Sesame Street Analysis

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Sesame Street is an American children’s television show produced by Sesame Workshop and created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett that premiered on November 10, 1969 (Wikipedia 2017). Since its premiere 48 years ago, Sesame Street has continuously progressed to reflect the time’s most pressing current events. In doing so, the show has shed light on controversial and relevant topics including gender-inequality, race, the transgender community, disability, and recycling. The show educates children at a young age by exposing them to such topics, thus fostering a sense of awareness and openness within its audience. Because of the show’s innovation and creativity within the realm of children’s television, I believe that Sesame Street embodies …show more content…

The short video touches briefly on the gender-pay gap. In the clip, Kevin Clash, the then puppeteer of Elmo, and Fran Brill utilize impersonations of Elmo and Zoe to touch on the issue of monetary inequality in the workforce. For example, both voice actors sarcastically joke that Elmo is paid more than Zoe because he is a male character (1995). Therefore, Clash and Brill, the puppeteers of Sesame Workshop, effectively bring awareness to the fact that men are subject to higher wages than women based on their gender. Although the interview is 22 years-old, gender-pay gap is an ongoing issue that still occurs today. Despite the continual struggle towards equal-pay, Sesame Street uses its platform, then and even now to raise awareness to such …show more content…

Julia is a four-year-old girl with autism (Muppet Wiki 2017). Because of the positive response to the campaign, Sesame Workshop made Julia into a Muppet. She made her debut on April 10, 2017, in Season 47 Episode 15 (titled “Meet Julia”) (Muppet Wiki 2017). Julia’s introduction to the show will teach children to normalize disability and remove the stigma associated with developmental delays. Hopefully, in learning those skills, they will feel compounded to apply their newly-acquired knowledge to the real-world. Sesame Street’s attempt at teaching children of a young age that disability is not a crime directly parallels to the feminist struggle for equality. Like Sesame Street, feminists must work relentlessly to call attention to the inequalities that have yet to cease in our society. It appears the program's initiative may improve the health and expand the life choices of both girls and boys with

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