Children’s Lit-Crit

TWO concerned mothers recently wrote a letter to one of America’s largest newspapers, objecting to a potentially harmful flaw in Sesame Street: there aren’t enough female Muppet characters.

Certainly, the show’s adult human characters achieve a remarkable balance—a Hispanic male, a Hispanic female, a black male, a black female, a white male, and a deaf white female. A few teenagers of various ethnic backgrounds further the rainbow scheme. But come to the puppet level and the Technicolor bubble bursts.

RB

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Ruth Ann Baker

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TWO concerned mothers recently wrote a letter to one of America’s largest newspapers, objecting to a potentially harmful flaw in Sesame Street: there aren’t enough female Muppet characters.

Certainly, the show’s adult human characters achieve a remarkable balance—a Hispanic male, a Hispanic female, a black male, a black female, a white male, and a deaf white female. A few teenagers of various ethnic backgrounds further the rainbow scheme. But come to the puppet level and the Technicolor bubble bursts.