'I think sometimes we are overthinking things.

'You can find fault in anything if you read it and look hard enough,' Styris said.

'Obviously, it's implying that only males are thieves and I'm horrified by it.'Įarlier in the show AM host Melissa Chan-Green and fill-in newsreader Nicky Styris shared their views on the book as well. 'There are] huge gender stereotypes going on here with him being a male,' Bridge joked. 'And I have found that… the animal characters always seem to be blokes so I just change the name or I change the pronoun or I ask - we were talking about Donaldson's dairy - and I asked, 'Who owns Donaldson's Dairy? Is it Mr Donaldson or is it Mrs Donaldson?'ĪM host Ryan Bridge meanwhile joked that perhaps the Hairy Maclary books were actually sexist towards men because of their portrayal of Slinky Malinki the thieving cat. two little boys and I have made such a conscious effort to purchase books that have females as the main character because I want to try and get more diversity in the books,' she said. She said she reads Hairy Maclary to her sons almost every day but also makes a conscious effort to read more inclusive books as well. Revell agreed, saying there are a range of fantastic books out there that parents can add to their kids' libraries. 'My view on that, though, is let's not just dive into some of those wonderful books, let's just leave them as is but go forward with some real thinking around inclusivity.' Samarakone said the study raised some really interesting questions. It's a view backed by entrepreneur Nuwanthie Samarakone and The Period Place founder Danika Revell, who told AM on Tuesday they both love Hairy Maclary, but it's important to include more up-to-date books as well. Keep the classics but ensure that the bookshelves are diverse and reflect different ways of being and different ways of living,' she said. 'It's really important that children today see books that reflect today's world as well. Dr Helen Adam told Newshub while she's a big Lynley Dodd fan, Hairy Maclary doesn't reflect our more diverse culture in which attitudes to gender and cultural background have changed.

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