After 18 years on the air, the show has a new landmark moment
Peppa Pig has been wowing children since 2004, but a new episode is the first to show a same-sex couple. The episode, titled Families, aired on channel five in the UK this past Tuesday and showed Penny Polar Bear’s two moms.
The episode sees Penny drawing a portrait of her family. “I live with my mummy and my other mummy. One mummy is a doctor and one mummy cooks spaghetti,” explains Penny.
Families comes a few years after a petition was started to encourage Peppa Pig creators to add a same-sex family. “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. This means that children of same-sex parents may feel alienated by Peppa Pig, and that other children may be more likely to bully them, simply through ignorance,” reads the petition.
https://twitter.com/simonharris_mbd/status/1567419328701632513?s=20&t=kwxiF9XcaZHupitBCLOVzA
Currently the petition is just shy of the 25,000 signatures it aimed for, but now it seems there’s no need thanks to the new episode.
“Many of those who watch the show will have two mums or two dads themselves and it will mean a lot to parents and children that their experiences are being represented on such an iconic children’s programme,” Robbie de Santos, director of communications and external affairs at LGBT rights charity Stonewall, tells the BBC.
While admittedly, many parents have taken to Twitter to express their outrage at the scenario, there have been just as many if not more applauding the episode. British safeguarding organization Safe School Alliance tweeted “Really nice to see age appropriate representation of same sex couples on @peppapig with Penny & her two mummies.”
Whether or not parents agree, Penny’s parents are here to stay. Currently, Peppa Pig has over 1,000 licenses and has been translated into 40 languages in over 180 territories across the globe.
