Reshmi Bennett, a bakery owner and children’s author, was not prepared to lose her battle with TV’s most divisive pig. Like so many youngsters, Bennett’s six-year-old son had been wooed by the porky charms of Peppa Pig, the anthropomorphic superstar of children’s animation, who hit TV screens for the first time 20 years ago today. But once Bennett sat down to watch the programme with her little boy, she was horrified. “Peppa’s so dislikeable,” she tells me. “She’s rude, entitled and belittling. She’s also a sore loser and unsupportive of her friends. She fat-shames her dad and ... [is] mean to her little brother.”
Bennett says her son quickly grew out of watching Peppa after he was put on a (potentially healthier) diet of Paw Patrol and Numberblocks. But her concerns about the character aren’t hers alone. They echo one of the great debates currently defining modern parenthood: is Peppa Pig a force for good or a force for unbridled evil? Is she too rude and entitled for the children who worship her? Or does she merely mirror childhood in all its complexity?
