This week, Sesame Street was bombarded with complaints about the attire of Katy Perry in a video with Elmo. The complaints centred around the décolletage of Perry’s skating costume (which had a skin-coloured section above the bodice).
Katy Perry and Elmo
Now. On the one hand, Sesame Street PTB (Powers That Be) MIGHT have foreseen this and perhaps warded off controversy by suggesting a slightly less revealing costume for Perry.
On the other hand, are the children watching Sesame Street going to even NOTICE her cleavage?
After all. 99% of the Muppet characters throughout the years have either not worn clothing or given a nod to clothing in the form of a tie and collar (and cuffs, in the case of Grover, the Waiter). That would be 99% of the MALE characters. Female characters are almost always clothed. The notable exception being Rosita. Of course, we have to also take into account that female Muppet characters on Sesame Street are vastly outnumbered by the male ones.
Personally, I am in favour of demanding that Sesame Street put clothing on all their Muppet characters. What sort of message is it to children that you can run around your neighbourhood stark naked?*
Male characters… Nudists
Elmo
Kermit
Telly
Oscar the Grouch
Baby Bear
Grover
Snuffleupagus
Big Bird
(Big Bird used to wear a tie… Now, he’s nekkid as a jaybird).
Male characters with a nod to clothing…
Ernie and Bert
Super Grover (aka Grover)
Male characters clothed…
Count (The Count) von Count
Female characters, naked…
Rosita
Female characters, clothed…
Zoe Monster & Abby Cadabby
* Before everyone goes off half-cocked and starts bombarding me with nasty comments… I do not seriously believe that Sesame Street should clothe the Muppet characters. This is simply to point out the stupidity of some people’s concepts of what is “appropriate” or “inappropriate” for youngsters to be exposed to. I would wager that many of the complaints come from parents who watch “Toddlers and Tiaras” and think that there’s nothing wrong with making 5 year-olds up to look like Las Vegas hookers and give them prizes for bumping and grinding to hoochie-coochie music.
Mudpuddle 
healingmagichands said,
October 7, 2010 at 4:24 pm
It never occurred to me that the characters on Sesame Street are nude. You are so right. And what the heck is wrong with a little cleavage, for Pete’s sake? Hopefully every one of the toddlers watching this show have been able to see their mommy’s breasts on an intimate basis.
sledpress said,
September 25, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Oh, don’t get me started on those toddler beauty pageants.
I once ran across an off-brand of cotton briefs, sold in five and dime stores, called “Temptease,” which showed a girl about six, clad only in the briefs, striking a… pose. Little blue haired ladies in shop aprons were ringing up these things. WTF?
mudhooks said,
September 26, 2010 at 3:06 am
I was watching “Little Miss Sunshine” last night… I am sure that the parents and contestants that they had “playing” parents and contestants in the film’s contest didn’t even “get” the point of the dance that Olive does in the film.
I know they were real pageant contestants because I saw some of them in a documentary about the pageant “culture”.