Bandit verdict starts a Bluey
Critics brought to heel
“WOKE” academics have been slammed for claiming Bandit, the father figure in the much-loved children’s TV cartoon series Bluey, is a “bad dad”, a “bully” and “surprisingly conservative” because he doesn’t like wearing make-up.
The hit series about a family of dogs is the No.1 show in ABC’s iview’s history and has won many awards, including a Father of the Year gong for Bandit in 2019 for being a “worthy role model”.
The academics’ opinion in The Conversation blog, published by the ABC on Monday, has provoked anger.
The ABC was forced to close the comments on its social media posts after being inundated by viewers complaining about “the stench of wokeness” and “gender ideology” in the article. Others complained “the war on men knows no bounds … not even Bandit and his fictional mates can escape the anti-men drive of today”.
The University of Southern Queensland academics argued “there is a darker side to this loveable character” and claimed the blue heeler’s playful teasing of his daughters “sometimes devolves into bullying”.
They also question him for being a “larrikin”. “It’s difficult to overstate the cultural power of larrikin ideology in Australia,” they wrote.
They also complain Bandit is “surprisingly conservative when it comes to gender values”.
“When he reluctantly submits to wearing make-up, he is mocked by his mates. And he censors himself from engaging in full imaginative play when under the gaze of other men,” they said.
Melbourne educational consultant Mark Lopez, the author of School Sucks, A Report on the State of Education in the Politically Correct Era, said the article was a part of a postmodern trend of politicising everything.
“Everything is reduced to oppressors and victims, and anything that is a distraction from left-wing theory is accused of perpetuating the unjust status quo,” he said.
The Institute of Public Affairs’ Bella d’Abrera said: “This article should be clearly marked ‘satire’, as only those who are having a laugh could seriously view a children’s show about a dog family as a problematic backwards representation of Australian culture. This is another attack on Australian culture.”