Children’s Entertainment Meets Sexual Anatomy, Swedish Style

A dancing penis and vagina might not sound like suitable content for children’s entertainment, but tell that to Bacillakuten, a Swedish television program geared towards kids of ages 3 to 6. That’s right, this past Sunday’s show included a minute-long video showing an animated “snippan and snoppen” (children’s terms for such anatomy in Swedish).

swede vid

A rough translation of the song includes lines like:

“Snoppen and snippan are on our bodies.”

“Here comes the penis in full gallop.”

“The vagina is cool, you better believe it – even on an old lady. It’s located in an elegant place.”

And the goal was simply to make children more familiar with their bodies, the show’s producers say. But not everyone in the land of Absolut, ABBA, and IKEA approved of the broadcast, littering the network’s Facebook page with negative comments like “the song is deplorable and unacceptable for children.”

The video hit a few diaphragms on the Internet, too, Sweden’s Aftenbladet reported. Until Jan. 12, a day after the video was first uploaded, YouTube labeled it “inappropriate for some users,” and Google didn’t include that link in its search engine, either. The network successfully appealed both of those ratings, though.

And the episode of Bacillakuten wound up with positive response, too, its hosting network says. Sara Ohlsson, publishing manager and planning editor of Sweden’s Children’s Channel, said:

“Although we received some criticism, we are very, very happy today, because the impact of the video is awesome!”

Some reviews were mixed, though. For example, Aftenbladet columnist Alex Schulman said he liked the video, but not necessarily the fact that it showed “snoppen” in an upright position. Schulman said his young daughter quickly questioned “why is Willie standing up?”

Here’s the video:

I had a successful career actively working with at-risk youth, people struggling with poverty and unemployment, and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. In 2011, I made the decision to pursue my dreams and become a full-time writer. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.