Thomas the tank engine is sexist?

I had wondered that myself when I noticed that Molly and Emily had such big wheels

http://www.brudirect.com/index.php/2009121412315/It-s-A-Funny-World/thomas-the-tank-is-sexist.html

Children's favourite Thomas the Tank Engine has been attacked by a Canadian academic for being sexist. Shauna Wilton, a professor of political sciences at the University of Alberta, also highlighted the class divide which sees Thomas and his friends at the bottom of the social ladder and the wealthy Fat Controller at the top. She launched her study after watching the animated programme, which is shown in over 130 countries, with her three-year-old daughter. She then analysed the plots, characters and other aspects of 23 different episodes to draw her conclusions, which she then presented at a conference of political science in Canada. She was critical of the fact the show only has eight female characters out of the 49 who feature. "The female characters weren't necessarily portrayed any more negatively than the male characters or the male trains, but they did tend to play more secondary roles and they're often portrayed as being bossy or know-it-alls," she said. Any attempt to break out of this controlled hierarchy to gain individual power, show initiative or dissent is met with punishment, usually because it goes wrong, she said. But Prof Wilton insisted she show was not all bad, and featured some positive political values like contributing to the community, tolerance of others and good communication. -- Courtesy of Ananova.com

Hmm, a bossy know-it-all women is complaining that some TV show is supposedly sexist because there isn't an even number of "male" and "female" trains?

How about you STFU and instead of watching TV, turn 90 degrees and talk to your 3-year old child? Maybe even read a book? Help them read it?

All I can think of is Kyle's mom from South Park.

The person who did that study is just a bossy know-it-all

The heck with the stupid train. The name of this road course is offensive to Gingers the world over. I'll bet they even play kick the Ginger in the pit area before the races. They should be forced to change it to Cardinal Raceway or something like that.

http://www.gingermanraceway.com/

The PC world is killing us one step at a time.

Is the truth sexist?

Did she compare the ratio of male & female characters to the ratio of male & female rail yard workers? Maybe it is an accurate portrayal of the demographics.

And we all know that women ARE bossy, know-it-alls, so obviously that's not sexist.

Come on now, the GRM regulars who are penis challenged are not bossy know it alls.

aussiesmg wrote: Come on now, the GRM regulars who are penis challenged are not bossy know it alls.

I am SOOOO not going there.

ya ... ESPN even did a show on how few white americans there are in the NBA... think congress needs to get involved and force the NBA to change the rosters to reflect the prevailing %'s of white/black/latino/aisan in the general population..??

EricM wrote: The person who did that study is just a bossy know-it-all

Of course she is a bossy know-it-all. She's a woman.

runs and hides under bed

xci_ed6 wrote: And we all know that women ARE bossy, know-it-alls, so obviously that's not sexist.

And so are {a lot of} men. No need to make broad, sweeping generalizations like this, all it does is make you look ignorant.

As far as the article; I agree that she probably had waaaay too much free time and was looking for something to bitch about. I can name at least 10 children's shows and movies that could be construed as sexist or even prejudiced.

I very much agree that the need to be PC is slowly killing everything.

Meh, Thomas the Train is ghey.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it's therefore not surprising that there's fewer female characters on the show.

Besides, I don't think any of the kids that are into that show care or even notice the same "underlying themes" that an adult who enters into the investigation looking for bias would see. If she wants to wage an allegation of sexism there are probably other, more worthy targets of her focus than this.

Morbid wrote:

xci_ed6 wrote: And we all know that women ARE bossy, know-it-alls, so obviously that's not sexist.

And so are {a lot of} men. No need to make broad, sweeping generalizations like this, all it does is make you look ignorant.

It was supposed to be a joke, I guess I should have included some smilies

All I can say is that biatch better have one seriously clean kitchen if she has that much time to waste on a "programme" aboot a bunch of talking choo-choos.

xci_ed6 wrote:

Morbid wrote:

xci_ed6 wrote: And we all know that women ARE bossy, know-it-alls, so obviously that's not sexist.

And so are {a lot of} men. No need to make broad, sweeping generalizations like this, all it does is make you look ignorant.

It was supposed to be a joke, I guess I should have included some smilies

Yep, smilies would have helped

Sorry if you felt attacked.

EastCoastMojo wrote: Meh, Thomas the Train is ghey.

I used to watch that show all the time, and never picked up on it. I had to check out some recent episodes on Youtube, and noticed it must have changed. Never before did I notice the hotpants and lisp!

Morbid wrote: Sorry if you felt attacked.

I'm used to it, even IRL my sarcasim is so dry that I'm often misunderstood. I should probably work on that skill before I end up dead.

xci_ed6 wrote: I'm used to it, even IRL my sarcasim is so dry that I'm often misunderstood. I should probably work on that skill before I end up dead.

I know the feeling

"The female characters weren't necessarily portrayed any more negatively than the male characters or the male trains, but they did tend to play more secondary roles and they're often portrayed as being bossy or know-it-alls," she said.

I want to know why there's an issue with this. Does she know women that AREN'T bossy or know-it-alls?

Greatest non-PC cartoon ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djxnw090EeE

Shawn

SpeedTheory wrote:

"The female characters weren't necessarily portrayed any more negatively than the male characters or the male trains, but they did tend to play more secondary roles and they're often portrayed as being bossy or know-it-alls," she said.

I want to know why there's an issue with this. Does she know women that AREN'T bossy or know-it-alls?

B*&tches be KARAZY! (uh, interesting that word isn't censored on GRM)?

Whats funny, most chicks will admit it (except for the pro-fem ones).

Kar-azy gets you a level of respect that bossy or know-it-all doesn't quite obtain.