A new children’s TV show has been making waves in Denmark about a man with an extremely long, uncontrollable penis
Needless to say there has been some questions as to how appropriate the show is for children.
DR, the Danish equivalent of the BBC and the creators of the show, says that it is aimed at four-to-eight-year-olds and focuses on a man named John Dillermand who has the world’s longest penis, and how he overcomes life’s obstacles with his genitals.
The show premiered on Saturday and has since received a lot of debate and criticism as to what a children’s TV show should contain. Or rather, what it should not.
Danish Author, Anne Lise Marstrands-Jorgensen said:
“Is this really the message we want to send to children while we are in the middle of a huge #MeToo wave?”
Anne Lise Marstrands-Jorgensen
The new show has aired only several months after the TV presenter Sofie Linde began the Denmark #MeToo movement. Linde revealed at a comedy gala how she was a victim of sexual harassment from one of DR’s network higher ups.
The show was developed with multiple professionals, including child psychologists and the Danish organisations
Sex and Society who were consultants for the show.
Skov Hansen, head of DR’s children’s department said:
“We always welcome debate about our content. But it is important to try and not view the program from an adult
perspective,”
The exec continued;
“The show is created for children and is preoccupied with the same things they are. I don’t agree with the few
critics who consider John Dillermand to be sexualised, it’s as desexualised as it can possibly get.”
DR praise themselves on “tackling embarassing, difficult, funny and quirky topics” and feel that
the ‘John Dillermand’ character falls into that category.
Associate professor and gender researcher at Roskilde University, Christian Groes, said the show topic
could set gender equality back;
“It’s perpetuating the standard idea of a patriarchal society and normalising ‘locker room culture’
…that’s been used to excuse a lot of bad behaviour from men.”
Erla Heinesen Hojsted, a clinical psychologist, noted that the timing of the show was poor – but that she believes that the critics are “overthinking” the premise.
DR took note of the recent criticism and said; “We could have just as easily made a programme about a woman with no control over her vagina but the important thing was that children enjoyed John Dillermand”.
Words by Jaimie Kay
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