This is the kind of thing that gives fodder to the far-right. And if they take issue with it, I couldn’t, in good conscience, argue against them. I refer to the Danish children’s television show called John Dillermand. In case you’ve not heard of the series, it’s a Claymation program whose main character, John Dillermand, has what appears to be a 20-foot-long penis, which he can use much like a monkey uses its prehensile tail.
Let me repeat that the show’s writers and producers have aimed this series at four- to eight-year-old children.
I have to admit, I’m really late in reacting to this bizarre and disgusting phenomenon. The show premiered on Danish TV back in January, and it’s been a huge hit with the four-to-eight-year-old Danish demographic it targets, and with older Danes as well. In the native tongue, Dillermand means “Penis Man.” Let me repeat that the show’s writers and producers have aimed this series at four- to eight-year-old children.
Yes, conservatives—and especially Christian conservatives—tend to overreact to progressive social endeavors. It drives me nuts that the folks I so long identified with resist positive progressivism, but there’ nothing positive about a TV show for kids featuring a man with a penis the length of a garden hose. Nor can I see why so many Danes find it amusing.
So far, I’ve seen no reactions to it on any conservative site, and I assume that’s because—even after seven months—the news about the show hasn’t reached them. But it will. And when it does, they will—perhaps justifiably—say, “See. This is the road liberals are headed down. We must fight the so-called progressives and their perversions.”
And then, instead of advocating for real, needed social change on issues like climate change and voting rights, liberals will have to waste valuable time defending themselves against charges of sexualizing innocent children.
If you call yourself a responsible progressive, I’d plead with you to be preemptive; speak out now against the John Dillermand TV show. Don’t wait until the far-right has made it a major talking point in the culture war.