Saturday, September 23, 2006

TMi - misogyny rules at CBBC

CBBC has seen off Dick and Dom but the new stuff they've dreamt up for Saturday mornings is hardly an improvement. No more jokes about snot and bogeys - the butt of humour now seems to be women. Yes - would you believe that six years into the twenty-first century one half of the human race is still treated as something to laugh at?

TMi is unbalanced - with two male presenters Sam and Mark who are supposed to live in a "Big Brother" style flat, watched 24 hrs a day by tv cameras. Excerpts from the week are shown during the live programme on Saturdays. There is also one female presenter, Caroline, who isn't part of the same living arrangements, and wasn't mentioned by name in the pre-show publicity.

To make matters worse, on the Saturday morning show, Sam and Mark don't miss an opportunity to dress up as women and behave in a ludicrous way. After a week of training, this morning we saw Sam and Mark compete against each other to see who could do the most skips in one minute. When Mark won the skipping competition, he was allowed to choose a forfeit or punishment for Sam. This was to dress as a girl, go out into Leicester Square and make a fool of himself. Sam was told by Mark to "run like the girl that you are."

If the best CBBC can do is rely on old-fashioned and insulting stereotypes, it's time they got in new advisers.

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