Conservatives Have a Lot of Targets to Choose From; 'Bluey' Is Not One of Them

Not a couple of months after my son came into the world, I began looking into children's television. Even at a very young age, what a child gets used to seeing in front of them affects them, and I wanted to make sure that when he actually began consuming media he'd be familiar with shows that actually had good values and messages that he would absorb.

There was a lot of noise out there, but one name stood out that parents all over the world didn't stop raving about. A little show from Australia about a little cartoon dog and her nuclear family called "Bluey." There were no superheroes, no flashy moments meant to grab and keep a child's attention. It was just a heartwarming, fun, and unceasingly charming show.

The moment I turned on "Bluey," my wife and I were enchanted. We found ourselves thoroughly enjoying it, blown away by how it was clearly a show made for children, but one that also talked to parents in a way that we'd never seen before. What's more, it was wholesome, apolitical, and even depicted male figures and fathers as heroes, and important members of the family, a quality lacking in popular media nowadays.

This naturally brought it under fire from many on the left, and I've written multiple defenses of the show and the father figure, "Bandit," here on RedState before. In fact, I've come to the defense of the show on multiple occasions here on the site, because I feel it's a show worth defending.

Even before I saw any attacks on the show, I knew the left would eventually come for it. What I didn't expect was for members of the right to come for it too, and now some have.

An article was published at The Blaze by author Jeremy Pryor criticizing the show, and suffice it to say, I'm disappointed. A lot of that disappointment comes from the fact that Bluey gives us many things that the right says have been lacking from television for some time, and Pryor's article feels like a reactionary knee-jerk that exhibits every right-wing stereotype.

I want to take a moment to dispel the claims in Pryor's article, because I don't want people to get the wrong idea about a show that has qualities Americans have been asking for but rarely get based on an article by a person who clearly hasn't invested too much time in watching the show.

Pryor's initial attack comes at "Bandit," the father of the Heeler family, who is too often the center of leftist attacks for being "too present" and a core figure in the show. Pryor's attack is similar to the attack from leftists in that Bandit always seems to be there, while the mother isn't there with the kids as much:

There’s only one problem with this new ideal father: He embodies almost all of the elements of the traditional mother, purged of the essence of elements from the historic father.
The poster child for this new depiction can be found in the mega-popular kids program "Bluey." The dad, Bandit, is seen as a constantly nurturing, always-present playmate to his two daughters, Bluey and Bingo. He’s so present, in fact, that fans of the show often joke about when Bandit finds time to work, and in the show, it’s clear that the mother has less time to play than the dad.
Our culture LOVES this depiction of fatherhood. It empties the father character of all the elements of the traditionally masculine father we’ve grown uncomfortable with, and at the same time, it provides freedom for the mother to get out in the world and explore her individual passions.

There are good explanations for this, both in-world and in real life. Firstly, Bandit is an archeologist, so a lot of his time is spent writing reports from home. He has a home office decorated with old bones and is designed in a very masculine, Indiana Jones kind of way. Bandit actually does spend time away from home. In fact, the plot of the episode "Curry Quest" revolves around the youngest child, Bingo, learning that Bandit will be away from home for six weeks. Chili, the mother, is often left alone with the girls for long periods of time, and there are episodes where Bandit is nowhere to be found, such as "Tradies."

Chili's job is as an airport sniffer dog, so naturally she'd be away from home for her career daily, while Bandit's career has him at home more, but gone for longer times when he does leave.

As for the real-life explanation, the show is written by Joe Brumm, a man with two daughters just like Bandit has in the show. His experiences will often come from a father's perspective, thus you see Bandit a lot more, and you can see his playful "yes, and" style of parenting in the show based on real-life influences of learning through play.

This show isn't pushing any kind of emasculation of a father, as Pryor suggests. Bandit's parenting is both clever and entertaining, but hardly feminine.

Pryor then spends a lot of time getting Biblical, backing up his dislike of Bandit by reinforcing the idea of gender roles through the lens of scripture. As a Christian, I agree with Pryor about these things... but this isn't applicable here, and I don't think Pryor knows enough about the show to understand that.

Pryor seems to admit he hasn't watched much of the show, saying that he watched a few minutes of the program, as well as a YouTube clip, from which he receives his entire framing of Bandit:

I first heard of red flags in "Bluey" from my two teenage daughters, who watched an episode after hearing from so many Christian families who loved the show — and they immediately saw what was happening.
Their first statement was something like, “They treat their dad like a plaything.”
I then watched one three-minute clip on YouTube from a different episode and saw what they were so alarmed by.
There are hundreds of interesting elements of fatherhood that one can glean from studying how God interacts with the meta father (Abram), but I’m pretty sure Bandit is in no way tethered to this understanding of fatherhood.

...what?

If you were to pick up the story of Abraham where he's about to sacrifice his son and stopped just before the knife came down, you'd probably not have a very good depiction of Abraham either. In the same vein, you can't just see a couple of clips and hear about a take after a few minutes of watching and get the full idea of what's happening with Bandit. Not that I'm equating the man who would set the stage for all Judeo-Christian thinking with a cartoon dog, but come on.

Yes, there are moments where Bandit is treated like a plaything... because his daughters are four and six years of age. He does play with them in ways that often relegates him to a jungle gym, or a pretend boat, or an entire office, because they allow him to spend time with his daughters and use this play as an avenue for teaching his daughters moral lessons.

Pryor seems to think the fatherhood that Bandit represents is a divergence from Christian thinking.

En garde.

"Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it." - Proverbs 22:6

Bandit spends a lot of time installing his daughters with good morals, especially through play, and often in a very clever manner. One of my favorite episodes is "Seesaw" where Bandit teaches his daughters that someone's stature doesn't reduce their value or hardiness, much like Tolkien got across in Lord of the Rings with the Hobbits.

"As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him." - Psalm 103:13

Bandit's compassion for his children and it's clearly displayed in every episode, reflecting that Godly quality.

"Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged." - Colossians 3:21

Bandit is playful and engaging with his children. Even when he disciplines them, he does so with love and care, often using a firm hand but in ways that help the child understand. Here's a solid example in the episode "Wagon Ride."

But I would remind Pryor, and other readers, that this is a secular show that doesn't delve into religion, just like it doesn't delve into politics. Brumm hasn't highlighted if he's a man of faith or not, either. However, Bandit does absolutely display many qualities that Christian fathers do display, such as compassion, moral guidance, and involvement.

This is not a Christian show, but it is a show Christians can enjoy without worry.

In the last paragraph, Pryor takes one last swipe at the show by claiming the color of the Heeler family is an attempt to blur genders:

And in the same way, creating a daughter named Bluey using the color blue is totally lost on us. It goes right past our conscious awareness. If we do think about it, we think it’s cool that they’re reversing the gender stereotype of colors. We’re playing checkers with those who are playing chess, and we’ve been checkmated over and over again.

My brother in Christ, Bluey is a blue heeler like her father, who is also blue, and male. Chlii is a red heeler, thus her orange color, and this is where Bingo gets her fur color. This is not a commentary on gender. This is tilting at windmills. In fact, I would say this entire article from Pryor is of La Mancha.

There is a lot of television out there that is actively trying to normalize radical ideologies in your child, "Bluey" is not one of them. We do ourselves as a society no favors by attacking anything, including art, that does a lot right, especially by traditional standards.

"Bluey" isn't a perfect show. There are moments in the show that I disagree with as well, however, these are merely quibbles and don't remotely challenge the value of the show overall.

I spend time defending and promoting good art because we see so little of it, but also because I want Americans, particularly those who lean right, to see the value in good creations. Art matters. Shows like "Bluey" matter. The culture we support and help curate matters.

If we don't show up to defend good things when they're attacked, even by our own side, it only discourages real quality from being made. Moreover, it makes artists feel that when they are attacked, we won't be around to defend them, making them less likely to listen to and understand us.

Additionally, it creates a culture within the right where creativity and artistic merit mean very little, and that has wrought so much grief for the right I could dig for a year and still not find all the ways it's tripped itself up by not engaging in culture.

There are a myriad of shows and movies out there that deserve your ire and rejection... "Bluey" is not one of them.