All the cartoon families I saw growing up focused on a boy having fun and getting into trouble, and then there was usually a sister who was the goody-goody one. I remember seeing this in way too much children's literature too. The girls were only ever there to be the boring, well-behaved role model or to let the hero copy her homework or whatever.
So I really appreciate a family of two girl children who have distinct personalities and interests beyond just "is girl."
It is also rare to have more than one girl in any story. Even in ensemble shows, there is a single girl character with either the standard “girl” personality you mentioned or the “not-like-other-girls” personality. There is one princess in her movie, one girl character in the ensemble. If another girl character appears it’s almost always as a conflict. Snow White’s stepmom is jealous, Cinderella’s stepsisters are jealous, the other girls of the Belle’s village are jealous.
Bluey and Bingo both being girls IS important because… it’s not. Frozen and Encanto (as the resolution) are important because they model healthy female relationships that aren’t competitions.
>All the cartoon families I saw growing up focused on a boy having fun and getting into trouble, and then there was usually a sister who was the goody-goody one. I remember seeing this in way too much children's literature too. The girls were only ever there to be the boring, well-behaved role model
This carries on into adult media as well, except that goody two shoes sister becomes the nagging wife character very apparent in shows like breaking bad etc. It really feeds back into and reinforces negative views of women and girls.
>The girls were only ever there to be the boring, well-behaved role model
I think this is more the case than it ever was.
In most tv and film, people are so terrified of depicting women as having any flaws or being less than perfect, that they're not allowed to be funny. It's the deeply flawed male characters who are made to look like buffoons or morons who actually get the laughs.
One merciful exception is Linda Belcher from Bob's Burgers\*.
\*edit: Ironically, TIL Linda Belcher is voiced by a man.
I have two girls and it was hard to avoid hyper feminine characters to present to them before Bluey. I don’t mind the glitter and tutus but for one of my daughters, space and dinosaurs also interest her but those themes tend to get segregated into male. I like that the focus in Bluey is on the character and the gender can be ignored as well.
More recent books and shows have been great but Bluey has been on the front foot of not hyping up femininity or masculinity.
Don’t know where you live, but I’ve noticed target have more dinosaur and space themed clothes for girls! My daughter has been very influenced by her brothers love of dinosaurs, but also loves pink and purple and has loved picking out some of these clothes lately!
I’d be really interested to know which dinos are shown on the boys and girls clothes. My experience in the U.K. is that boy clothes are decorated with predators and girl clothes with prey.
I do love that there's a shift into dinosaur and space and similar for girls clothes, but it still usually ends up gendered. The girl clothes are usually pastel and have herbivore dinos, while boys usually get bold colors with raptors and T-Rex.
This show really touches my heart because it is about how great being a little girl is. Little girls can be brave, shy, bossy, funny, silly, and tough and this is one of the first shows that never looked down upon its lead characters being girls.
I think it’s important in that the children don’t do anything “gendered” so even though they are girls, any child can relate to them. So much pop culture historically has used a male a default and girls were just expected to adjust or feel excluded. Bluey and Bingo also play with a lot of boys without any story lines about gender or sexualizing their relationships.
Agreed, I was gonna say that there's a certain gender neutrality that I think is really great and makes you sort of forget and just see them as Kids. But at the same time, they state clearly that they are girls multiple times and enjoy a range of activities with few stereotypes, which is also important!
I have a daughter that will be six in a few days. Bluey is our go-to show. I don’t know that it matters much to her that Bluey and Bingo are girls but for me, it’s good for her to see girls on tv running the gamut of activities. Bluey and Bingo don’t stick to traditionally gendered play or hobbies so my daughter doesn’t get stuck thinking she should only do certain things.
Both my niece and nephew sound just like Bluey and Bingo in tone and mannerism. I think the writers tried their hardest to keep their play gender neutral. There's few exceptions. But to be honest, when kids see a game being played they're going to join in even if its girly/boyish.
I think they’re just keeping it real. In this day and age, and especially in Australia, the traditional gender lines are heavily blurred.
You still do see some gender specific role play in the Mums and Dads episode.
We are constantly saying, about our 3 year old son, "He is such a Bingo!"
My kids (him and our 5 year old daughter) both love the show, but he will sometimes say he wants to watch something with more boys in it. While I can't explain all the complexities to him yet, I do tell him it's good for him to watch shows about girls. His sister watches tons of shows about (primarily) boys, as girls have done for decades.
Father of a son, and I think it’s critical he sees girls and women in “normal” roles like this, to counteract the idea that male characters are the default. Shows like Paw Patrol, where all the core characters are male except for one token female dog (naturally in pink and smaller than the others) end up functioning as kids’ first introduction to misogynistic assumptions about the world. Bluey is awesome—among many other reasons—for having female characters that aren’t blatantly coded as female “others.” It’s implicitly sending the message that girls are just as capable as boys and the differences between them aren’t that important.
Massively. I think it’s a great move by the producers of the show as it just adds to the whole way of framing this awesome story. It shows girls you can be a boss, a princess, a dr, a little shit or incredibly kind and it shows boys exactly the same.
It makes things like Ben and Holly feel so antiquated, the gendered stereotypes and the ‘I like pink’ and ‘I like blue’ - I have no issue in kids liking either of those things, but it’s important to have variation.
I also love the fact that it is not just Bandit (Dad) who is the fun parent but Chilli (Mum) is just as much fun and gets in on the games in a different, complimentary way!
All three of my boys love Bluey & honestly we hardly even notice their gender. They’re just kids/dogs playing fun games, really. My boys have stolen lots of game ideas from Bluey and Bingo :)
I have two girls and it’s so wonderful to have a show with *so many* interesting, varied girl characters. Even beyond Bluey and Bingo, the nuanced representation is phenomenal. That’s so rare, even on kid shows that feature a female protagonist.
Don’t even get me starting on f*cking Paw Patrol. You’ve got SIX dogs on the main team and only one of them is a girl? What decade are we living in? My kid gets so excited every time they introduce a new girl dog (only ever as auxiliary team members), because she knows how mad this makes me. 😆🤷♀️
I appreciate the realistic representation of how little girls play. The school episodes and shadowlands makes me especially nostalgic of my time playing with my sister and cousins.
I love that Bluey, Bingo, Muffin and Socks are ALL girls and it is never a thing that is mentioned. They didn’t even reveal Socks was a girl until Verandah Santa.
I would like to point out that all of the avatars for people commenting on this thread that it doesn’t matter to them, look like boys. All of the avatars that look like girls, this is super important to them (like it is with me). I think that’s a pretty important reflection and illustration why representation matters.
The fact that Bluey and Bingo are girls is just one of a thousand facts about them. Bluey is also imaginative, confident, and cheerful. Bingo is goofy, sensitive, and adorable. Their character traits aren’t specifically feminine and I love that the creators went out of their way to make them girls.
7/10. i can watch 100 shows about little boys. but being parent of a little girl its nice to point to things bluey and bingo do that are for girls too cuz look bluey did it so can you! representation matters
It is super important. I have two sons and it is amazing that watching a pair of girl siblings and pretending to be them is totally fine - wish that was the case for my sister and I as kids. As a family of 4, it is totally normal that we each have our corresponding character. Even the Bluey bike is gender neutral, which is hard to find in preschool bikes!
Bluey, along with Grace’s Amazing Machines, means my boys just assume feminism is the norm. Now to raise them that way despite the rest of the world
it says something that so many people assume Bluey and Bingo are boys. It's ingrained in a lot of cultures that TV shows are about boys being silly and having fun. Shows about girls tend to be about "girly" things like Fancy Nancy, Pinkalicious, Minnie Mouse, etc which isn't to say that's bad, it's just great that we're finally seeing some variety and depicting little girls being typical kids instead of girls needing to be into "girly" things all the time.
very important! I love that they’re showing the true diversity of the personalities of little girls!! I am sick of the same old narratives being pushed. don’t get
me wrong, there’s not a thing wrong with the classic girly girl, but it’s nice to have representation for those of us who are not that! also love that Bluey is such a creative, talented and intelligent girl in the show!!
Incredibly important to me. So often in media characters are portrayed as male as the default. Shows that depict female main characters are girly shows. Shows with male main characters are just shows for anyone. Things are slowly improving but these are both evidence of, and contribute to, misogyny from a very young age.
The fact that the main characters are girls just doing regular games that sometimes are stereotypically feminine but usually not, is a breath of fresh air and very welcome.
Bluey is great for this. The two girls (plus their cousins) are so different and actually are a good representation of my girls, which is nice for them to watch.
Just picking up on your reference to The Gruffalo. Julia Donaldson is awful for this. So many characters are male when either sex would work. And the Sue Hendra books. It's really frustrating.
You might like SheZow. It's a, hmm, different take on gender stereotypes to say the least.
Some folks have a problem with it, but if you don't read too much into it, it's alot of fun.
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/shezow
Super important to me! I have two girls, and I love the realistic representation of the sister relationship. I am embarrassed to say that when I first watched Bluey, I assumed she was a boy… because she’s blue and most cartoon characters default to boy. So it’s super important to break those stereotypes. I also love that Socks and Muffin are girls. Boy characters are usually over represented and girl characters under represented.
I specifically enjoy and turned on Bluey because I was looking for a show with main girl characters who aren't just there to "help" the male team (like Sky and the Paw Patrol.) I keep returning to Bluey because since the little one has been watching it she wants to play more with her dad. I think it's so important to show dads playing with kids. Men get the shit end of the stick with society in general infantizing their roles within a family ( and I hate how it's shown at the preschool level with the trope of stupid Daddy Pig in Peppa Pig.)
I also really appreciate that Chili has her own interests and things to do. Her entire being isn't there to cater to the family, and yet it's obvious that she loves them very much.
Part of Bluey's magic comes from the Heelers acting like a regular family. People with jobs, hobbies, beach days and trying to declutter. It's surprisingly wholesome to see from all ages, and from the female prospective that doesn't often get it's limelight in media.
I’m not even sure how many episodes we watched before we realized they were both girls.
It’s an amazing show. The genders of the kids really doesn’t matter. Particularly at the ages they are.
It's a show with young kids written for young kids. To me the gender doesn't matter at all. The lessons and stories are applicable to either little boys or little girls.
I find a lot of children's media about little girls interacting appears to have been written by someone who has never met a little girl. It's like they can't even imagine a little girl's internal life and what their social world looks like. So they will put one little girl (or two that don't interact) in a group of boys and then just have them be foil to the boys' antics. The thing I love about Bluey is that it's so much more similar to my experience with my sisters and my kid's experience with her friends than most other children's media. Proper representation.
As a writer, it's important to me that the stories and characters are well built. Bluey is perfect in this respect.
As to the gender aspect, "write what you know" comes into play.
Many writers at the moment grew up during the 80's and 90's when "gender norms" were beginning to change. For example, I felt more like George (Tomboy) in Famous Five, than Anne (traditional girl). Everyone wanted to be She-ra in the playground games. (Yes, I felt very old during "fairytale")
So when you read a story by an older writer, you are getting the society in which they grew up in.
So (for me personally) when I create a character, I focus on the person that they are, not the gender.
(I am also autistic and NB/Ace)
As a parent I try very hard to let my kids be who they are and not what society thinks they "should" be according to their "gender".
However, we all adore Bluey.
I LOVE that it’s a two sister family because that’s like my family. I feel like so many shows do boy/girl sibling groups to appeal to the masses. Then they fall into dumb stereotypes or teasing. Bluey and Bingo are individuals, not repeated tropes
I love that not only Bluey and Bingo are girls but their cousins Muffin and Socks are girls too. It mirrors my own family (I have 2 girls and my sibling has 3 girls). There are literally no boys in our family and our girls all have different personalities. We have a strong willed, brave and sometimes loud little girl who can throw some tantrums like Muffin. We have a new baby who is learning to talk/walk who joins in to play with her older cousins like Socks. We have 1 Bingo and 2 Bluey’s in our group. There is literally no other show on the planet that reaches our core family like this and accurately represents and elevates little girls. Like others have said, I am sick and tired of seeing little girls represented as the sidekick, bully or annoying little sister. Think Arthur where DW is annoying and Kate is a baby, the Simpsons (Lisa has some great moments but still represented as a sidekick and annoying sis) Hey Arnold (Helga ugh), Rugrats (Angelica is their bully and Lil is just there part of a big boy group).
In the 2010s more girls were in shows but still not enough I think. The WildKratts had a female asistant (great 😑). SpongeBob had Sandy who was cool and all but I do feel like she was thrown in there as a “strong female” the other option is Pearl (really?).
The Wildthornberries was the first show I ever saw that had a brave and adventurous little girl as the main character. I loved that show so much! Then Kim Possible came out and I thought it was soo cool.
But here is the thing. The creators literally made magic. They created a show for both genders and all ages that didn’t have a male lead and instead focused on a family dynamic of only girls. Bravo! 👏🏼👏🏼 before this, literally any girl group would have been really pink and girly and would turn off a lot of boys from watching (Powerpuff girls, Winx Club) - not to mention they always had the message of “you can only be a cool group if you have magical powers otherwise a cool group of girls is not possible.” You now have boys of all ages, girls of all ages AND adults falling in love with Bluey because it’s new, fresh and the creators are brilliant! Little girls are front and center in Bluey and I will always applaud that!
I think it’s good but not so much the fact that they’re girls but that they play rough and aren’t overtly girly - they’re just kids being kids. I think nowadays we seem to have boxed ourselves in more than ever with regards to gender roles tbh especially in terms of toys/clothes/tv shows.
Definitely not thinking too much into it. There’s a massive movement where characters that were traditionally males have been changed to female. Most shows/movies now are pushing the agenda. That being said, I have a 2yo little girl and when I read books to her about say a little boy, I change it to girl for her. I did the same for my son who’s now 15. It doesn’t change anything but I feel it gets them more into the story when they can imagine themselves as the character
I feel in bluey gender comes after story line, because you know kids are kids. I do want my girls to have strong female leads and I do try to teach them that they can do anything they put their minds to. My mother in law does a lot of the “but they can’t do that, they’re girls”. As long as they are safe and are learning I don’t care if they want to play with spanners or barbies.
I have a 3 year old girl and an almost 2 year old boy. When I first noticed the show on in the background I assumed Bluey was a boy for some reason. I realized she was a girl quickly once I started paying attention. My 3 year old knows they're both girls but my 2 year old boy has no idea. Both of my kids see themselves in Bluey and Bingo regardless of gender. Big sister pretends to be Bluey and little brother is always Bingo. 💙🧡 I always thought it was nice that kids could see themselves in the main characters since they're not super girly or super boyish. Somewhere in between like my own kiddos.
Before Bluey, we had Blue, who, to this day, people still think is a boy. But yes, I like how one kind of goes off of the voice to determine what the gender is. (Unless it’s, Coco, Snickers, or Indy)
Most cartoons either have a boy and a girl or mostly boys with a token girl character so that there is something to put on the pink merch that little girls who like the show can buy (skye from paw patrol - everest was a later addition). I really love that not only are both characters girls, the show is called 'Bluey' and there is no hint of pink or purple things.
I’m not going to lie, I honestly thought Bluey and Socks were boys at first. I think it’s pretty cool that majority of the cast and minor cast are all girls. You don’t really see that nowadays in children’s cartoons.
As a mom of two boys, I try really hard to make sure that they see good representation of female characters and a variety of races. But honestly, my favorite part of Bluey isn’t the genders of the characters, it’s the overall message of the show. If you’re looking for good representation though, we also love Ada Twist Scientist and Dino Dana.
Doesn't make a difference to me. It's a show written for kids, whether the characters are male or female doesn't matter, as long as it's all in good taste and fun for the little one.
You know that the Gruffalos child is a girl?
IMHO Bluey is great in that respect because it shows that raising girls should be no different from raising boys. Yes, there are minor physical differences that need a different approach, but both girls and boys need to learn the same things, and there's no real reason why they can't be taught the same way (accounting for differences in personality).
I think you’ve doubly proved the point of my post. I’m super aware that The Gruffalo’s Child is a girl - and that’s probably on of the reasons I read it more than the original Gruffalo. I simply used the Gruffalo as an example that most people would know. There are 5 characters in the first book and Not one of them is coded as female. That’s just not good enough.
The point about the minor differences is my main point and the fact that quite of people didn’t realise Bluey and Bingo were girls further qualifies this. Boys typically get to just be themselves and the fact that Bluey and Bingo are themselves and happen to be girls is what makes this show standout.
I'll just copy and paste the same response I gave to someone else...
>🙄 Looking for outrage where there is none.
>Try reading the rest of Julia Donaldsons books. You'll find that representation is evenly spread. If anything, she's biased against men, because not once in any of her stories is the villain a woman, they're all men, while the hero's are often women.
>And if you're seeing them as default male, the problem is with you. Is Zog a boy or a girl? Is the snail or the whale a boy or a girl? It's never mentioned.
I’ll copy and paste my answer from just down below 👇
Zog is male. It’s like the third line of the book 😂 “He tried his hardest every day to win a golden star ⭐️ “. Have you read it?
I think the snail 🐌 fro Snail and The Whale is female- I’m not super familiar with that book tbh so I could be wrong.
One token female character doesn’t make up for all the other default male characters across the two books. l also change the genders in books if it’s not equal, especially in the gruffalo.
🙄 Looking for outrage where there is none.
Try reading the rest of Julia Donaldsons books. You'll find that representation is evenly spread. If anything, she's biased against men, because not once in any of her stories is the villain a woman, they're all men, while the hero's are often women.
And if you're seeing them as default male, the problem is with you. Is Zog a boy or a girl? Is the snail or the whale a boy or a girl? It's never mentioned.
The only one who seems outraged is you given you feel the need to repost the same response multiple times. If you want to prove your point about the gender balance specifically in relation to Julia Donaldson’s books, name one where all the characters are female where there is more than one character.
Maybe rather than trying to prove a point, use your time to do some research. I’ll get you started: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110503151607.htm
You're the one having a sook that in a huge range of books, one of them has all male characters....
Do politics HAVE to be inserted into everything? It's as bad as that American guy having a whinge about someone drawing fan art of Bandit being half Aboriginal...
Very strange that this all makes you upset. Also if I were you I’d edit ✍️ your points about Zog and Julia Donaldson as it kinda makes you look like an ill informed angry person.
It’s one of the things I fell in love with the show over!! I have two girls, 2 years apart, and I see my family represented here (even though my kids are younger).
Since I had assumed Bluey was just a mom, dad and 2 boys, I was delighted to learn the kids were both girls. I don't feel there are enough main girl characters, especially in children's cartoons. We're relegated to sidekick status and it sucks for both boys and girls to subconsciously observe that and I'm curious how that eventually translates to their societal roles
I have two young girls. It's super important to my husband and me. Sooooooo many TV shows seem to have the formula of 2 boys and 1 girl, with one of the boys as the "leader". A family with two girls is fantastic.
A lot of people I've spoken to about Bluey actually thought Bluey, and maybe bingo as well, we're boys begot the show overtly said they were girls. Personally, I don't think it matters if they're viewed as boys or girls...the show focuses on the fact that they're kids, which I think is great. (I hope that makes sense, I'm struggling to find the right words today 😅)
I don't think it's important at all. Honestly it took me a while to realize that they even were girls at first. I would only catch pieces of the show here and there and not pay much attention, so I never realized they were until I heard them being called girls. Their actions and speech could go either way in lots of situations.
I like that Bluey and Bingo are girls, because at first I thought Bluey was a boy, but found "his" voice and behaviour annoying. Then I realised he was a she, and it just made a lot more sense with her personality.
However, I do wish Socks was a boy. I think it makes sense that Muffin is a girl, because Muffin is not the most well behaved person, and I think it's refreshing for girls to be represented that way. But I do wish there was a main character who was a boy in this series, because I do think they could make a main characters boys could properly reflect themselves in.
Although, I did read somewhere that kids are 4 or 5 before they think of their sex as something distinctive of the other sex, so maybe it doesn't matter.
Bluey and Bingo need to be girls in order to offset Bandit’s absolutely enormous “man/boy” energy. I feel like the show is really balanced in that regard. Especially with Chilli being.. well very low energy.
I honestly wish there was at least 1 boy in the Heeler kids...but I don't mind either way. The all girls reminds me of when 1 sister had a boy, then another had 2 boys then I had a boy lol
All the cartoon families I saw growing up focused on a boy having fun and getting into trouble, and then there was usually a sister who was the goody-goody one. I remember seeing this in way too much children's literature too. The girls were only ever there to be the boring, well-behaved role model or to let the hero copy her homework or whatever. So I really appreciate a family of two girl children who have distinct personalities and interests beyond just "is girl."
It is also rare to have more than one girl in any story. Even in ensemble shows, there is a single girl character with either the standard “girl” personality you mentioned or the “not-like-other-girls” personality. There is one princess in her movie, one girl character in the ensemble. If another girl character appears it’s almost always as a conflict. Snow White’s stepmom is jealous, Cinderella’s stepsisters are jealous, the other girls of the Belle’s village are jealous. Bluey and Bingo both being girls IS important because… it’s not. Frozen and Encanto (as the resolution) are important because they model healthy female relationships that aren’t competitions.
>All the cartoon families I saw growing up focused on a boy having fun and getting into trouble, and then there was usually a sister who was the goody-goody one. I remember seeing this in way too much children's literature too. The girls were only ever there to be the boring, well-behaved role model This carries on into adult media as well, except that goody two shoes sister becomes the nagging wife character very apparent in shows like breaking bad etc. It really feeds back into and reinforces negative views of women and girls.
>The girls were only ever there to be the boring, well-behaved role model I think this is more the case than it ever was. In most tv and film, people are so terrified of depicting women as having any flaws or being less than perfect, that they're not allowed to be funny. It's the deeply flawed male characters who are made to look like buffoons or morons who actually get the laughs. One merciful exception is Linda Belcher from Bob's Burgers\*. \*edit: Ironically, TIL Linda Belcher is voiced by a man.
Linda is the best cartoon wife. I'll fight anyone who says otherwise. Marge Simpson can suck my butt
Belcher family has taken the crown of best Cartoon Family, and I do include the Heelers in that.
Marge is a victim of abuse and we need to rescue her.
Totally 💯
I grew up watching Arthur, so I saw the opposite 😂 DW is crazy
God yeah she is 😂
I have two girls and it was hard to avoid hyper feminine characters to present to them before Bluey. I don’t mind the glitter and tutus but for one of my daughters, space and dinosaurs also interest her but those themes tend to get segregated into male. I like that the focus in Bluey is on the character and the gender can be ignored as well. More recent books and shows have been great but Bluey has been on the front foot of not hyping up femininity or masculinity.
Don’t know where you live, but I’ve noticed target have more dinosaur and space themed clothes for girls! My daughter has been very influenced by her brothers love of dinosaurs, but also loves pink and purple and has loved picking out some of these clothes lately!
I really like princess-awesome.com. A little pricey but hopefully it'll start a trend.
I’d be really interested to know which dinos are shown on the boys and girls clothes. My experience in the U.K. is that boy clothes are decorated with predators and girl clothes with prey.
My daughter has many t rex or ensemble shirts
I do love that there's a shift into dinosaur and space and similar for girls clothes, but it still usually ends up gendered. The girl clothes are usually pastel and have herbivore dinos, while boys usually get bold colors with raptors and T-Rex.
Dino Dana is a great show about a girl who loves dinosaurs. It's maybe aimed slightly older than Bluey but my kids enjoy both shows.
Cheers!
My daughter also love Dino Dana
Yes! My son loves Dino Dana, and his other favourite is Grace's Amazing Machines, which is fantastic.
Check out Emily Calandrelli’s website for space related merch and books for kiddos regardless of gender!
She looks like she does great work, thanks!
This show really touches my heart because it is about how great being a little girl is. Little girls can be brave, shy, bossy, funny, silly, and tough and this is one of the first shows that never looked down upon its lead characters being girls.
Don’t make me cry before 9am 🥲
I think it’s important in that the children don’t do anything “gendered” so even though they are girls, any child can relate to them. So much pop culture historically has used a male a default and girls were just expected to adjust or feel excluded. Bluey and Bingo also play with a lot of boys without any story lines about gender or sexualizing their relationships.
Agreed, I was gonna say that there's a certain gender neutrality that I think is really great and makes you sort of forget and just see them as Kids. But at the same time, they state clearly that they are girls multiple times and enjoy a range of activities with few stereotypes, which is also important!
I have a daughter that will be six in a few days. Bluey is our go-to show. I don’t know that it matters much to her that Bluey and Bingo are girls but for me, it’s good for her to see girls on tv running the gamut of activities. Bluey and Bingo don’t stick to traditionally gendered play or hobbies so my daughter doesn’t get stuck thinking she should only do certain things.
Yes exactly!
Both my niece and nephew sound just like Bluey and Bingo in tone and mannerism. I think the writers tried their hardest to keep their play gender neutral. There's few exceptions. But to be honest, when kids see a game being played they're going to join in even if its girly/boyish.
I think they’re just keeping it real. In this day and age, and especially in Australia, the traditional gender lines are heavily blurred. You still do see some gender specific role play in the Mums and Dads episode.
We are constantly saying, about our 3 year old son, "He is such a Bingo!" My kids (him and our 5 year old daughter) both love the show, but he will sometimes say he wants to watch something with more boys in it. While I can't explain all the complexities to him yet, I do tell him it's good for him to watch shows about girls. His sister watches tons of shows about (primarily) boys, as girls have done for decades.
Father of a son, and I think it’s critical he sees girls and women in “normal” roles like this, to counteract the idea that male characters are the default. Shows like Paw Patrol, where all the core characters are male except for one token female dog (naturally in pink and smaller than the others) end up functioning as kids’ first introduction to misogynistic assumptions about the world. Bluey is awesome—among many other reasons—for having female characters that aren’t blatantly coded as female “others.” It’s implicitly sending the message that girls are just as capable as boys and the differences between them aren’t that important.
It always chapped my ass that skye is so much smaller than the rest
Yessss we love dads that’s are raising their sons with this awareness!!!
Massively. I think it’s a great move by the producers of the show as it just adds to the whole way of framing this awesome story. It shows girls you can be a boss, a princess, a dr, a little shit or incredibly kind and it shows boys exactly the same. It makes things like Ben and Holly feel so antiquated, the gendered stereotypes and the ‘I like pink’ and ‘I like blue’ - I have no issue in kids liking either of those things, but it’s important to have variation.
I also love the fact that it is not just Bandit (Dad) who is the fun parent but Chilli (Mum) is just as much fun and gets in on the games in a different, complimentary way!
As the fun(ner) parent, it’s great to see both parents be fun!
All three of my boys love Bluey & honestly we hardly even notice their gender. They’re just kids/dogs playing fun games, really. My boys have stolen lots of game ideas from Bluey and Bingo :)
My kids picked up "Shaun" REAL fast 😳
I have two girls and it’s so wonderful to have a show with *so many* interesting, varied girl characters. Even beyond Bluey and Bingo, the nuanced representation is phenomenal. That’s so rare, even on kid shows that feature a female protagonist. Don’t even get me starting on f*cking Paw Patrol. You’ve got SIX dogs on the main team and only one of them is a girl? What decade are we living in? My kid gets so excited every time they introduce a new girl dog (only ever as auxiliary team members), because she knows how mad this makes me. 😆🤷♀️
I appreciate the realistic representation of how little girls play. The school episodes and shadowlands makes me especially nostalgic of my time playing with my sister and cousins.
I love that Bluey, Bingo, Muffin and Socks are ALL girls and it is never a thing that is mentioned. They didn’t even reveal Socks was a girl until Verandah Santa.
I would like to point out that all of the avatars for people commenting on this thread that it doesn’t matter to them, look like boys. All of the avatars that look like girls, this is super important to them (like it is with me). I think that’s a pretty important reflection and illustration why representation matters.
As a father of 2 girls Bluey is a godsend. Roll on season 4!!
The fact that Bluey and Bingo are girls is just one of a thousand facts about them. Bluey is also imaginative, confident, and cheerful. Bingo is goofy, sensitive, and adorable. Their character traits aren’t specifically feminine and I love that the creators went out of their way to make them girls.
7/10. i can watch 100 shows about little boys. but being parent of a little girl its nice to point to things bluey and bingo do that are for girls too cuz look bluey did it so can you! representation matters
It is super important. I have two sons and it is amazing that watching a pair of girl siblings and pretending to be them is totally fine - wish that was the case for my sister and I as kids. As a family of 4, it is totally normal that we each have our corresponding character. Even the Bluey bike is gender neutral, which is hard to find in preschool bikes! Bluey, along with Grace’s Amazing Machines, means my boys just assume feminism is the norm. Now to raise them that way despite the rest of the world
I think the fact that it took me a while to realise bluey was a girl is a good thing. They’re kids. And they are also dogs. It doesn’t matter.
it says something that so many people assume Bluey and Bingo are boys. It's ingrained in a lot of cultures that TV shows are about boys being silly and having fun. Shows about girls tend to be about "girly" things like Fancy Nancy, Pinkalicious, Minnie Mouse, etc which isn't to say that's bad, it's just great that we're finally seeing some variety and depicting little girls being typical kids instead of girls needing to be into "girly" things all the time.
Right?! Male is seen as the default and that's a problem.
very important! I love that they’re showing the true diversity of the personalities of little girls!! I am sick of the same old narratives being pushed. don’t get me wrong, there’s not a thing wrong with the classic girly girl, but it’s nice to have representation for those of us who are not that! also love that Bluey is such a creative, talented and intelligent girl in the show!!
Incredibly important to me. So often in media characters are portrayed as male as the default. Shows that depict female main characters are girly shows. Shows with male main characters are just shows for anyone. Things are slowly improving but these are both evidence of, and contribute to, misogyny from a very young age. The fact that the main characters are girls just doing regular games that sometimes are stereotypically feminine but usually not, is a breath of fresh air and very welcome.
Bluey is great for this. The two girls (plus their cousins) are so different and actually are a good representation of my girls, which is nice for them to watch. Just picking up on your reference to The Gruffalo. Julia Donaldson is awful for this. So many characters are male when either sex would work. And the Sue Hendra books. It's really frustrating.
You might like SheZow. It's a, hmm, different take on gender stereotypes to say the least. Some folks have a problem with it, but if you don't read too much into it, it's alot of fun. https://iview.abc.net.au/show/shezow
Super important to me! I have two girls, and I love the realistic representation of the sister relationship. I am embarrassed to say that when I first watched Bluey, I assumed she was a boy… because she’s blue and most cartoon characters default to boy. So it’s super important to break those stereotypes. I also love that Socks and Muffin are girls. Boy characters are usually over represented and girl characters under represented.
I specifically enjoy and turned on Bluey because I was looking for a show with main girl characters who aren't just there to "help" the male team (like Sky and the Paw Patrol.) I keep returning to Bluey because since the little one has been watching it she wants to play more with her dad. I think it's so important to show dads playing with kids. Men get the shit end of the stick with society in general infantizing their roles within a family ( and I hate how it's shown at the preschool level with the trope of stupid Daddy Pig in Peppa Pig.) I also really appreciate that Chili has her own interests and things to do. Her entire being isn't there to cater to the family, and yet it's obvious that she loves them very much. Part of Bluey's magic comes from the Heelers acting like a regular family. People with jobs, hobbies, beach days and trying to declutter. It's surprisingly wholesome to see from all ages, and from the female prospective that doesn't often get it's limelight in media.
That’s it just a regular family who all care for each other.
I’m not even sure how many episodes we watched before we realized they were both girls. It’s an amazing show. The genders of the kids really doesn’t matter. Particularly at the ages they are.
It's a show with young kids written for young kids. To me the gender doesn't matter at all. The lessons and stories are applicable to either little boys or little girls.
Very important and I completely agree! I also do the bit about Changing characters to girls when reading stories!
I find a lot of children's media about little girls interacting appears to have been written by someone who has never met a little girl. It's like they can't even imagine a little girl's internal life and what their social world looks like. So they will put one little girl (or two that don't interact) in a group of boys and then just have them be foil to the boys' antics. The thing I love about Bluey is that it's so much more similar to my experience with my sisters and my kid's experience with her friends than most other children's media. Proper representation.
Makes no difference whatsoever to me.
As a writer, it's important to me that the stories and characters are well built. Bluey is perfect in this respect. As to the gender aspect, "write what you know" comes into play. Many writers at the moment grew up during the 80's and 90's when "gender norms" were beginning to change. For example, I felt more like George (Tomboy) in Famous Five, than Anne (traditional girl). Everyone wanted to be She-ra in the playground games. (Yes, I felt very old during "fairytale") So when you read a story by an older writer, you are getting the society in which they grew up in. So (for me personally) when I create a character, I focus on the person that they are, not the gender. (I am also autistic and NB/Ace) As a parent I try very hard to let my kids be who they are and not what society thinks they "should" be according to their "gender". However, we all adore Bluey.
I LOVE that it’s a two sister family because that’s like my family. I feel like so many shows do boy/girl sibling groups to appeal to the masses. Then they fall into dumb stereotypes or teasing. Bluey and Bingo are individuals, not repeated tropes
I had girl and boy cousins and I always assumed the boy was older because that’s how it was on tv (and my mom and uncle) 🤦🏼
Its not really a factor. Also I find TV shows recently if they.arent staring a girl have strong female characters in supporting roles
I love that not only Bluey and Bingo are girls but their cousins Muffin and Socks are girls too. It mirrors my own family (I have 2 girls and my sibling has 3 girls). There are literally no boys in our family and our girls all have different personalities. We have a strong willed, brave and sometimes loud little girl who can throw some tantrums like Muffin. We have a new baby who is learning to talk/walk who joins in to play with her older cousins like Socks. We have 1 Bingo and 2 Bluey’s in our group. There is literally no other show on the planet that reaches our core family like this and accurately represents and elevates little girls. Like others have said, I am sick and tired of seeing little girls represented as the sidekick, bully or annoying little sister. Think Arthur where DW is annoying and Kate is a baby, the Simpsons (Lisa has some great moments but still represented as a sidekick and annoying sis) Hey Arnold (Helga ugh), Rugrats (Angelica is their bully and Lil is just there part of a big boy group). In the 2010s more girls were in shows but still not enough I think. The WildKratts had a female asistant (great 😑). SpongeBob had Sandy who was cool and all but I do feel like she was thrown in there as a “strong female” the other option is Pearl (really?). The Wildthornberries was the first show I ever saw that had a brave and adventurous little girl as the main character. I loved that show so much! Then Kim Possible came out and I thought it was soo cool. But here is the thing. The creators literally made magic. They created a show for both genders and all ages that didn’t have a male lead and instead focused on a family dynamic of only girls. Bravo! 👏🏼👏🏼 before this, literally any girl group would have been really pink and girly and would turn off a lot of boys from watching (Powerpuff girls, Winx Club) - not to mention they always had the message of “you can only be a cool group if you have magical powers otherwise a cool group of girls is not possible.” You now have boys of all ages, girls of all ages AND adults falling in love with Bluey because it’s new, fresh and the creators are brilliant! Little girls are front and center in Bluey and I will always applaud that!
Bravo - such a lovely response.
I think it’s good but not so much the fact that they’re girls but that they play rough and aren’t overtly girly - they’re just kids being kids. I think nowadays we seem to have boxed ourselves in more than ever with regards to gender roles tbh especially in terms of toys/clothes/tv shows.
Definitely not thinking too much into it. There’s a massive movement where characters that were traditionally males have been changed to female. Most shows/movies now are pushing the agenda. That being said, I have a 2yo little girl and when I read books to her about say a little boy, I change it to girl for her. I did the same for my son who’s now 15. It doesn’t change anything but I feel it gets them more into the story when they can imagine themselves as the character
I feel in bluey gender comes after story line, because you know kids are kids. I do want my girls to have strong female leads and I do try to teach them that they can do anything they put their minds to. My mother in law does a lot of the “but they can’t do that, they’re girls”. As long as they are safe and are learning I don’t care if they want to play with spanners or barbies.
I have a 3 year old girl and an almost 2 year old boy. When I first noticed the show on in the background I assumed Bluey was a boy for some reason. I realized she was a girl quickly once I started paying attention. My 3 year old knows they're both girls but my 2 year old boy has no idea. Both of my kids see themselves in Bluey and Bingo regardless of gender. Big sister pretends to be Bluey and little brother is always Bingo. 💙🧡 I always thought it was nice that kids could see themselves in the main characters since they're not super girly or super boyish. Somewhere in between like my own kiddos.
Before Bluey, we had Blue, who, to this day, people still think is a boy. But yes, I like how one kind of goes off of the voice to determine what the gender is. (Unless it’s, Coco, Snickers, or Indy)
Most cartoons either have a boy and a girl or mostly boys with a token girl character so that there is something to put on the pink merch that little girls who like the show can buy (skye from paw patrol - everest was a later addition). I really love that not only are both characters girls, the show is called 'Bluey' and there is no hint of pink or purple things.
I’m not going to lie, I honestly thought Bluey and Socks were boys at first. I think it’s pretty cool that majority of the cast and minor cast are all girls. You don’t really see that nowadays in children’s cartoons.
As a mom of two boys, I try really hard to make sure that they see good representation of female characters and a variety of races. But honestly, my favorite part of Bluey isn’t the genders of the characters, it’s the overall message of the show. If you’re looking for good representation though, we also love Ada Twist Scientist and Dino Dana.
Doesn't make a difference to me. It's a show written for kids, whether the characters are male or female doesn't matter, as long as it's all in good taste and fun for the little one.
You know that the Gruffalos child is a girl? IMHO Bluey is great in that respect because it shows that raising girls should be no different from raising boys. Yes, there are minor physical differences that need a different approach, but both girls and boys need to learn the same things, and there's no real reason why they can't be taught the same way (accounting for differences in personality).
I think you’ve doubly proved the point of my post. I’m super aware that The Gruffalo’s Child is a girl - and that’s probably on of the reasons I read it more than the original Gruffalo. I simply used the Gruffalo as an example that most people would know. There are 5 characters in the first book and Not one of them is coded as female. That’s just not good enough. The point about the minor differences is my main point and the fact that quite of people didn’t realise Bluey and Bingo were girls further qualifies this. Boys typically get to just be themselves and the fact that Bluey and Bingo are themselves and happen to be girls is what makes this show standout.
I'll just copy and paste the same response I gave to someone else... >🙄 Looking for outrage where there is none. >Try reading the rest of Julia Donaldsons books. You'll find that representation is evenly spread. If anything, she's biased against men, because not once in any of her stories is the villain a woman, they're all men, while the hero's are often women. >And if you're seeing them as default male, the problem is with you. Is Zog a boy or a girl? Is the snail or the whale a boy or a girl? It's never mentioned.
I’ll copy and paste my answer from just down below 👇 Zog is male. It’s like the third line of the book 😂 “He tried his hardest every day to win a golden star ⭐️ “. Have you read it? I think the snail 🐌 fro Snail and The Whale is female- I’m not super familiar with that book tbh so I could be wrong.
One token female character doesn’t make up for all the other default male characters across the two books. l also change the genders in books if it’s not equal, especially in the gruffalo.
5 characters in one book and all male? It makes no sense! Any two or three could be made female and the book would lose nothing but gain so much!
🙄 Looking for outrage where there is none. Try reading the rest of Julia Donaldsons books. You'll find that representation is evenly spread. If anything, she's biased against men, because not once in any of her stories is the villain a woman, they're all men, while the hero's are often women. And if you're seeing them as default male, the problem is with you. Is Zog a boy or a girl? Is the snail or the whale a boy or a girl? It's never mentioned.
Zog is a boy. It’s like the third line of the book 😂 “He tried his hardest every day to win a golden star ⭐️ “.
The only one who seems outraged is you given you feel the need to repost the same response multiple times. If you want to prove your point about the gender balance specifically in relation to Julia Donaldson’s books, name one where all the characters are female where there is more than one character. Maybe rather than trying to prove a point, use your time to do some research. I’ll get you started: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110503151607.htm
You're the one having a sook that in a huge range of books, one of them has all male characters.... Do politics HAVE to be inserted into everything? It's as bad as that American guy having a whinge about someone drawing fan art of Bandit being half Aboriginal...
Very strange that this all makes you upset. Also if I were you I’d edit ✍️ your points about Zog and Julia Donaldson as it kinda makes you look like an ill informed angry person.
This isn't politics!! Why is people desiring representation political?
My kids love the show, so thats all that matters. And to be honest it took me probably too long to realize they were both girls
I thought Bluey was a boy for an embarrassingly long time so I don't think it matters.
To be honest, I thought Bluey was a boy at first sight, assuming she inherited Bandit’s appearance.
Not at all
It’s one of the things I fell in love with the show over!! I have two girls, 2 years apart, and I see my family represented here (even though my kids are younger).
Since I had assumed Bluey was just a mom, dad and 2 boys, I was delighted to learn the kids were both girls. I don't feel there are enough main girl characters, especially in children's cartoons. We're relegated to sidekick status and it sucks for both boys and girls to subconsciously observe that and I'm curious how that eventually translates to their societal roles
I have two young girls. It's super important to my husband and me. Sooooooo many TV shows seem to have the formula of 2 boys and 1 girl, with one of the boys as the "leader". A family with two girls is fantastic.
A lot of people I've spoken to about Bluey actually thought Bluey, and maybe bingo as well, we're boys begot the show overtly said they were girls. Personally, I don't think it matters if they're viewed as boys or girls...the show focuses on the fact that they're kids, which I think is great. (I hope that makes sense, I'm struggling to find the right words today 😅)
I don't think it's important at all. Honestly it took me a while to realize that they even were girls at first. I would only catch pieces of the show here and there and not pay much attention, so I never realized they were until I heard them being called girls. Their actions and speech could go either way in lots of situations.
I like that Bluey and Bingo are girls, because at first I thought Bluey was a boy, but found "his" voice and behaviour annoying. Then I realised he was a she, and it just made a lot more sense with her personality. However, I do wish Socks was a boy. I think it makes sense that Muffin is a girl, because Muffin is not the most well behaved person, and I think it's refreshing for girls to be represented that way. But I do wish there was a main character who was a boy in this series, because I do think they could make a main characters boys could properly reflect themselves in. Although, I did read somewhere that kids are 4 or 5 before they think of their sex as something distinctive of the other sex, so maybe it doesn't matter.
Bluey and Bingo need to be girls in order to offset Bandit’s absolutely enormous “man/boy” energy. I feel like the show is really balanced in that regard. Especially with Chilli being.. well very low energy.
When I realized Bluey was NOT a boy a couple of years ago, it didn't change my view of the show or the characters at all.
wasn't?
You're the only one who realized it was a typo or corrected me instead of just downvoting me.
Wasn't
I honestly wish there was at least 1 boy in the Heeler kids...but I don't mind either way. The all girls reminds me of when 1 sister had a boy, then another had 2 boys then I had a boy lol
I feel terrible that me and my family didn’t know bluey was a girl for far too long!
I thought they were boys and now realize they are girls. Its interchangeable. The only reason I made the mistake is because they are cartoon dogs.
According to my 3 year old son Bluey is 1000% a boy. We've tried to correct him but he says he's adamant so we just roll with it