A political science professor at Canada’s Alberta University analyzed 23 episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine and concludes the popular children’s show portrays a world “blighted by a conservative political ideology and a rigid class system which stifles self-expression.” And it’s sexist, too. The U.K. Daily Mail quotes Laura Midgley, of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, who describes the research as “unbelievable nonsense.”
This follows recent charges of sexual harassment leveled against Elmo and Cookie Monster. No, really!
I’ve always found Thomas’s grin smarmy, and he is quite condescending towards those in the lower stations…
Comment by Claus — December 11, 2009 @ 2:49 pm
Academic freedom is the freedom to pursue the crazy, not the stupid. A place that can maintain such a professor on their payroll, yet still call itself academically serious, is a place that needs to be hit by a clue-by-four.
Comment by Obi-Wandreas — December 12, 2009 @ 12:22 am
The boys and engines, girls as passenger cars used to bug me…
Comment by Rachel — December 12, 2009 @ 2:31 am
You could say that Thomas got the Texas mugging:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2009/07/by_barbara_moeller_last_novemb.html#more
Comment by andrei radulescu-banu — December 14, 2009 @ 4:58 pm