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RSS FeedAt Least She’s Not Dead: “Brave” Mother’s Day Trailer
Here’s one for Mother’s Day. Interesting. Posting it fast, but hope to comment here–or perhaps in “old media” soon…. Your thoughts?
Archive for the Uncategorized Category
Pixar: Are you “Brave” Enough to Just LET YOUR FILM BE ABOUT A GIRL?
Pixar is all but putting up signs saying, ”EVEN THOUGH BRAVE IS ABOUT A GIRL BOYS AND MEN WILL LIKE IT! WE’VE GOT DICK AND BUTT AND FART AND VAGUELY HOMOPHOBIC JOKES! SEE?NO COOTIES HERE, GUYS, NO SIRREE! YOU CAN SEE THIS AND STILL BE A MAN!” What a bunch of cowards. This new trailer is clearly pandering to a male audience that may have qualms about a “princess” movie. Funny, yes, but I certainly don’t recall any equivalent assurances to women in campaigns for their previous twelve features, even when there were no female characters involved. Or was there a major aimed-at-the-ladies campaign before the original Toy Story that I missed? I thought not. I’ve blogged about Pixar’s atrocious record on female characters before (actually multiple times). And in Cinderella Ate My Daughter I wrote: I cannot help but feel, after waiting patiently–and sometimes not so patiently–through twelve genre-busting films about male [...]
Hillary Clinton: A Marked Woman
The Drudge Report gets, um, props for breaking the story of the week on Monday: it ran this picture of the Secretary of State, front and center without makeup. Forget about Chen Guancheng, this is a national shanda! As Erin Gloria Ryan at Jezebel wrote: I guess we’re all supposed to gasp and feel faint, to acknowledge that yes, Hillary Clinton is a real live human with monstrous, terrible flaws, and this is the pictorial proof of that. And now she should hang her head in shame and Matt Drudge wins, and he’s automatically King of America forever. Let’s set aside, for the moment, the fact that we should all look so good–and be so healthy–at 64 (which, for the record is still in a woman’s prime….). Watching that picture go viral, I recalled Deborah Tannen writing in the New York Times Magazine that no matter what women wear they are “marked.” That’s linguistics-speak for [...]
I’m on “Motherlode”
Hi all–I’m doing a stint on the New York Times‘ “Motherlode” blog this week. It would mean the world to me if you’d drop on by, give my posts a read and leave comments. First up: can there be a “good” divorce? How do you minimize the impact on the kids? As today goes on, we’ll also get into one of our favorite topics: Halloween costumes….. See you there! -Peggy
What’s the Difference Between A Disney Princess and a Prostitute?
You know, when I first wrote the article, “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” in the NY Times Magazine, I doubt anyone would have asked that question, let alone a male reviewer at the Times itself. But the sexualization/diva-fication/commodification of princess culture has subsequently become so extreme that now a lead sentence like that, which appeared in today’s NY Times, seems merely an in-the-know joke. It was proferred as part of a glowing account of a show by cabaret singer Lea Salonga at the Cafe Carlyle: What’s the difference between a Disney princess and a prostitute? Not much if you are Lea Salonga, the Filipino diva who joked last week about having played both types, as she opened her new cabaret show, “New York in June,” at the Cafe Carlyle. Ms. Salonga seemed fully aware that psychologically the line between one and the other isn’t all that clear anymore; nowadays little girls [...]
Is Miley Teaching Your Daughter How to Be a Woman?
Interesting new study in the Journal of Children and Media: Female pop singers have a huge influence on how girls think about their feminine identity and sexuality, particularly girls ages 9-11. Not surprising, I guess, but it’s worth noting that they report feeling “torn” between the “imperative” of “innocence and purity” vs “beauty and seduction.” They were working that conflict out in their bedrooms, with friends, in public and “especially on the school playground.” Thanks to Yalda Uhls for alerting me to this one.
Angry Little Girls
I am a huge Lela Lee fan. I have loved her work ever since it was called “Angry Little Asian Girl” and was about a very cute and seriously pissed off Asian. I am, if you recall, and Asian-by-marriage-and-motherhood so loved how Lee STOMPED the passive Asian female stereotype. In fact, I was actually featured in the PBS series, “Searching for Asian America” talking about Lee’s work. That’s me, the blonde, frizz-headed, pink-faced, big-nosed white woman in a film otherwise populated by adorable-and-angry Asians-by-birth. Anyway, She has been doing some excellent Fairy Tales for Angry Girls (not for children) lately, and has developed an hysterical character called Disenchanted Deborah. But my favorite was sent to me by my friend Yalda Uhls at UCLA’s Children’s Digital Media Center: I love it.
Hail to the Princess? I Think Not.
I love this T-shirt. I’ve been telling my t-shirt making friends they needed to make one like it. I was thinking: Forget Princess: Call me PRESIDENT, but this is good, too. You don’t have to get pink. It comes in green and “cinder” (whatever color that is) as well as white. My only complaint is the largest one is size 6. Why not bigger kid sizes? Why not ADULT sizes???? Thanks to Julie Wilson for sending me the link!
Culture Clash
Pamela Redmond Satran, from nameberry, wrote to me that she was at a grocery store in Virginia when she heard a little girl begging for “Princess Yogurt.” Her mother said there was no such thing, but guess what? Yoplait makes pink, strawberry Disney Princess yogurt cups for kids! So here you have two products that seem initially benign, even healthy, but in truth NEITHER of them is. Consider the nutritional info on yoplait. Yoplait lists a variety of percentages on its site–calcium, protein etc. Sounds good, right? Sounds like Disney saying princesses are a “developmentally appropriate way for girls to expand their imaginations.” But again: look beneath the surface and you’ll find out that the second ingredient is sugar. A 4 oz cup of yoplait princess yogurt has about the same amount of sugar as a 4 oz serving of Dryer’s Grand Vanilla Bean ice cream. Hey, does that make [...]
Slow on the Uptake
Okay, I just figured out the whole comments thing and now will respond when people leave them. Apologies for previous silence. Wasn’t for lack of love!