Danish public television has just introduced a new animated show about a man named John Dillermand and his unviable penis.
The premise of the program, which is aimed at children between the ages of four and eight, is to show how Mr. Dillermand — who translates as Mr. Penis Man — has overcome the obvious challenges of a very long time.
Instead of being hampered by his oversized package, he uses it creatively, including performing rescue operations, raising flags, barbecue, and even a whimsical episode in which Mr. Dillermand’s phallus clothes ice cream to an unexpected child.
The show, of course, has its critics. Danish author Anne Lise Marstrand-Jørgensen wondered about the right time, as Denmark has recently suffered a lot from sexual harassment in the workplace. “Is this really the message we want to send to kids while we’re in the middle of a huge #MeToo wave?” wrote on Twitter.
But the show’s creators, of whom 13 episodes have been watched more than 140,000 times since its January 2 debut, championed the unusual choice of children’s programming. “We think it’s important to be able to tell stories about bodies,” public broadcaster DR posted on Facebook on Tuesday. “In the series we recognize the growing curiosity of young children about their body and their genitals, as well as the shame and pleasure in the body.”
Some episodes show a less satisfied and slightly grumpy Mrs. Dillermand trying to keep her husband in line, including a scene in which she throws a pile of balloons from which her husband hangs by her member. Spoiler alert: survive.
“It’s a very Danish program,” education expert Sophie Munster told AFP. “We have a tradition of pushing boundaries and using humor and we think it’s totally normal.”
Erla Heinesen Højsted, a clinical psychologist, told AFP that the program is not harmful to young children. “John Dillermand talks to kids and shares his way of thinking, and kids find genitals fun,” she said. “He is responsible for his actions. When a woman on the show tells her she should keep her penis in her pants, for example, listen. Which is good. He is responsible. “
Others argue that a whole show about a large organ is bad for men. “It perpetuates the standard idea of a patriarchal society and normalizes the‘ costume culture, ’” Christian Groes, an associate professor and gender researcher at Roskilde University, told Danish local media. “It has to be fun, so it looks harmless. But it’s not. And we’re teaching that to our kids.”
The public broadcaster responded to the criticism on its Facebook page by saying that it could very well have done a program “about a woman without control over her vagina” and what really matters is that the children like Mr. Dillermand.