Saturday, June 16, 2012

#7 Speak out against stereotypes or absences in the media.


Before I get too into this let me make a couple of things clear.

I like PBS Parents.  I think in general they do a pretty good job of appealing to both moms and dads.  It is a good start that they are called PBS Parents rather than PBS Moms (looking at you Amazon.)

Am I upset about the following things?  Do I think we need to protest and petition PBS Parents? No.

It is because it was PBS Parents that it seemed out of place.  On some random comedy page that loads your feed with goofy pictures and such I wouldn't have batted an eye.  But it was PBS Parents and it was days before Father's Day.

I suppose I should explain now.  A couple of days before Father's Day they put up a joke picture of dads in the baby food isle all on the telephone.  The PBS Parents' staff add "Ha!" to the post.

And some people reacted.  It was different than the Huggies kerfuffle or the THECALLMECODY's what moms do better than dads.  It was more of, this doesn't seem to fit for this page.

It seemed out of place to me as well on the PBS Parents page.  Especially a couple of days before Father's Day.  Not the worse joke about dads, but still playing into the incompetent, have to run everything by mom first stereotype.

Like Huggies, PBS Parents got on and said it was a "celebration of dads."

But I cannot find other examples of PBS celebrating that way.

For mothers day it was, "A little reminder that being a good enough mother is great!"

So until I see the Roast of Elmo on PBS I'm not sure I buy it.

I can see Cookie monster now, "Elmo is so dumb he stopped at a stop sign and waited for it to say go."

So I don't hate PBS Parents.  I don't think this is the end of the world.  But I expect more from them.  They have set the bar higher than playing into outdated stereotypes for some laughs and increased comments on Facebook.

And of corse the irony is they put out this helpful guide of Ways to Fight Stereotypes.  And #7 is "Speak out against stereotypes or absences in the media."

So here I am PBS Parents.  Taking your advice to speak out against stereotypes I see in the media.  In this case on your Facebook page.