‘Baby Shark’ Is Triggering
+JMJ
It takes me a long time to “burn out” on a song I enjoy, and “Baby Shark” is no exception. I am referring specifically to the Pinkfong version seen here. First, a note about Pinkfong himself. Yes, I said “himself.” If you thought Pinkfong was female, you’re not the only one. I thought he was female until I read on his website that he “is an adorable prince from Planet Staria with boundless curiosity!” I find it very refreshing to see a pink animal being used to promote good clean fun rather than a feminist political agenda. (I originally thought Pinkfong was a cat, but then yesterday I noticed the white on his tail and thought he might be a fox. And tonight Google confirmed that he’s a fox. So I was misgendering and mis-speciating him.)
And I am pleasantly surprised that my cynical mind isn’t assuming that Pinkfong execs must be pushing some nefarious gender ideology by featuring a pink male fox.
If I find out that they are gender hustlers, I will not hesitate to throw shade on them and stand up for Pinkfong’s masculinity. Unless I find out that Pinkfong is actually a female who identifies as a male. If that happens, I will throw even more shade on the execs and adjust pronouns for Pinkfong accordingly.
As far as “Baby Shark” goes, I am surprised that the powers that be haven’t made more efforts to shut it down. It violates political correctness in several ways.
1) Embracing the binary
In the version that I link to above, the male sharks are introduced by a boy, and the female sharks are introduced by a girl. And to top it off, the boy wears blue, and the girl wears pink.
2) Promoting traditional gender roles
Mommy Shark, rather than Daddy Shark, is mentioned right after Baby Shark (0:36-0:43). This could indicate that Mommy is the closest to Baby and his primary caregiver.
3) Celebrating heteronormativity and the nuclear family
Baby Shark has a mommy and a daddy and a grandma and a grandpa. He doesn’t have two mommies, two daddies, or a mommy who insists she can be both a mommy and a daddy because his daddy’s no good.
4) Acknowledging politically incorrect differences between the sexes
Daddy Shark is portrayed as having a bigger bite and being more ferocious than Mommy Shark. The voice that introduces Daddy is exaggeratedly deeper as well (0:44-0:51). This is also true of Grandma and Grandpa Shark (0:52-1:08). According to the Wikipedia page for “Baby Shark,” the Korean version of the song was accused of sexism in a front-page editorial. That version describes Mommy as “pretty,” Daddy as “strong,” Grandma as “kind,” and Grandpa as “cool.”
I love it already.
And I think a lot of the people who were butthurt over that version are forgetting that “Baby Shark” is made to appeal to very young children. At that stage in their lives, kids only see that Mommy is pretty; they don’t know or care about her advanced degree or high-power career. But I guess that makes them misogynists-in-training.
5) A little ageism never hurt anybody.
Grandma Shark is portrayed as being slightly slower than the other sharks and as toothless at the very beginning of her segment (0:52-1:00). The boy introducing Grandpa holds the toothless expression for Grandpa’s entire run, but interestingly, Grandpa’s mobility, voice, and bite are mostly comparable to Daddy’s (1:01-1:08). So this is an ageism/sexism double whammy.
Or maybe it’s just a realistic depiction of old age.
Even though there’s a discrepancy between Grandma and Grandpa’s portrayals, that doesn’t change the fact that involuntary slowdowns are pretty common in the golden years of life.
Despite all that, “Baby Shark” includes a couple nods to snowflake orthodoxy. The humans who introduce Baby Shark’s family go on to portray a rival family of sharks. Although Mommy Shark might be Baby Shark’s primary caregiver, the rival sharks do not have a traditional division of labor within their family. When it comes to getting food, the male is not the breadwinner. As shown in the “Let’s go hunt!” segment (1:09-1:16), gathering food is a joint effort. (Yay for the equal opportunity to get eaten by a predator! Don’t you just love feminism?)
The other way in which “Baby Shark” upholds snowflake values is by supporting duty to retreat, that is, the “duty” of a target to retreat from an aggressor. I put duty in quotes because I find the concept of duty to retreat to be rather insulting. I am not opposed to a target choosing to retreat, and I think that in certain circumstances, this is the most appropriate course of action. But I am not comfortable with the government imposing a formal legal obligation to retreat on targets of violence.
What about the aggressor’s duty to retreat? As in, “Retreat on outta here if you don’t wanna get shot!”
The rival sharks’ retreat can be seen in the “Run away!” segment (1:17-1:26). (It’s certainly possible that they were trespassing on territory belonging to Baby Shark’s family, in which case they wouldn’t be able to invoke stand-your-ground anyway.) And not only do the rival sharks retreat, they survive, as shown in the “Safe at last!” segment (1:27-1:35). I guess this is proof that running away works sometimes. Fortunately for the rival sharks, Baby Shark’s family are either gun haters or law-abiding gun lovers living in a gun-grabbing jurisdiction.
I hope that my readers were not too put off by this over-analysis of a children’s song. Because I just saw that there are some Pinkfong holiday specials on YouTube that are just begging to be watched, enjoyed, and picked apart. Will they incorporate all religions and anti-religions? Who will be offended first? Stay tuned…
Verso l’alto,
Megan