Watching the popular children's show Thomas & Friends with Kate, her three-year-old daughter, Shauna Wilton spotted some unsettling patterns. When the two would play with Kate's toy trains afterward, Kate insisted on being Thomas or Toby, and got her mom to play with her least favourite characters, Molly and Rosie, the female trains. When Prof. Wilton, who teaches political studies at the University of Alberta, analyzed 23 episodes of the show, she found some alarming hidden agendas. Here are her beefs with Thomas:
Fear of authority
Thomas & Friends promotes an "unquestioning, uncritical and fearful approach to authority," Prof. Wilton writes. She's even graphed out the show's "social hierarchy:" Sir Topham Hatt is on top and the "nameless mass" of Troublesome Trucks is at the bottom. Disaster strikes when the "elitist" hierarchy is disrupted.
Not enough me-time
The show's "political ideology punishes individual initiative," Prof. Wilton writes. "The engines have no say over their collective or individual futures; they have little (if any) free will." The professor prefers more creativity, Bob the Builder-style.
It's a rat race
"In one of the episodes, one of the trains isn't working very well so he spends the whole episode being afraid that he's going to go to the scrapyard," Prof. Wilton says. "It creates a lot of fear that if you're not useful then you're just chucked away in this world."
The second sex
Females are relegated to supportive roles: Of 49 main characters listed in the show, only eight are female, Prof. Wilton says. And the gals - including trains Emily, Daisy, Lady and Mavis, and a truck called Elizabeth - are often "bossy and controlling" and subordinate.
A pinch of anarchy, please
While Thomas & Friends pushes positive themes such as teamwork, hard effort and contributing to the community, Prof. Wilton thinks children's shows should also teach kids to be critical and to question authority.
Stunted growth
"The engines and other mechanical characters never grow up," Prof. Wilton writes. "They are forever children, powerless and dependent on Sir Topham Hatt's good-will. They do not have the possibility of attaining full citizenship, but children do. ... They need different lessons to prepare them for the roles and responsibilities of full citizenship."
Shauna Wilton presented her findings at a conference of the Canadian Political Science Association in June, and is incorporating them into a coming book.
