God, gender and why Daddy Pig isn’t problematic

Stereotypical ideals of both motherhood and fatherhood can affect our view of God, too, says Chine McDonald

Over the past few months, I’ve had several speaking engagements around the themes of my new book, Unmasking Mary. The book explores representations of motherhood in theology and culture, particularly through Mary, the mother of Jesus. But I had not anticipated the number of times that I would be questioned about another representation of parenthood that people find problematic: Daddy Pig. 

For those unfamiliar, he is the father of children’s cartoon character Peppa Pig. Feckless and clumsy, he is often the butt of jokes, gets things wrong and thinks he’s fitter than he is. Mummy Pig, on the other hand, is pretty much perfect. And it is this contrast – and the assumed negative aspects of Daddy Pig’s character – that men in my audiences seem to have a problem with. When I speak of the need to break out of the perfect maternal ideals of motherhood that we are often presented with, they reply: “That’s all well and good, but what about Daddy Pig?” 

For these men, Daddy Pig is just as problematic as the one-dimensional, self-sacrificing, saccharine way that…