Abeni Matthews

Prof John Lynxwiler

SYP3630
31 January 2016
Assignment #1
The Teletubbies article talks about how American conservative religious leader Reverend
Jerry Falwell criticized the popular British childrens television show due to its supposed
homosexual undertones that it carries. Many people, in response, stated that such a claim is
nonsensical because the show's characters are toddlers and are not intended to have sexual
orientations of any kind (Role models, n.d.), and per the words of Laurie Fry, This is a
children's show, for goodness sake (Role models, n.d.). This article can relate to two different
ideas: that popular culture should be condemned and controlled before it damages society, or
popular culture simply reflects the values and meanings of an active, democratic culture; this
paper will focus on the latter idea.
Out of the three listed definitions of culture by Raymond Williams, the idea in the article
would most likely reflect the ideal and the social definitions of culture. The ideal, where culture
is a state or process of human perfection, in terms of absolute or universal values essentially
the discovery and description, in lives and works, of those values which can be seen to compose
a timeless order (Williams, 1961, p. 48), and the social, where culture is a description of a
particular way of life the clarifications of the meanings and values implicit and explicit in a
particular way of life, a particular culture (Williams, 1961, p. 48), both relate to the Teletubbies
article and the idea of popular culture reflecting values and meanings of an active democratic
culture in that culture in societies is always changing and we as people are always adapting to

those changes; or at least trying to. In much earlier times such as the 1950s and 1960s,
homosexuality was barely accepted and even seen as a mental illness. In fact, homosexuality
was listed as such by the American Psychiatric Association in their Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (DSM) until 1974 (Oberlin). Nobody truly understood
homosexuality then, so it is not surprising to see that this was the way people thought in this time
period.
Fast forwarding to the present, or rather, the late 1990s to the early 2000s when the
Teletubbies was gaining popularity, people are becoming more aware, if not for some others,
understanding of the idea of homosexuality. This directly relates to another idea by Williams,
who argues that one generation may train its successor, with reasonable success, in the social
character or the general cultural pattern, but the new generation will have its own feeling, which
will not appear to have come from anywhere (Williams, 1961, p. 53). What this could mean is
that many people of the X and Baby Boomer generations may still not truly understand
homosexuality today as much as the younger generations (Millennials and Z) do; they will
attempt to teach the younger generation that homosexuality is wrong based on the ideas and
values that they were taught in their days. The younger generations have more than likely been
exposed to all kinds of lifestyles and cultures through various types of media, so being tolerant
and open-minded comes naturally to them.
Coming back to the Teletubbies article with the differentiation of generations values,
Jerry Falwell was evidently of an older generation where he was possibly taught to believe that
homosexuality was seen as strange or vile, so it is not surprising that he felt that Teletubbies was
somehow going to corrupt young children because of its apparent homosexual undertones. It
never made much sense to others that retaliated against his opinion because toddlers are not old

enough yet to comprehend chapter books, let alone the idea that two people of the same sex can
love each other. Even so, those children were at the time, and still are, a part of the younger
generation, meaning that if their parents were ever to have taught them that homosexuality is
wrong, they would grow up to eventually form their own opinions and think otherwise;
especially in thanks to the exposure of different cultures in media, as stated in the last paragraph.

References
Oberlin College LGBT Community History Project. (n.d.). Homosexuals as Mentally Ill (late
1950s/early 1960s). oberlinlgbt.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan 2016.
Role models: The Teletubbies? (n.d.)
Williams, R. (1961). The analysis of culture. In The Long Revolution (pp. 57-70). London:
Chatto & Windus.