Preschool animated TV series “Peppa Pig” has introduced its first same-sex couple, lesbian polar bears.
The long-running children’s series introduced the LGBT-friendly characters in episode 41 of season 7 – titled Families, Penny the polar bear introduced her two mothers.
Penny said as she drew a picture of her family, “I live with my mummy and my other mummy. One mummy is a doctor and one mummy cooks spaghetti.”
Peppa Pig first premiered on British television 17 years ago before becoming a global phenomenon. The TV show is watched by over 180 nations in 40 different languages.
“The cartoon was recently sold in a $4 billion deal to U.S. toy giant Hasbro. Peppa Pig has even caught the eye of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton appeared on The Graham Norton Show in November 2019 and gushed about Peppa when she met one of the series’ voice actors,” CBS News reported.
NBC News reported:
It’s been called a “global phenomenon,” though it has also faced some criticism for reinforcing gender stereotypes by showcasing a nuclear family structure with a dad who works and a stay-at-home mom.
A petition was first circulated in 2019 calling on the show, which has aired for nearly two decades and won three BAFTA awards, to feature same-sex parents. The request garnered about 25,000 signatures over the last few years.
“Children watching Peppa Pig are at an impressionable age, and excluding same-sex families will teach them that only families with either a single parent or two parents of different sexes are normal,” the petition says.
“Peppa Pig is not just for entertainment, children are inevitably learning from it too.”
