Netflix recently canceled a children’s animated show featuring a non-binary bison who insists on using they/them pronouns.
“Ridley Jones” premiered in 2021 and just released its fifth and final season. The show is rated TV-Y, meaning it’s aimed at a very young audience, including children from ages 2-6. The series follows a girl named Ridley who lives in a magical museum with her mother and grandmother. She’s accompanied by her non-binary bison Fred who has two “dad mummies.”
Creator Chris Nee, a lesbian and mom, said of the series launch in 2021: “I am here to change the world. Or retire trying. I know what it is to be ‘othered’. My job is to show the world as I want it to be.”
People strongly reacted to episode 8 of season 5, “Herd Day.” This episode focuses on the non-binary bison discussing pronoun usage. Cyndi Lauper voices Fred’s grandmother.
Fred says, “My heart says that the way I feel most myself is to go by the name Fred. That’s because I’m nonbinary and Fred is the name that fits me best. And I also use ‘they’ and ‘them,’ because calling me a she or a he doesn’t feel right to me.” This inspires the little bison’s Grandma Dottie to apologize to Fred for using a previous name and pronouns.
Twitter erupted with reactions from accounts that accused the show of attempting to foist radical left-wing gender theory on preschoolers.
“Don’t tell me there is not an agenda. Netflix has done it again. This show is for preschoolers,” one user posted. “Bye Netflix.”
“An actual kid’s show on Netflix. They’re coming for your kids,” Libs of TikTok shared.
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An actual kid’s show on Netflix. They’re coming for your kids. pic.twitter.com/rN9GtxHK6E
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 16, 2023
Nee addressed the show’s cancellation last week.
“Doesn’t surprise me that Netflix has quietly dumped the first preschool show that has a non-binary character coming out,” Nee shared in a tweet on March 8.
“Oh and yes, this is the end of the series. They cancelled us after what they just put out. They threw all the specials, the xmas special (now?), the feature length special, the CYNDI LAUPER episode and just quietly slipped it onto the service. So this is it,” she continued.
In another tweet, Nee wrote, “…Show your kids. It’s on Netflix. It’s important. It’s a … roadmap for coming out but also for having someone else tell you they’ve changed their pronouns and/or name.”