📑 I’ve learnt a lot from Bluey, but can the show be more representative?

Beverley Wang talks about the way in which she was blindsided by Bluey with its sense of mortality. She talks about the power of co-viewing and the learning opportunities that arise with this.

As a parent and fellow fan, I’ve also learnt plenty from Bluey. That gut-punch reminder that childhood is short calls me to parent more presently and say yes to games more often.

However, Wang also wonders if the show could do more to represent disabled, queer, poor, gender diverse, dogs of colour and single-parent dog families. With this in mind, she talks about Dr Rudine Sims Bishop’s idea of windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors:

I mention this desire for more to Dr Chapman and she invokes the framework of “windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors” by groundbreaking American children’s literature scholar Dr Rudine Sims Bishop, which proposes that children’s books should be windows giving views into different worlds; mirrors that reflect our life experiences; and sliding doors that allow access to the worlds created by authors.