Blues Clues is an interesting children's show. It premiered in 1996 on Nickelodeon and has become very successful and recognizable to many children in the United States and abroad, second only to Sesame Street. The show stars a blue animated dog and the dog's human friend as they solve a puzzles throughout the episode. While no new episodes are not being made, its syndication and dvds have been very successful.
The reason I bring up Blues Clues in this blog is because of the way that gender roles are presented in the program. Blue is a blue dog. One would automatically assume that Blue is a boy, in fact... Blue is a girl. This character completely challenge gender roles. If you look at most shows, hell, if you look at most babies, you can easily ascertain their sex by the color of their clothes, by the things they play with, and by the things they do. Blues Clues however, does not fit into this norm.
I think it's amazing that the producers of this show decided to create the characters in this way. Without a doubt, this must have been on purpose. The funny thing is that when Blue's sex was revealed, it came to a surprise to most viewers. In fact, a small number of parents were angered by the fact that such roles were being challenged. Even right now, if you google up things related to this subject, you will comments posted here and there that talk about how if you let your child watches this show, you are promoting the "gay agenda" and how you are giving a chance for you child to "become gay." People certainly approve of the status quo. In fact, Blue halloween costumes are usually worn by boys.
Blue is not the only character in the show to challenge gender roles. Tomboy dog, Green, also defies what girls do and don't do. She is aggressive, plays sports, and also angers conservative parental viewers. The only cat on the show, Periwinkle is a boy, which is also friggen amusing.
Personally, I love that the creator of Blues Clues challenged gender stereotypes and created a world where they do not exist. I also happen to love that the creator, Angela Santomero has created a new show on PBS called Super Why! From what I have heard, this too challenges gender roles.
While there definitely have been shows that haven't succumbed to stereotypes, there are more that do than those that don't. Even though Blues Clues is already a show that isn't in production anymore I still think it's important to recognize the impact it has had on a whole new generation. And while the kids may not have noticed too much that Blue was blue and also a girl, it did stir some waves amongst the adults and whatever does that is fine by me!
