“Chouette pas chouette”, the mini-series for children against gender stereotypes

TELEVISION – “Dancing is for girls!”, “A boy doesn’t cry!”, “A girl shouldn’t stand out”, “A boy isn’t afraid! ”,“ A girl, that can’t be a chef! ”… It is to stop hearing these sentences that the mini-series for children“ Chouette pas chouette ”was born.

Broadcast from Wednesday, January 13 on 6 television channels, this television program for children aged 4 to 6 tackles gender stereotypes head-on. In each of the 16 episodes of 1 ′ 30 minutes, a theme is approached: long hair, the space of the playground, crafts, crafts, football, princesses and knights …

Characters with children’s voices but with the appearance of anthropomorphic animals discuss or play when one of them, in the course of a conversation, speaks involuntarily sexist. In a language suitable for toddlers, a voiceover then intervenes to reverse the roles.

Objective: “to arouse their empathy, to push them to question their prejudices and to understand that being born girl or boy, big or small, crocodile or panther, does not determine what will be his life”, explains Make.org, originally from the program.

The a priori fly away

What if Kiki’s Delivery Service, who finds her friend the dog Wawa’s pink t-shirt “not for boys,” found herself forced to wear yellow, a color she hates? What if Baba the little teddy bear, who makes fun of her friend Fafa the rabbit tearfully reading her sad book, is prevented from crying when she needs it?

By putting themselves in the place of the one they criticize, they understand that their behavior or their remarks are “not nice”. And presto, no more football for boys or long hair for girls. In less than two minutes, the subject is evacuated and all the a priori, in general very innocent, fly away as quickly as they were said, often repeated without thinking.

2 Minutes / Gaumont

Fight against violence against women

It’s certain the citizen platform Make.org the idea for this program was born, within a larger consultation on the fight against violence against women. “The objective was to carry out a series of activities to make the youngest aware of prejudices,” explains the HuffPost Jean-Michel Spiner, producer at 2 Minutes. And to prevent all these germs of sexism which can then escalate into something else in adulthood. ”

The choice to stage animals, which are defined in the episodes as “girl” or “boy”, has been well considered. “We wanted there to be real diversity in the representation of the characters, without having to follow human diversity,” he explains. Animals, that allowed more freedom and to avoid stereotypical representations, too. ” In fact, when we look at the characters, nothing indicates, before they speak, whether they are male or female.

A wider echo than 4-6 year olds

Designed in collaboration with the association Les Chiennes de Garde and the Clemi (Liaison Center for Education and Information Media), the episodes were also designed as educational tools, particularly for teachers. To talk about genre in a fun way, without falling into the institutional clip.

An educational booklet accompanying the program has also been produced and will be distributed to teachers, as well as a “family” version for the general public, which will be made available online, to be downloaded from the Clemi website.

The 16 episodes (2 Minutes and Gaumont production) will be broadcast from Wednesday January 13 on TF1, France Télévisions, Piwi + (CANAL + Group), Gulli (M6 Group), Disney Channel & Disney Junior), Nickelodeon Junior and on the ludo application. educational Bayam. There is already talk of exporting them to Belgium and Canada, as well as translating them into English to conquer other countries.

If the series is aimed at children aged 4 to 6, it could have a wider echo. “Some adults may think, for example, that jobs are more for men,” smiles Jean-Michel Spiner. So this series can do them good too ”.

See also on The HuffPost: At 6 years old, these children have already internalized gender inequalities