Sexist Patrol (by Maylén)

Does anybody need help? Six puppies and a young boy go to the rescue! In Adventure Bay, at least. If you do not know what I am talking about, then you do not have young kids or you live on another planet. Many under-5-year-old children are trapped in the adventures of PAW Patrol, the TV show produced by the toy company Spin Master Entertainment.

Nowadays, it is common to draw upon TV shows to entertain our youngest children when we do not have any more ideas of how to entertain them. Thanks silly box! Anyway, television not only entertains children. There are certain shows that propose to teach different values to our toddlers, and this is the case of PAW Patrol. We must be grateful… or careful.

PAW Patrol is a twelve-minute show created by Keith Chapman and broadcast on Nickelodeon, which displays the adventures of a ten-year-old boy and six puppies who form a rescue team. The TV show portrays current issues like caring for the environment, respect for animals, and even equality. Well, it tries. Even though such values are part of the show, a tiny glimmer of sexism is shown in the selection of its characters.

Let’s take Mayor Goodway, one of the few female characters in the show. We can think that as she has a high rank in the town, she is a figure of a woman empowerment. But is she? She is always asking a ten-year-old boy for help. She has a chicken as a pet, to which she asks what to do, and, the chicken answers her with a cackle. How is it possible that a chicken knows what to do but the mayor of the town does not? Okay. The chicken does not ‘talk’ to her, Mayor Goodway realises what she has to do. But is it really necessary that she always has to depend on someone else to understand things or to be able to do anything? Great prejudice about women hinted at in this character.

If this is not enough, please think about the canine protagonists. Six dogs as protagonists: five males, one female. Good way of showing equality PAW Patrol! 

The only female of the rescue crew is Skye. She is in charge of the aerial rescues: aerial surveillance, tracking and air assistance. She does her duties wearing an aviator suit and aviator glasses in her helicopter. Can you imagine it? Finally a female piloting a helicopter! A pink helicopter, a pink aviator suit and pink glasses; of course, she is a female dog. Good try making her a pilot, but it is not enough. Even though the show tries to show equality, by providing only one female character and dressing her in pink, it does not fulfil its alleged intention. 

Now, the icing of the cake. If I say leader, does a woman or a man come to your mind? If you are already deconstructed, probably, you may think of a woman. But if you grew up with decades of patriarchy on your back, I am pretty sure you may think of a man. Same thing happened to the creator of PAW Patrol, Keith Chapman, and he put his thoughts into the show. As I have mentioned before, the leader of the rescue team is the ten-year-old boy Ryder. Could this be at random? I am not saying it is mandatory to make a woman the leader, but I think taking a boy as one was not randomly chosen. For years, we - the grown-ups in a patriarchal system - had the image of men as the ones ruling the world, but it is not like that anymore. No one told that to Chapman?Apparently, he still has to deconstruct himself.

Puppies, rescues and adventures! How could children not be engaged with PAW Patrol? Even so, do not forget what is behind the show: a female dependent mayor, one female puppy - in pink - five male puppies and a boy leader. Sexist Patrol to the rescue!