{"id":6824,"date":"2015-01-12T15:40:13","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T15:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=6824"},"modified":"2015-02-07T07:45:26","modified_gmt":"2015-02-07T07:45:26","slug":"swedish-childrens-shows-and-snoppen-och-snippan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/swedish-childrens-shows-and-snoppen-och-snippan\/","title":{"rendered":"Swedish Children’s Shows and Snoppen och Snippan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Bacillakuten<\/a> had it\u2019s season premier on Sveriges Television. This shouldn\u2019t really be a big deal. The show is one of those fun kid\u2019s shows that aims to teach children while hopefully keeping them somewhat entertained and happy. Bacillakuten<\/em> focuses specifically on teaching children about the body. Again, not a huge deal, really. We all have bodies and as children (and even as adults) we tend to have a whole lot of questions about those bodies. Plus, children\u2019s TV shows are a really good way to work on your language skills.<\/p>\n

But why are we writing about this show in particular? Why is it a big deal? Because before the season premier, Bacillakuten<\/em> posted a short music video. An animated music video. An animated music video with a singing penis and vagina. These animated genitals were singing about, well, genitals.<\/p>\n

Actually, they were singing about the words snippa<\/em> and snopp, <\/em>which are words that children and parents with small children sometimes use. Snopp<\/em> being the word for penis and snippa<\/em> for vagina. Sweden tends to be pretty open about a lot of things, especially when it comes to the body. Go to the beach on a warm summer day and you\u2019ll probably see much more skin than on your average American beach, for example. But this video caused a bit of an uproar. Partly because it went viral and all of a sudden over half a million people were watching the video. Children don\u2019t usually cause an uproar, but when adults start watching things, uproar follows.<\/p>\n

There were plenty of people arguing from both sides. Some believed it was too crude for kids, others believed it was a way to reduce the stigma that sometimes comes with talking about penises and vaginas. And then there were some people that just think that the producers of TV programs for children are on drugs. For what it\u2019s worth, I\u2019m pretty solidly in the, no problem this is a cute way to get kids comfortable with their bodies.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the video. Just a warning, when I first tried to watch the video on YouTube without logging in, I was given a content warning. If you\u2019re at work or if you\u2019re sensitive to animated genitalia, beware.<\/p>\n