Packaging Girlhood

GRRRR!animals Fighting obesity with stereotypes and violence!

Where do we start with this one? Well, let's just say that this one brought us out of hiding. We haven't posted since March. What a stunningly bad idea! The GYMANIMALS web site starts with an annoying song and goes on to create cartoon characters/animals to teach kids about health and fitness. Yes, children need to eat more nutritious meals and exercise more, but there are so many misguided and ignorant messages here we don't know where to start. First, it’s not exactly their (kids') responsibility. It’s OUR responsibility to create schools that offer healthy meals and don’t take bribes from soda companies to place machines in the lunchrooms. It’s OUR responsibility to teach healthy eating at home. So, what does this have to do with gender and packaging girlhood and boyhood? Well, take a look at the animals. Of course, the doctor, Dr. Smart, is male. Then we meet Leon the Lion who is the “fearless leader” and whose favorite exercise is bicep curls. His weapon of choice is dumbbells. This is wrong on so many levels. First, why do young boys need to “fight” obesity with “weapons” or with free weights, for that matter? Why is the leader a guy always? And why do these people think that doing bicep curls will combat childhood obesity? Let’s get kids into gyms lifting weights? What fun! A whole lot of calories burned there! And think of all the team work they're learning about! Instead, why don't they promote safe playgrounds and outdoor sports? Then comes Gina the Giraffe who is a gymnast. A gymnast? Didn’t these folks read any of the literature on how gymnastics puts pretty little girls in tiny little boxes of bodies to fit into their specializations? And Gina's weapon? A heavy ball? What does that have to do with gymnastics? And why is she wearing pink? Petey the Prizefighting Primate? His sport is boxing and his weapon is gloves? He’s the “toughest”? Of course, because he’s a boy he has to be tough, but is boxing a great sport to teach kids in order to keep fit? And Rip the Rockin Rhino is yet another person who keeps fit by going to the gym. He’s the strongest member (because he’s a boy of course) and his favorite exercise is dead lifting. Who in the world recommends dead lifting to kids in order to keep them fit? THEN we get the baddies – there’s a green blob called O-Bee-Sity that the good guys and one pink gymnast are going to fight so that he doesn’t turn children into big fatty blobs. Yes, they use language like that! The other bad guys are Phat Cells, Germ the Worm, Couch Potato and....wait for it. Following stereotypical practice, they need to have one female character among the baddies and who can this be? Anna-Rexia who “infects little girls with eating disorders.” And she “despises the Gymanimals”. Now that’s strange… many girls with anorexia LOVE the gym, lifting weights, obsessing about muscle vs. fat. I would think they’d all get along as girls who are counting calories work themselves to death at lonely gyms. But seriously, who are the creators of this madness and what were they thinking???? "The Gymanimals will forever be how our children identify the topic of good physical health and nutrition…" so they write. OH GOD NO!

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

In 2008, the District Attorney of Wyoming County in Pennsylvania presented 16 teens – 3 boys and 13 girls -- suspected of “sexting” with a choice: either attend a 5 week, 10-hour education program designed by the District Attorney or face felony child pornography charges. Not much of a choice: if charged and convicted the teens faced a possible seven-year sentence and a felony record. They would also have to register as sex offenders for 10 years and have their names and photos posted on the state’s sex-offender website. Still, three girls refused the “voluntary education course” and instead, with the support of their parents and the ACLU, obtained a preliminary injunction barring prosecution under state child-porn laws. On March 17, 2010 the appellate court upheld the preliminary injunction, accusing prosecutors of violating the civil rights of the teens. 

What had these girls done? A 12- and 13-year-old posed for pictures in their underwear at a slumber party; one was speaking on the phone, the other making a peace sign. The third girl, 14, appeared in a photo emerging from the shower wrapped in a towel, just below her breasts. There was no evidence that the girls had ever transmitted the photos; they were discovered when male students were caught trading the images over their cell phones. While both boys and girls were threatened and pressed to undergo education, only the girls were required to learn about sexual self-respect.

If you’re tuned into youth culture, it’s impossible to miss the hysteria around sexting. Research conducted by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy revealed that 20 per cent of teens in the U.S. say they have sent or posted lewd photos or video of themselves. Given that one picture can make its way far and wide in minutes, it’s likely that most of this 20% represent those forwarding or receiving photos, not posting them. But just as with previous reports of rainbow bracelets and oral sex, there’s a Press Gone Wild reaction to sexting, almost always blaming girls for their “stupid” acts. 

Outside the Pennsylvania appeals court, MaryJo Miller, the mother of one of the 12 year olds, said that when she saw the pictures of the slumber party, she thought the girls were "goofballs.” Her daughter was wearing a training bra. “You are going to see more provocative photos in a Victoria's Secret catalog." That’s an understatement. Quick to judge, rarely do the press, police, or school officials make reference to the obvious: the normalizing of sexual voyeurism and sex camming in media. Whether it’s expendable babes baring it all for celebrity on Entourage, Heroes character Tracy Strauss supporting herself and her young child by stripping online, or America’s Next Top Model contestants posing in sexually provocative ways for the camera, the message to girls watching is always, if you need or want something badly enough, you should be willing to sex it up for public consumption. In the VH1 reality show For the Love of Ray J, for instance, girls with nicknames like Cocktail, Chardonnay, and Danger will do anything to be chosen. In what sounds like a middle school dating game, in one episode Ray J asks the girls “to pretend I’m out of town and you have to keep me interested.” Of course the girls do everything from a strip tease to sexy raps to making a “human banana split” -- even Ray J is so shocked by that one that he can’t stay in his seat to watch. 

One newspaper excitedly reports that teens are on to the legal risks of posting photos, and so they’re taking shots of body parts or being careful not to include their faces. Who really knows how many teen girls are this hell-bent on public nudity, but no doubt American Apparel had liability in mind when they developed their recent “best bottoms” contest. Looking for the new "face" of AA, they invited girls (18+, but really, who’s checking?) to upload a “close-up photo” of their ass-ets to the website. I don't know about you, but I’m on the edge of my own perfectly adequate seat waiting to find out which porn-inspired fav will win -- Boom Boom, Luba, bOOtAAyliCiOus, or Cherry. 

We can complain about the perfectly sexy angels in Victoria’s Secret Love Your Body ad campaign (please!), but there’s something particularly icky about American Apparel’s use of ordinary women in it’s ads, producing low-brow Polaroid-like pictures with a back room naughty feel that normalizes the acts teen girls are now threatened with arrest for imitating. Diesel Jeans adds their spin by capitalizing on adolescent rebellion. “Stupid” is crazy, fun, risk-taking! Smart is “the crusher of possibilities.” For girls, there’s just one way to prove you’ve got the balls to be stupid: show us your boobs! 

Teen girls are comparatively measured in their response to sexting. When a blogger on Jezebel.com asked about this issue, girls were more likely to say it wasn’t something they’d seen or experienced personally. They sounded more thoughtful about the causes and more understanding about the outcomes than anything reported in the news. The real story, they say, is the unintended consequences of an impulsive act; the real concern is that girls are more likely to be judged, vilified and threatened with prosecution. As one girl said of the threats to girls like those in the Pennsylvania lawsuit, “it's hard to get my head around the fact that you’re making the victim the criminal.” Pretty smart.

Written by Lyn for The Feminist Psychologist, the APA Psychology of Women newsletter. 

Homeless Gwen: The Economy Hits American Girl

As we wrote in Packaging Girlhood, American Girl dolls, in their original form, did a fine job teaching girls that they too were and are a part of American history. Now it looks as if AG aims to teach girls that they too are a part of the new economic downslide. To do this, they've introduced a homeless doll. Unlike the Cabbage Patch dolls of old that children could adopt and whose lives could be improved with their love, Gwen Thompson comes with her own story of grief and, alas, her own homeless "style." Hey, nothing says homeless more than a sweet white dress with a pink sash and matching flip flops. Ooh, and that cute hair style! Buy her and you can forget homelessness — just mix and match her with the other cool expensive outfits and she fits right in!

In one sense we love that AG offers a collection of dolls with normal bodies and stories of hardship and strength that better reflect the real lives of girls. Take that Bratz girls and Barbie! But could this be any  more disingenuous? Who is this doll for and with a $95 price tag, what will it convey to the girls buying about the plight of homeless girls? Of course this isn't their own money they're spending. Let's leave girls out of this. But Mattel? Get a conscience! This brazen co-opting of the hard luck stories of girls around America in order to make a buck -- horrifying. It’s especially brazen not to offer a penny of this to help better the lives of real girls. How about giving a healthy percentage of proceeds to homeless shelter daycares that enable children to be taken care of while their parents look for work and housing? 

What can parents do? Write to Mattel/AG and ask that they (not their customers) set up a fund to benefit real girls and their parents in homeless shelters.

Check out Shaping Youth's response to our post and when you're done let Mattel know they need to give back not just rake it in!

Robert A. Eckert
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
Mattel, Inc.
333 Continental Boulevard
El Segundo, CA 90245-5012

Why Marry George Harrison When You Can Be Him?

When I (Sharon) was in third grade and the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show, I was smitten, and so was my best friend Heidi. Our daily game of "house" featured us as housewives of the Beatles. She was Paul's wife and I was George's. (How were we to know that John was going to be the genius of the group?) The scenes we enacted came straight from sit-coms as we put too much laundry detergent in the washer or burned George and Paul's breakfast. But by 7th grade, a change had come, in the Beatles and for girls and women in the United States. When we played "Beatles" we no longer were their wives, we WERE the Beatles. My friends, twin sisters Abbie and Carol, were John and Paul, my friend Linda was Ringo, and I stuck with my beloved George, but I didn't have to iron his Nehru jacket -- I wore it. Now with the release of the new The Beatles: Rock Band video game, boys and girls can follow our 7th grade lead. But where are the girls like us? Every over-hyped news story interviews boys and grown men as if they are the only ones who might love the Beatles, and as if they are the only ones who want to grow up to be rock stars, drummers, guitarists, lyricists -- musicians. Every little girl I know and have known has loved the Beatles at some time in their lives, but they're being shut out by a media that only knows stereotypes. Sure, Guitar Hero, the first of this series of be-the-musician-without-taking-lessons games, has been a must-have for boys all over. And sure, girls have been slower to purchase new technology when it comes to video games; but marketers and the media, in going with stereotypes, are missing a huge market. And in so doing they are reconfirming age old stereotypes that boys are rockers but girls play the piano, boys pick up an instrument and just play but girls take lessons, and boys improvise but girls read music. The beauty of rock and roll for boys, and for girls, is that it often happens spontaneously and without parental input. Kids often simply pick up an instrument, call up some friends, and start a band. They don't need their parents, or lessons, or music, or a middle school band instructor telling them to Practice Practice Practice. They just need a garage or rec room or bedroom and some hand me down instruments. What confidence they have to do this! What independence! It's the kind of motivation we'd like all our kids to have. But why is this sport "boys only"? No doubt the players face throngs of screaming and fainting pre-teen girls, forgetting how many boys also were fans. Stereotypes mean that players and fans will divide neatly down gendered lines. It’s too late to change the media response to this new game. But the next time we should be aware of the way marketers and media take away from girls and women what’s rightfully theirs, Girls and women shouldn’t be forced to cry “me too!” while our guitars gently weep.

How Cute! A Pole Dancing Doll For Your Little One!

Thanks to Vanessa over at Feministing for alerting us to this one. We wrote about the pink pole dancing kit "mistakenly" put in the girls' section of a London toy department. There's no mistaking this Tiny Dancer's blinking lights, disco ball, and pole -- it's clearly targeting little girls. But before we all start blogging up a storm, let's figure out if this is a hoax, who makes the doll, if it's for real, and whether or not it's sold as a toy or in toy stores. If we can't, let's stick with the reality that's scary enough (see Miley Cyrus post) and remember that it's not just one toy or one show, but the accumulation of these images that little girls see over time.

An Apology -- Now That's Edgy...and Refreshing

After writing to The Maine Edge about their latest cover (see last entry), and with the help of our friends at Hardy Girls Healthy Women and you, we've received an apology from Producer Michael Fern. We understand from others that Mr. Fern responded personally to everyone who wrote in to complain about the cover, addressing a variety of concerns.

After explaining how the image made it's way to the cover, Mr. Fern writes: "We do appreciate your feedback and take responsibility for our work accordingly - we certainly missed the boat on this one. I apologize for that and assure you we will show more due diligence for our future covers and story presentations. As a reader you deserve that from us, and I hope you'll forgive us for this error."

Mr. Fern tells us that the cover has been a teachable moment for his staff. "As part of the community and social fabric, we have a responsibility to do better."

In addition, the offensive photo has been taken down from The Maine Edge's online magazine site.

Thanks for the apology and the follow through, Michael Fern. Truly refreshing -- like a milkshake on a hot summer's day!

Selling Out Teen Girls: The Maine Edge Goes Over The Edge

If there’s any question about the increased sexualization of girls and general pornification of the culture, check out the cover of The Maine Edge, a publication out of Bangor Maine that seems so desperate to be “fresh and edgy” that they’ll sell out your daughter and mine for viewers. The current issue’s cover has a young teen girl in a bikini straddling a milkshake. Everything is suggestive about this image — her body position, the location of the whipped cream and the straw, the red cherries, the “Milkshakes aren’t just for kids any more. Beat the heat with a grown up treat” title of the article, and the online sidebar “Inquisition Survey” that makes it all so clear: Does your milkshake bring all the boys to the yard? Possible answers? Yes. No. Um...what?

More like “Um...what are the editors at The Maine Edge thinking? Why does edgy have to mean sexing up young girls? How “fresh” is a lame reference to a dated and cheesy rap song (Kelis’ 2007 song “Milkshake”) about breasts? Want to be really creative? Try putting your heads together and coming up with something clever and smart that doesn’t make teen girls into sex objects. These days using pornified images of girls to sell products is as common and lazy as it is offensive.

Tell the Maine Edge to use their imagination!

[email protected]

or contact:

Michael Fern
Publisher Edge Media Group
PO Box 2639 Bangor, ME 04402-2639
Phone: 207.942.2901
Fax: 207.942.5602

And The Teen Choice Award Winner Is? Pole Dancing?!

Nothing more to say.

Miley's "all grown up" -- again!

No she’s “not a kid anymore,” but didn’t we know that after the racy Vanity Fair photo last year? How about after those sketchy bra-showing facebook pix? The black leather porn pose for an upcoming film? This time, though, there are no I didn’t knows or I’m so embarrassed, or you people have dirty minds sort of comments. Nope, the “I’m not a preteen, I just play one on TV” star of Hannah Montana is sixteen and full on sexy in the July issue of Elle. We actually don’t have anything against Miley. We’re just so sick and tired of beloved pop stars “growing up” this way and only this way. Where are the pictures of her as a smart, creative, interesting young woman? Nope, it’s fashion, sex, fashion, and sex. If the message wasn’t so awful and the impact on girls so big, we’d yawn.

Hey Pixar, We Want A Girl LEAD Character!

We so loved Linda Holmes' letter to Pixar, we decided to support her with a petition. Here it is:

Dear Dr. Catmull and Mr. Iger,

We read Linda Holmes’s wonderful letter to Pixar (link below) asking you to create a feature film with a girl or women as the main character. We’ve had enough of Disney princesses with doe eyes and Barbie doll bodies. We love your inventive, brilliant movies. We know you have it in you. We loved feisty Princess Atta in A Bug’s Life and Shrek’s Princess Fiona was our kind of girl, but the stories weren’t theirs to tell, nor the journeys theirs to take. We want a female LEAD character, a nonprincess LEAD character who is complex and interesting. While you’re at it, could you give her a passion for something other than fashion and shopping, and how about a realistic body type? Girls are 25% of characters in animated films and 52% of the population. Research tells us boys care less about gender than interesting characters. They’ll watch if she’s cool enough. Come on, give us just one. If you make it, we will come to the theaters in droves. Promise!

Sincerely,

Your concerned customers

Linda Holmes letter

Sign this petition