BBC responds to hysterical right-wing backlash over supposedly ‘non-binary’ animated racoon

The BBC has responded to a wave of right-wing backlash over a “non-binary” cartoon character in a CBeebies programme called Hey Duggee.

In an episode titled ‘Sibling Badge’, a racoon character named Wren was introduced alongside “their” siblings, apparently using they/them pronouns.

The episode sees Roly the squirrel finds out he is getting a new brother or sister and then they meet different animals and their siblings.

This led to The Telegraph publishing an article with the headline: “Parents attack CBeebies show over gender-neutral racoon”.

The article suggested that parents were “outraged” by the episode and said the language used was “inappropriate and confusing for children” as the show is aimed at five-year-olds.

A researcher for a gender-critical campaign group was quoted as saying that “there is no way that a child of three to five can understanding non-binary they/them pronouns” and accused the BBC of breaking its impartiality code as the use of pronouns “stems from adult political activism”.

However, according to the Daily Mail, a source for the BBC revealed that Wren is a “one-off character” and that there had in fact been “no complaints made to BBC Children’s and Education” about the episode.

“Wren the raccoon is not a non-binary character”

In a statement, the BBC responded to the criticism by saying: “We take our responsibility to your young audience and their families very seriously and take great to care that all content is appropriate.”

“Everyone is welcome at CBeebies and in this case Wren the raccoon is not a non-binary character.”

@pinknews

The BBC has issued a statement in response to critics claiming that a raccoon in their hit CBeebies show Hey Duggee is ‘non-binary’. On Thursday 27 March, the broadcaster addressed right-wing backlash to an episode called “Sibling Badge”, in which a new character called Wren the raccoon is introduced alongside “their siblings”. The Telegraph published an article earlier this week claiming that parents were outraged at the CBeebies show, which is aimed at five year olds, for featuring a “gender neutral raccoon”, calling the language “inappropriate” and “confusing” for children. However, parents did not appear to have a problem with other animals in the show such as Lucy the monkey and “her siblings” or Rami the Yak and “his siblings”. In response to the backlash, a BBC spokesperson said: “We take our responsibility to our young audience and their families very seriously and take great to care that all content is appropriate. “Everyone is welcome at CBeebies and in this case Wren the racoon is not a non-binary character”. #heyduggee #cbeebies #raccoon #nonbinarytiktok #lgbtqia

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Additionally, the creator of Hey Duggee Grant Orchard previously spoke about gender representation in the show and claimed that they “don’t think about gender at all” as the characters’ personalities “are not allocated by their sex”.

He also said that discussions over whether the show would be marketed to boys or girls led to their approach “to keep the show gender neutral as much as possible”.

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