Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Ugly Face Of Parenting

Cerrie Burnell is the 29 year-old host of the UK children's television show CBeebies, she was born missing the lower section of her right arm. Some parents of children who watch the show are disgusted that such an evil grotesque creature is allowed on the screen. The double standard is they have no problem with the pedophile dinosaur Barney.

The BBC has received nine formal complaints and hundreds of nasty messages on its Web site, some of which were so vicious they had to be removed..

"Is it just me, or does anyone else think the new woman presenter on CBeebies may scare the kids because of her disability?" wrote one adult on the CBeebies website. Other adults claimed that their children were asking difficult questions as a result, and you can't have that. "I didn't want to let my children watch the filler bits on The Bedtime Hour last night because I know it would have played on my eldest daughter's mind and possibly caused sleep problems," said one message.

The BBC received nine other complaints by phone. Burnell responded recently, saying that the negative comments "are indicative of a wider problem of disabled representation in the media as a whole, which is why it's so important for there to be more disabled role models in every area of the media."

OBB News agrees with Ms Burnell to a point. People of various disabilities should be shown on children's television as there is no shame in being disabled and children should learn, however like Ms Burnell they show also look attractive.

The expression, "Has a face for radio" was used to describe ugly people who should not be on the television like Mickey Rourke or Sarah Jessica Parker as that really is disturbing.



1 comment:

Cathy said...

Absolutely. Sounds like strong-arm tactics to me, tho I could be short-sighted here. Mainly, if you're stumping for a job and look like John McCain, a reptile, radio's for you not TV and certainly not politics. As for kiddie shows, not just "anyone" can hack it, you're usually made to appear flawless, now how that helps one single kid get "used to different folks" is beyond an arm's length of reason, but wtf it's only TV. (sarcasm)