Reasons Why Barney Is Bad

So I rounded up some proof off the Internet to prove truly, why Barney must die. And these are RATIONAL ones, I'll have you know, not just stuff like "He's annoying". If there's any parents of young'uns out there, take note:

The FAQ For the Jihad Against Barney The Dinosaur
Why do we hate Barney?(as if you had to ask)
>Besides what people with Functioning Cerebrums(tm) can discern for themselves, people bring up the following objections:
>1) Barney presents a candy-coated, unrealistically nice view of the world.
>2) Barney tells kids that if they act like perfect little people everything will be all right even when it isn't
3) Barney warps the lyrics of traditional children's songs with his own sickeningly sweet (per-)versions.
4) Barney is over-merchandised
5) Barney has promoted cheating and other anti-social acts on his show.
6) Barney tries to replace the parental figure with the "I love you" song.
7) Barney does not promote thinking for yourself, rather you are condemned for going against the wishes of the majority.
8) He is a weak attempt to usurp Seasame Street.
9) His colors are offensive to the eye.
>10) Watching his show _will_ spongify your brain. (Barnius encephalitis)

Purple Pestilence Page This is the page I was talking about, most of my links are from here.

"Barney & Friends" vs. "Sesame Street": A Comparison
It models "good" behavior, but only if you define "good" in a certain way. The main subtext of the show appears to be that all negative emotions should simply be denied so that we can all be happy, and that we should all conform to the group and accept the leadership of other people instead of using our own ideas.

The children in Barney never admit to a single bit of jealousy, rivalry, anger, tension, fear, or any other bad feeling. Well, that's not true, precisely. On *extremely* rare occasions, they do say things like, "I want to go next," "No, I want to go next," "Let's go together!" All with a stupid grin on their faces that shows that there was never any real argument. The situations can *always* be solved immediately, care-bear style, so there is never any real tension.

The problem is that even stupid childless people like me know that children's real lives, even at age three (*especially* at age three!) aren't like that. Learning to share and take turns and such is not so easy, and there are usually plenty of tantrums and fights on the outside, and plenty of upset feelings on the inside. For instance, one of the Sesame Street episodes I watched recently had a situation where Cookie Monster was playing with a friend, and they went to get a snack, and there was only one cookie left. Of course, Cookie Monster wanted to eat it, but then he saw that he would hurt his friend's feelings. So he went through a song (which, by the way, is much more musically interesting and educational than the ones on Barney) where he weighed all the fun he had with his friend against the momentary pleasure of a cookie, and decided that he would rather give the cookie to his friend. On Barney, even if the situation came up (which it clearly wouldn't, because there are *always* enough treats to go around), they would have just smiled and immediately broken the cookie in half. Well, from Cookie Monster, they learn that those feelings of selfishness are perfectly normal (why do you think so many of the muppets are "monsters"? Children are very afraid of their "bad" emotions), that even if there isn't a simple solution, that by weighing the various sides of an issues, they can decide what is truly important to them. From Barney, they learn that good children don't have bad feelings and that all problems have easy solutions which don't involve giving up anything important. Mister Rogers doesn't show kids interacting with each other that much, but his make-believe and his songs send the message that you are a good person even when you have bad emotions, and that intelligence can be applied to difficult problems to find good solutions. Barney says that you are only a good person when you have good emotions, and that problems don't exist -- a very bad message to send.

Another disturbing facet to the show is the leadership role Barney takes. The children ask him what they should do to have fun, and he tells them. They ask him what they should do when they're not sure what to do, and he tells them. They paint the pictures, and instead of asking them to use their picture to add to the growing story, he takes over and tells them what their pictures mean, decides on the title and cover and doesn't even put their names on it. They can't have fun until he's there, and they can't have fun until he tells them how to do it. They don't make believe without his telling them what to imagine. Their own ideas are subjugated to those of the leader, who doesn't even ask for input. This is not a good model of creative play, nor is it a good model of teamwork or of leadership. In Sesame Street, by contrast, the adults are viewed as resources, but the children drive the action. Every episode has a running plot where a few monsters have a problem to solve (Zoe's aunt tickles her, the fish called Wanda doesn't want Wolfgang the seal to eat her, Big Bird and Rosita want to learn enough about babies to play family with Elmo, etc), and they come up with and try a variety of solutions to each problem, with varying degrees of success (Zoe tries wearing a tiger suit to scare her aunt, but the aunt isn't scared. She thinks about staying away from her aunt, but realizes that she would have to give up spending time with her, which she very much enjoys. She carries a pineapple around so that the spiny leaves protect her chin, which works, but she gets tired after carrying it all day). The adults don't muscle in to the action, but offer advice or other help (at one point, Gina is practically wrestling with Wolfgang to give Wanda and Big Bird time to implement the successful idea they came up with on their own) if asked. The adults' ideas are generally good, but they don't force them on the monsters. Instead, the monsters model good information-gathering and decision-making skills.

Another thing which is disturbing about Barney is the choreography. These kids always do everything in unison. They dance to exactly the same steps, and do not a half bad job at it. They mimic what they are shown exactly. In the episode on individuality, they did a song and dance about how boring it would be if they were all identical robots, and the sick thing was that it was basically the same as when they were kids. In Sesame Street, kids get the same body awareness practice through dance, but the instructions are much vaguer and the kids are each doing their own thing. The subtext in Barney is that it's good to do everything identically with everyone else; the subtext in Sesame Street is that you can have fun with other people while each doing things differently, that in the world of fun, there are very few "wrong" answers.

In the Barney episode about individuality, each child named something that they liked doing, on the grounds that liking something different from other people was why you were special. But then, Barney made them all do those things together. That's counterproductive -- it shows children that something gains its definition of good if everyone else likes doing it too, not if *you* like doing it. On Sesame Street, Ernie and Bert demonstrate very well how you can like other people without having to like all the same things (one of the shows I watched had an episode where they treated exactly that issue, we like different things and we love each other). In line with the idea that the children are taught to deny their basic differences, somehow all these kids on Barney, whose ages I estimate at 8 - 16 (or maybe older, Lucy is pretty big), not to mention the grownups who show up on some episodes, pretend that they are all the same ages as the kids watching the show (2 - 5?). All people, regardless of age, react to Barney and the proposed activities in the same way -- that is, at the developmental level of a toddler. But the viewing kids aren't stupid. They know those kids are older than they are. And the real older kids (and grownups) they deal with don't react to things at toddler level. Real adults may get annoyed at noisy or messy play or constant singing of the same song. A toddler seeing the modeled behavior of older kids and adults on Barney would be very disturbed to find that his parents and siblings don't act like Barney says they're supposed to. Are my parents bad parents because they don't play the way Barney says they do? Am I a bad person because my parents get angry at me sometimes? On Sesame Street, by contrast, the characters react realistically to each other, while still maintaining the safety net that just because you do something that annoys someone doesn't mean that you or they are bad people. Tully and Rosita wander around one episode playing with a pair of cymbals, and Luis (a grownup human) makes no secret of the fact that he finds it too loud and wishes they would make all that noise somewhere else.

Excerps on Childhood Psychology
In Barney's show, emotions are not dealt with. Desires and wishes are fullfilled without challange or effort. Reality is ignored.
Barney is their sole guide and help.
"Ignoring feelings altogether, treating emotional upsets as trivial."
"Being too easygoing, leaving children to their own devices in handling emotional storms, or trying bribes to get them to stop being mad or angry."
Being contemptuous, showing no respect for children's feelings, criticizing the children harshly."
Telling children that your feelings don't matter, so just pretend your emotions don't exist except happiness.

The Bad News About Barney
"Using denial as a primary coping strategy," confirms Lisa Korman, M.D. a child psychiatrist in New York City, "means that, unlike PBS's luminaries such as Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood, Barney and Friends does not help children learn to tolerate sorrow, pain, frustration and failure. Barney's instant interventions distract children from their pain before they have a chance to examine it, respect it, stay with it, and ultimately, watch it evaporate. Children need to know the wonderful things that happen in the Neighbourhood of make-believe (or as Barney would say, "in our imagination") doesn't always happen in the real world. Mr Rogers makes this point regularly, Barney does not.

Time Magazine
"But there is no mystery about the spell Barney casts on children. One Washington toddler wakes up each morning and greets his parents with an eager, "Hi, watch Barney." A four-year-old girl in Pensacola, Florida, who learned that Barney appears on TV while she is attending preschool, threatened to boycott school until her parents agreed to videotape the show for her. At a Connecticut elementary school, first-graders pay homage to a Barney poster on the door before they walk into the classroom."

Comments on Validity
Teaching Children <"Strangers are just friends we haven't met yet> contrary to what local police teach our children.
*** This would be a valid reason to have a hatred of Barfney. Teaching children that strangers are just friends we haven't met yet gives children the notion that when they come in contact with a stranger they should introduce themselves and make a new friend. What if this stranger is a child molester, kidnapper, or murder. Obviously in the alternative world of b&f there are no such things but our children don't have the option of living in this Utopia instead of the REAL World.
Teaching children such lessons as "Theft is ok as long as the person you steal from doesn't mind" "cheating is ok" or putting things over their heads such as cardboard boxes and walking around when they can't see is a good thing.
The babysitter trap
*** this also is a valid point but allow me to explain it. The babysitter trap is when a show promotes turning it on and letting it babysit your kids while it entertains them instead of promoting you watching the show with your child and explaining things they don't understand to them.

And whaddya know, here's a response from Barney's Chief Defender on the board I found later.

I can't believe I'm actually doing this . . .

Hmmmmm. I wonder how far into the hell of angst ennui one has to descend in order to figure that a Jihad Against Barney is a worthwhile undertaking. I mean, as opposed to something that might come up during those court-mandated counseling sessions.

The DOOM hack that had people blowing Barney up was funny. This is actually kind of sad.

Aside from Arthur and a few others, none of those shows deal with negative emotions in much depth. Sesame Street sugar coats them as much as any of the others--in fact, the main difference is that about 1/2 of what goes on in a Sesame Street episode isn't aimed at young children at all. Which is cool, it makes it a lot easier for me to sit down and watch a little educational programming with my kids once in while. But the thing is, Barney is as real about it as any of the others. To say that this schlock has misrepresented the Barney program is an understatement..

And the thing is, I cannot stomach Barney. It's painful to watch. But take note here, oh Barney haters with too much time on your hands, that it is almost exclusively NON-parents who hate Barney, while nearly all parents with young children have changed their minds.

Barney isn't art. It isn't even entertaining to anyone more sophisticated than your average three or four year old. But it is entertaining to them, and the only way you could construe it as being about 'conformity' is to say that being polite and respectful of others is somehow harmful.

Of course, to some, it is.

As far as I'm concerned, anyone with a strong opinion of Barney means they've either watched it a lot, or they're spouting off about something they know nothing about. If it's the latter, well, I guess the appropriate reaction goes without saying.

And if it's the former, if someone's bothered to watch a ton of Barney even though they have no kids, well, they deserve exactly what they've put themselves through, cause the only payoff, for an adult, in watching Barney, is in watching your kids giggle and interact with the show.

And now I've trumped everyone by ranting about people who rant about Barney.

I guess we all live in our own private hells, eh?

-Jiminy

On another note, tonight we did some film-watching. Namely, Like Water For Chocolate and (part of, it got late) Kama Sutra. Reviews:

LWFC: Having read the book, I can only say that this is the most accurate portrayal of a book EVER. Nothing missing! Perfectly done! (Except for the doc and his son being complete dorks) Beautiful!

For those who want to know, here's the plot. Tita is the youngest child of a BITCHY mother. The family tradition is that the youngest daughter never marries and is the mother's slave until she dies. Problem is, Tita falls in love with Pedro, and they are not allowed to marry. So Pedro marries her sister Rosaura to be as close to Tita as he can get. Okay, so it's Romeo-and-Juliet-ish depressing in places, but still beautiful.

KS: So far: You got yerself two Indian chicks, a princess (snotnose) and her handmaiden or whatever, Maya (nicer). Maya sleeps with the king (princess's fiance) the night before their wedding. She is caught by the princess's brother and thrown outta town. The princess is raped on her wedding night by the king (total a-hole). Maya makes friends with a nice young sculptor and moves into a really nice whorehouse, I think, where the nice madam teaches them all how to kiss and pose from the KS. Starts out sadder than LWFC, but I think it's improving.

Links to other sites on the Web

By Design (complaints, sword)

Any other Barney-lovers out there over the age of six?

© 1997 jdrutherford@ucdavis.edu

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