Photo via @thewiggles/Instagram
August 25, 2021, 1:22 pm
Conservatives are once again confused and infuriated after a children’s program made a move to represent people who they don’t understand, this time lashing out at Australian singing group The Wiggles and their new colorful program “Fruit Salad TV” for adding a non-binary character. This addition was part of a general effort to make the cast more diverse, with The Wiggles previously having four human characters who were all white and a larger cast in animal costumes that were all, presumably, cisgender.
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The new non-binary character is one of the animal costumes, a yellow unicorn, and uses they/them pronouns. At the same time, they added human dancers with backgrounds extending to Ethiopia, China, the Philippines, and one Indigenous Australian.
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The Wiggles’ Instagram video announcement for this cast extension does not explicitly mention the non-binary unicorn, though they make an appearance, but conservative figures in Australia and beyond seem to be laser-focused on this particular detail. The unicorn, Shirley Shawn, is actually one of three non-binary characters being introduced to Fruit Salad TV, the others being a police officer and a hand puppet who will have more minor roles in the show.
In spite of the fact that non-binary people exist all over the world and have the same desires for representation as anyone else, conservative commentators like radio show presenter Oliver Peterson can’t understand why these characters need to exist at all, ever.
“If someone can enlighten me, if somebody could tell me why they have to have a non-binary unicorn, I’d love to know,” he said. “It seems a little bit odd.”
Why do they have to have characters of binary genders, Oliver? Asking questions sure is fun. Thankfully, the people behind Fruit Salad TV are here to answer the question he posed in terms that maybe even he can understand.
“As society has evolved, we have embraced the need for diversity and inclusiveness and want children all over the world to see themselves reflected on the screen,” said founding Wiggles member Anthony Field. “It’s so important that The Wiggles continue to evolve along with our society. This is the first step towards shaping The Wiggles for the next 30 years, taking us in a direction that truly represents and serves our community more inclusively.”
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Meanwhile, right-wing Senator Matt Canavan of Queensland whipped out the term “woke” to declare that The Wiggles are now canceled to him.
“The Wiggles are free to do what they like,” he said to The Australian. “It was nice while it lasted. But you go woke, you go broke.”
This seems unlikely considering the fact that adding more diverse characters has never appeared to have a negative impact on the financial viability of many other children’s programs that have done so, including Sesame Street, which started expanding its gender diversity years ago. The Wiggles have also routinely pushed the idea that diversity is a great thing — an underlying message of “Fruit Salad TV” is that more colors and more flavors just makes the salad better — and maintained worldwide acclaim and popularity.
*First Published: August 25, 2021, 1:22 pm
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