Arthur Leads The Way In Diverse Children’s Media

Beloved children’s TV show “Arthur” launches its new season with the marriage of Mr. Ratburn, the school teacher, to his new husband. Marking a monumental moment in children TV history as true exclusivity takes cartoon form.

The episode titled “Mr. Ratburn and the special someone” saw a beloved character, a familiar face in the children’s show since its conception, marry a man! As children’s media continues to become more inclusive and open-minded it is important to celebrate the brave trailblazers pushing for all types of people represented through all sorts of children based media.

Of course, with any liberal move such as this, there is, of course, an outcry from certain members of society. The news has been filled with stories recently of teachers losing jobs, outraged religious parents and general concern from older generations expressing concerns about LGBT themes running through children’s content and education.

Representation in the world of media has always been important for children. Recent research shows that there is still a worrying lack of diversity in children’s media. Researchers focused on about 1,000 U.S. and Canadian shows created for kids up to age 12. The American shows aired on the most popular channels, including Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Disney Jr., Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Sprout-Universal Kids, and PBS during fall 2017.

Some of the key findings were:

Male main characters still dominate fictional programming. Only 38% of the main characters from the shows studied were female.

There was no LGBTQ representation until now. Mr. Ratburn in Arthur is the first of its kind.

65% of all characters across 1000 studied shows were white.

Characters with disabilities are virtually nonexistent. Only 1% of characters in the U.S. had any obvious physical disabilities, the study shows. None of the characters in the study had any serious chronic condition.

Celebrating Arthur’s success can help other creative companies adapt their projects to be more inclusive. The stats above from research in 2017 highlight the importance of making sure no child feels left out both on screen or real life.