I can look back at all the adventures I did have (including, yes, backpacking through India and dozens of other countries) and which still await me in the future.
Thanks for being such a great dad to your kids! Regardless of what Disney ultimately decides, they clearly have a bright, adventure-filled future ahead of them.
Cheers,
Marjorie
No female puppets, people get a life!!! The views of gay people! Unreal!!!!
If you hate gays so much, why are you here? Get a life, you weirdo voyeur!
I found this so incredibly interesting. I grew up on the Muppets and never once made the connection that the girls were outnumbered. But then again I was the only girl cousin stacked up against about 20 boys, so I probably assumed Ms. Piggy was me.
This seriously opened my eyes. I hope Suttong gets her girls one day!
I think that they should bring back all those old female characters: Hilda, Wanda, Mildred and others. Even in the beggining they we’re outnumbered, so i think that bringing all of those old female characters would be na good beggining…
Don’t you agreed with me, Jerry?
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I think you ought to be more concerned about “your” little girl’s lack of a female mother and a male father. You know, actual PARENTS.
I think YOU ought to be concerned about your IQ. Having a more open mind might drive it up a few points, it’s worth a try.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/intelligence-study-links-prejudice_n_1237796.html
Oh also, thanks Jerry for posting this (2 years ago, but relevant since the Muppets just started their show.)
Man, my son tried to watch Sailor Moon but got upset cuz all those characters were women. And he can’t watch Powerpuff girls, either. Or Steven Universe. Or Golden Girls. Or Threes Company unless Don Knotts shows up.
You had to think pretty hard to come up with those, didn’t you? Thanks for helping make my point.
Agree, but while you have the ear of the “Muppet makers” please tell them to rethink the new muppet TV series. WAY over the heads of little ones. Not even close to appropriate for the little ones of their fan base. In the 70’s they were able to make shows that could appeal to adults but still be kid friendly. Now, not so much…. Very disappointing.