Denmark launches children's TV show about man with giant penis | Den... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/06/john-dillermand-denma...

Denmark

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Denmark launches children's TV show about man

with giant penis
Critics condemn idea of animated series about a man who cannot
control his penis, but others have backed it

Helen Russell in Jutland

Wed 6 Jan 2021 06.43 EST

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Denmark launches children's TV show about man with giant penis | Den... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/06/john-dillermand-denma...

John Dillermand has an extraordinary penis. So extraordinary, in fact, that it can

perform rescue operations, etch murals, hoist a flag and even steal ice-cream from
children.

The Danish equivalent of the BBC, DR, has a new animated series aimed at four- to
eight-year-olds about John Dillermand, the man with the world’s longest penis who
overcomes hardships and challenges with his record-breaking genitals.

Unsurprisingly, the series has provoked debate about what good children’s television
should – and should not – contain.

Since premiering on Saturday, opponents have condemned the

idea of a man who cannot control his penis. “Is this really the message we want to
send to children while we are in the middle of a huge #MeToo wave?” wrote the
Danish author Anne Lise Marstrand-Jørgensen.

The show comes just months after the TV presenter Sofie Linde kickstarted
Denmark’s #MeToo movement.

Christian Groes, an associate professor and gender researcher at Roskilde University,

said he believed the programme’s celebration of the power of male genitalia could
only set equality back. “It’s perpetuating the standard idea of a patriarchal society
and normalising ‘locker room culture’ … that’s been used to excuse a lot of bad
behaviour from men. It’s meant to be funny – so it’s seen as harmless. But it’s not.
And we’re teaching this to our kids.”

Erla Heinesen Højsted, a clinical psychologist who works with families and children,
said she believed the show’s opponents may be overthinking things. “John
Dillermand talks to children and shares their way of thinking – and kids do find
genitals funny,” she said.

“The show depicts a man who is impulsive and not always in control, who makes
mistakes – like kids do, but crucially, Dillermand always makes it right. He takes
responsibility for his actions. When a woman in the show tells him that he should
keep his penis in his pants, for instance, he listens. Which is nice. He is accountable.”

Højsted conceded the timing was poor and that a show about bodies might have
considered depicting “difference and diversity” beyond an oversized diller (Danish
slang for penis; dillermand literally means “penis-man”). “But this is categorically
not a show about sex,” she said. “To pretend it is projects adult ideas on it.”

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DR, the Danish public service broadcaster, has a reputation for pushing boundaries –
especially for children. Another stalwart of children’s scheduling is Onkel Reje, a
popular figure who curses, smokes a pipe and eschews baths – think Mr Tumble
meets Father Jack. A character in Gepetto News made conservatives bristle in 2012
when he revealed a love of cross-dressing. And Ultra Smider Tøjet (Ultra Strips
Down) caused outrage in 2020 for presenting children aged 11-13 with a panel of
nude adults, but, argues Højsted, such criticism was unjustified.

“What kind of culture are we creating for our children if it’s OK for them to see
‘perfect’ bodies on Instagram – enhanced, digitally or cosmetically – but not ‘real
bodies’?” she said.

DR responded to the latest criticism by saying it could just as easily have made a
programme “about a woman with no control over her vagina” and that the most
important thing was that children enjoyed John Dillermand.

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