July 12, 2002
HIV and Sesame Street
Sesame Street, according to The Washington Post, is planning to create an HIV-positive muppet who is lively, fun, and "healthy." They'll first introduce her in the South African market, but may put her in U.S. programming as well. The goal is to teach small children not to be afraid of or prejudiced against people with HIV.
Right. Three to seven year-olds can be so cruel, you know, denying jobs to people who are HIV-positive, assaulting them in roving homophobic bands so that the only hour it's safe to be HIV-positive and out on the streets is during naptime.
Of course there are children with HIV, and perhaps they face taunting from classmates. One wonders how and why small children even know to discuss this, but leaving that matter aside, it seems that the solution is to enforce respect and tolerance in classrooms, period. That, of course, is a task beyond the government school.
In any event, I'll wager that the parents of hateful little beasts cruel enough to taunt a classmate over HIV are unlikely to have their wretched parenting undone by a few episodes of Sesame Street. The new character will make the people concerned with HIV feel like somebody is doing something, though, and perhaps that's the point.
What isn't in Sesame Street's plan is to teach children that being HIV-positive is actually something worth avoiding. There's an inherent conflict here, of course -- the socially enlightened want to educate the children of the benighted that people with HIV live normal, happy lives, but they also, hopefully, feel some compunction to warn them as they grow older that swapping needles and engaging in anal sex can be dangerous.
Why is it dangerous? Because HIV can kill you. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course, because some of my best friends have HIV; take Scruffy the Muppet here -- she's had HIV since I was four, and she's doing great...
You see the dilemma.
In related news, the Teletubbies plan to introduce a leprosy-inflicted Teletubby for their Indian viewers, while the Bear in the Big Blue House writers are reportedly considering a new character, Crack Ho Otter, who will teach Pip and Pop that the vicissitudes of social circumstances should lead us all to refrain from being judgmental.
Posted by Woodlief on July 12, 2002 at 09:55 AM
Whoa, Tony, showing a little too great a knowledge of the kiddie shows, there. Been hanging with Caleb in front of the tube?
Nice rant, though. And of course I agree with you.
I am, I confess, a renaissance man.
Too bad this came to late for Mr. Rogers. Imagine King Friday XIII being deposed and becoming a shopping-cart guy. Oh, the possibilities for social edumacation!
All we need now is a positively portrayed Desperate Oppressed Islamic Martyr Muppet (who is in training to become a suicide bomber), so we can teach tolerance for people of different faiths.
Given Thabo Mbeki's junk-science approach to HIV and AIDS, will this Sesame Street character possibly face imprisonment as an enemy of the State?
Hope it doesn't have to share a cell with Winnie Mandela.
Just how does a Muppet become HIV positive? Doing the nasty with Bert and/or Miss Piggy? Mainlining next to Oscar's trash can? I've watched some Saturday morning kid's shows with my niece and I'm struck by the incessant, dreary P.C. moralizing that children are subjected to these days. I'm glad that I was able to enjoy Elmer Fudd, Bugs, and Wile E. Coyote during the 60's without anyone feeling the need to insert lectures on gun safety or the immorality of hunting.
P.S. Tony, you chose the father and son photos posted below very wisely. After seeing you in swimming trucks, I must say that you are light years ahead of Carrot Top in terms of sexiness. And Caleb is a fine looking boy.
Shark- Perhaps they will let Oscar the Grouch covert to Islam?
I would second Donna's comments, and go beyond them to allege that what one sees in children's programming today is subtle and not-so-subtle indoctrination into a collectivist mindset.
One theme I see over and over again in the great old theatirical cartoons is the subject of self reliance, of a lone individual being presented with a threat or challenge of some sort and overcoming the threat on his own. There is a strong emphasis on propriety, the notion that individuals have personal boundaries that are crossed at the risk of retaliation by the victim of aggression. Here I think of examples like Bugs Bunny, Jerry Mouse from Tom and Jerry, and Popeye.
But if one looks closely at the pap which has been foisted on children over the last 30 years or so, one notices a tendency to glorify group action, group validation, and group sovereignty. Any individual actions in these shows are almost universally taken by villains; nothing good happens outside the confines of the group. There are frequently plots that involve a member of a group doing something on his own, and either getting into trouble and having to be rescued by the group, or else selfishly causing the group harm and having to be taught a lesson, corrected by the group, or otherwise redeemed. Think here of Scooby Doo, the lousy damned Smurfs, Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, etc.
And of course with little exception the shows from recent years have more than their fair share of crude animation, a graphic look that is flat and dead, an artless musical score, and poor gags with none of the masterful timing found in theatrical shorts from the Golden Age. Only relatively recently have some of these shortcomings been addressed in new productions, like Dexter's Laboratory or Samurai Jack. I could put up with crappy cartoons, if they weren't simultaneously attempting to turn the little cherubs into reliable Party members, or block captains and what-have-you. "We have always been at war with mean old businessmen who want to build a factory that pollutes the environment next to the Magic Pond...."
I don't know what to say about the Muppets. One should expect leftist indoctrination from Sesame Street, but at least the Muppets have the virtue of being clever and funny most of the time. I don't see how AIDS Muppet is going to accomplish this, unless there is a lot of hilarious panicked exiting from the frame everytime AIDS Muppet makes its' entrance. Sort of like Cookie Monster with a deadly, incurable, transmittable disease. But how long would that remain funny?
keep in mind that this version of sesame street will be shown in south africa, not the us.
apparently there are about 70,000 children born with aids in south africa every year (at least that was the statistic in 2001). so the muppet, who represents the children that watch the show, was apparently born with it.
so the trick is to not look at this news with living in the united states as a reference guide; rather, to look at it with living in south africa for your reference.
sad to say, aids is very very prominent over there.
The HIV+ muppet is making her debut in South Africa, but there's talk of introducing a similar character in the U.S. too.
Unlike South Africans, American kids are very unlikely to meet a child with AIDS and even less likely at the age of three or four to know a playmate is infected. And, like Tony, I worry about giving children the message that it's possible to be infected with the AIDS virus and stay healthy and happy and high-esteeming. One day, Sesame Street viewers will be teen-agers. Do we want them to think HIV infection is trivial?
