Penny the Polar Bear

Production

Penny the Polar Bear first appeared in the Peppa Pig episode Undersea Party, but it was not until the episode Families that viewers learned she has two mothers. That episode, which aired on Channel 5 on 6 September 2022, shows Penny drawing her family eating spaghetti. She explains, “I live with my mommy and my other mommy.

One mommy is a doctor and one mommy cooks spaghetti.” Her parents are known as Mummy Polar Bear and Doctor Polar Bear, a lesbian couple. The introduction of this same-sex parent family followed a 2019 Care2 petition by Beth G and Lacey K, which gathered nearly 24,000 signatures. After Families aired, Peppa Pig was featured in The Washington Post and began trending on X.

Reception

When Peppa Pig introduced Penny the Polar Bear and her two mothers, the episode drew comparisons to other children's shows that had featured same-sex relationships. Several news outlets likened it to the 2019 Arthur episode "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone," while The Washington Post also noted similar portrayals in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and Doc McStuffins, and compared the reaction to the controversy around the Lightyear lesbian kiss.

The BBC pointed out that Adventure Time and Steven Universe had also included same-sex couples. Robbie de Santos from Stonewall praised the episode, saying it gave meaningful representation to children with same-sex parents and called it fantastic. The Guardian highlighted that Peppa Pig had previously faced criticism for its nuclear family setup and gender stereotypes, as well as a complaint from the London Fire Brigade about using "fireman" instead of "firefighter."

PinkNews reported that before the petition, Norman Lamb had called for queer characters in shows like Peppa Pig, and noted that the series had touched on LGBTQ themes earlier with the song "Rainbow, Rainbow" from the album Peppa Pig My First Album. Heather Hogan of Autostraddle observed that introducing a lesbian character late in the show's run was unusual, since cartoons without queer characters in early seasons rarely add them later, and that Peppa Pig chose to confirm the character's identity within the show itself rather than through social media or interviews.

On the other side, Italian politician Federico Mollicone, a culture spokesperson for the Brothers of Italy, urged the broadcaster RAI not to air the episode, calling it gender indoctrination and politically correct, and asked, "Can't children just be children?" He also called for protecting the traditional family. In Russia, Alexander Khinshtein cited the episode as an example of LGBT propaganda during a speech criticizing LGBTQ media. Meanwhile, the American Family Association's One Million Moms circulated a petition asking Hasbro to focus on entertainment and family-friendly content instead of "pushing an agenda," claiming the episode "boldly glorified gay marriage."