The 'Peppa Pig Paradox' and Other Mixed Media Messaging [Poster Presentation] (original) (raw)
2021, Exeter as Symbiotic Ethics: Anthrozoology as International Practice (Student Conference, University of Exeter)
Social attitudes towards animals develop from childhood and the everyday discourse surrounding them. In the UK at least, animals are categorised into subject/object, edible/inedible, even visible/invisible (Stewart & Cole 2009), through the instillation of social norms from those we trust around us. Part of these socialisation processes includes the media, not least through the cultural consumption of children’s television (TV). TV representations are investigated to highlight the inconsistencies taught to our children through popular animal characters. There is little objection to any claim that youngsters love animals: toy collections and city farm visits of many children evidence this. However, most of these children also eat animals and will continue to into adulthood – an example of the ‘Meat Paradox’ (Loughnan, Bastian & Puvia 2012). Extending this, the more species-specific ‘Peppa Pig Paradox’ (Korimboccus 2020) highlights the species adorning the side of lunchboxes as well as filling the sandwiches inside. Ham-eating Peppa Pig fans (and fish-eating aquaria visitors) demonstrate disconnect before children are even cognitively able to question it. They believe certain animals are ‘for’ certain purposes – usually human gain of some sort, and frequently through food choices. Media reinforces these everyday contradictions through representation of various animal species. Content analysis of children’s mainstream UK TV series evidences these speciesist stereotypes, from ‘pests’ such as Peter Rabbit to ‘pets’ in Ferne & Rorie’s Vet Tales. Though other work exists on wider cultural media representations of animals on TV (e.g. Mills 2017), and even on children’s TV during the analog era (Paul 1996), these studies are the first to focus solely on pre-school and primary-age children’s digital terrestrial TV in the 21st century.
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