Published Monday, February 6, 2005
Spellings Condemns WGBH's Cartoon 
HGSE Community Weighs In On Sexuality in Children's Programming
By Michael Lisman
APPIAN STAFF WRITER

The newly-inaugurated U.S. Secretary of Education chose her first public target of criticism last month: a cartoon bunny from Boston.

On Tuesday, January 25, Margaret Spellings chided the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for promoting homosexual lifestyles in the WGBH-produced series, Postcards from Buster, a children’s cartoon program about the diversity of U.S. culture.

In the episode, the title character visits a young girl on her parents’ maple farm in rural Vermont.  Her parents are a lesbian couple.

Explaining that the Department of Education funded the series as part of its “Ready to Learn” grant because the show aimed to “prepare preschool age children for school,” Spellings said that she took issue with as-yet unaired “Sugartime!” episode because "many parents would not want their young children exposed to the life-styles portrayed in this episode."  She further indicated to PBS that her department would be scrutinizing grant applications for television programs far more closely in the future.

Later the same day, PBS management pulled the episode from nationwide distribution. A network spokesperson told the press that officials made the decision not as a result of Secretary Spellings’ comments, but rather “the sensitivity of the subject matter” in the episode.

Despite the stunted distribution efforts and the Bush administration’s rebuke, WGBH has decided to air the episode. The local channel also declared that it would make available copies of the episode to any of the 349 PBS stations across the U.S. that did not receive a copy and wished to air it as well.

“We consider it the responsibility of public television to give children and parents the resources they need to understand the world they inhabit—without excluding any segment of our society,” declared a station press release.

“Of the 40 Postcards episodes, this is the only one that visits with kids in this kind of family,” the statement continued.  “We included the Vermont family because significant numbers of children in the United States live in a similar family structure.”

WGBH further emphasized that the episode was intended to focus on maple-sugaring.

''The program (in question) is not about these moms or gay couples,” WGBH’s Jeanne Hopkins told the Boston Globe last week.  “The family is the backdrop.”

Spellings’ public denouncement of the PBS cartoon came less than a week after the first public debate of the year about support for homosexuality in cartoons. On January 20^th, the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family made headlines by publicly denouncing an educational music video-remake of the 1970’s Sister Sledge song, “We are Family.” The video, which included popular cartoon characters such as Spongebob Squarepants and Barney, was criticized by Focus on the Family as pushing pro-homosexual messages.

The issue of educational media and sensitive subject matter such as sexuality is an ongoing public debate, one in which many in the HGSE community have personal and professional stakes.

Ninad Vengurlekar is a student in the Technology in Education program, a former intern at Postcards From Buster, and the parent of a five year old.

 “I personally tend to dislike any media content that makes me uncomfortable explaining (it) to my child,” Vengurlekar told The Appian.  “It is, however, important to understand that my discomfort has no relation to the child's need and ability to comprehend such concepts.  I strongly believe that parents have the most important role to play in cultivating their child's media habits and understanding, especially at a younger age. So if parents feel that a particular show content is unacceptable, they can stop their kids from watching it.”

Others at HGSE raised concerns about the trend toward increased scrutiny of homosexual relationships in children’s programming.

David Dockterman, who teaches courses through the Technology in Education program and is the co-creator of Science Court, an animated children’s program for ABC, noted that critics of sexual identity topics in children’s programming have been known to “stir an empty pot (in the past).”

Dockterman added that he feels that “the federal government has played an important role in promoting and enforcing civil rights for all individuals in our society… (and) while I don’t think public funds should be used to promote a particular viewpoint, I do think it an appropriate use of our tax dollars to educate children about differences, tolerance, and the rights of all individuals.”

Wendy Luttrell, Aronson Associate Professor in Human Development and Education, conveyed her disappointment that the Postcards episode was being publicly censored in the name of education. 

In her remarks last week, Spellings noted the requirements attached to public funding ensure that “research-based educational objectives, content and materials" must serve as the basis of programming decisions.

In response to this implication, Luttrell explained to the Appian that “the past thirty years has produced volumes of scholarship about how children learn to see themselves and others as gendered beings (as feminine and masculine) in ways that are much less fixed than what we might assume… There is simply no evidence to suggest that children watching Spongebob or Tele-Tubbies or Bert and Ernie or any other cartoon figure ‘read’ either a unified or single gendered or sexual message.”

Luttrell added that there are far more important things to worry about in children’s programming.

“From my perspective, children don’t get to see enough cartoon figures, in whatever family configuration, who treat each other and children in respectful, positive ways,” Luttrell said.  “This is the criterion that I believe should guide our assessments.”

Michael Lisman is an Ed.M. candidate in the International Education Policy Program, and a member of the Appian Board of Editors.