Tags: fighting back
Posted May 15th, 2013, in Princesses, Recommendations, Recommendations Girls, Recommendations Grown-ups, Why I Wrote CAMD | 1 Comment
So many people have sent me links to Jamie Moore’s work. Moore is a photographer and mom to a 5-year-old girl, Emma. In response to the cultural omnivorousness of Disney Princess, she she began to think about: …all the REAL women for my daughter to know about and look up too, REAL women who without ever meeting Emma have changed her life for the better. My daughter wasn’t born into royalty, but she was born into a country where she can now vote, become a doctor, a pilot, an astronaut, or even President if she wants and that’s what REALLY matters. I wanted her to know the value of these amazing women who had gone against everything so she can now have everything. Gosh, that is so beautifully written, isn’t it? Anyway, she and Emma chose five of those women for Emma to dress up as to honor for her [...]
Tags: Disney, girlie girl culture, pink princess culture camd, premature sexualization, princess culture
Posted May 3rd, 2013, in Asian American Me, Creepy Marketing, Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 164 Comments
Update: The fabulous A Mighty Girl has put a petition up on Change.org asking Disney to keep Merida BRAVE. You can sign it here. So, I was about to commend Disney for doing something right. Yes, I was. The front page story in today’s New York Times reported that the company stopped production of branded merchandise in Bangladesh in March, after the last disaster there: a fire that killed 112 people. To wit: A Disney official told The New York Times on Wednesday that the company had sent a letter to thousands of licensees and vendors on March 4 setting out new rules for overseas production. Less than 1 percent of the factories used by Disney’s contractors are in Bangladesh, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The company’s efforts had accelerated because of the November fire at a factory that labor advocates asserted had made Disney apparel. [...]
Tags: Let kids be kids, pink princess culture camd, premature sexualization
Posted May 1st, 2013, in Boys and Girls, Creepy Marketing, Equal Parenting, Why I Wrote CAMD | 11 Comments
When I started my career, back in the mid-1980s, I was hired to be an editorial assistant at a certain top tier magazine in New York City. As part of the job interview I took a typing test. I was also informed that the guy I’d be working for had a reputation for groping his assistants. “Can you handle that?” I was asked. Not “If it happens report him.” Not “He is being brought up on charges.” Not even “We’re trying to deal with it and we’re sorry.” Just “Can you handle that?” WWAMD? I thought (That’s “What Would Ann Marie Do?“) Of course, I said yes. I worked for the guy for over a year and “handled it” by keeping six feet away from him at all times–believe me, I earned my $13,500 salary. (Note: I also worked for two amazing, generous, encouraging editors and mentors to whom I [...]
Tags: pink princess culture camd, premature sexualization
Posted April 23rd, 2013, in Creepy Marketing, Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 27 Comments
A note on this blog post: I have been discussing Candyland for years–since I got it for my own daughter. I also mention it in my talks. It is one of the best examples, along with the other toys linked below, of sexualization of toy culture. This particular post was inspired by a post on my facebook page from reader Lisa Marie Norton, whom I don’t personally know. In trying to write a quick post, I pulled photos from Google that were from Rachel Marie Stone’s blog. She and her followers have been unhappy with that and I apologize. I was sloppy. I don’t think of blogging the way I do my articles and books in terms of journalistic standards, mostly because it seems bloggers themselves don’t; it is a new world to me. At any rate, I hope the changes below will make amends. That said, please understand that my ideas are my [...]
Posted March 4th, 2013, in Creepy Marketing, Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 12 Comments
When I first started writing about the Disney Princesses, people assumed my beef was with the girl waiting around to be rescued by the handsome prince. But honestly? I don’t get that passive vibe from little girls playing princess or from the merchandise sold them. For instance: how often do you see a prince doll at Toys’R’Us? (Though, personally, I think Prince himself is a doll…). No, today’s princess is not about romance: it’s more about entitlement. I call it “girlz power” because when you see that “z” (as in Bratz, Moxie Girlz, Ty Girlz, Disney Girlz) you know you’ve got trouble. Girlz power sells self-absorption as the equivalent of self confidence and tells girls that female empowerment, identity, independence should be expressed through narcissism and commercialism. Think of it as the Kardashinization of girlhood (or maybe just the apocalypse): whether it’s craft kits, science kits, summer camps, birthday parties, dolls, games [...]
Posted December 1st, 2012, in Barbie, Creepy Marketing, Why I Wrote CAMD | 35 Comments
Move over Monster High, there’s a new semi-nude, spike-heeled, crazy skinny Sesame Streetwalker posing as a girl power icon in town: Winx Club dolls, based on the Nick series, Winx Club Good thing these fairies are magical, because if they were real women they’d have to keep their uteruses (uterii?) in their purses. As dolls, they make Barbie look like a before picture from ”The Biggest Loser.” Looking at pictures of these normal-sized little girls happily olding these pro-ana fairies makes me wince. I’ve seen the research that says girls now self-sexualize by age six. You can certainly see how that happens. The girls are so lovely and chubby and real. The dolls are so skinny and missel-pointy and freakish. They’d have a mom BEGGING for Barbie. Nick, can’t you do better?
Tags: girlie girl culture, pink princess culture camd
Posted August 5th, 2012, in Boys and Girls, Creepy Marketing, Why I Wrote CAMD | 4 Comments
Reader Jocelyn Conway Malone was strolling by the GAP the other day and noticed the difference between their back-to-school clothes marketing to girls and for boys. Feel free to tell the company how you feel about skinny jewel-box girls versus “active stretch””made-to-move” boys at the following address: custserv@gap.com (subject line: marketing & advertising) Girls: Boys:
Tags: age compression, CAMD, girlie girl culture, pink princess culture camd, premature sexualization
Posted August 2nd, 2012, in Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 31 Comments
So, while we’re on the topic of how the Disney Princesses–the brand that parents go to to stave off premature sexualization of their innocent girls–are changing, let’s take a look at Belle. Recall that the message of “Beauty and the Beast” is that true beauty comes from within (though you could also argue it teaches that if you hang out with an abusive guy long enough he turns into a prince…). Now let’s look at how Belle has changed since her debut in 1991. Here she is in the movie, just a girl and her book, singing, as one does: Here she is, also in the movie, in her iconic yellow gown, the one that has made countless preschool girls rip the necks of their t-shirts because “princesses don’t show their shoulders” (people tell me that all the time): Now here is the BRAND NEW BELLE circa 2012 from [...]
Tags: age compression, Disney, girlie girl culture, pink princess culture camd, premature sexualization
Posted August 1st, 2012, in Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 43 Comments
I’ve been writing and talking about how the princess culture morphs into the diva culture as girls get older, but the transformation works both ways. Over time, the Disney Princesses not only have become more focused on cosmetics than character, but their actual faces are increasingly influenced by pop culture divas. Take Cinderella. Here is what she looked like in 1950, in the original Disney film.: This is as a servant girl (a part of her character that has disappeared ENTIRELY, but which is the basis for her strength of character and the real reason we’re supposed to root for her…) And at the ball: Among the interesting things to note: her hair is not that blonde and her face is sort of regular-looking. Here she is in the post-2001 official Disney Princess era: blonder, blander, coyer, flirtier, more like a parody of the princess perhaps? Note how different [...]
Tags: age compression, girlie girl culture, pink princess culture camd
Posted June 4th, 2012, in Creepy Marketing, Why I Wrote CAMD | 12 Comments
In CAMD I talk about how today’s “girl power” substitutes self-obsession for self-confidence, tells girls that female independence, empowerment—identity—are expressed through materialism and narcissim. Here’s another example, sent to me by a friend in LA (yeah, but it’s not JUST LA), of how those ideas keep skewing ever younger. Art and yoga? FABULOUS!!! But not when the sole focus of that “mindfulness,” “creativity,” and “empowerment” is fashion, hair and makeup. Consider this one in context of the growing number of spa science kits and the girlie “creative” craft kits….(colors of the type are from the ad) GIRL POWER Art & Yoga Camp for girls aged 5 to 12 Give the special girl in your life a week of creativity, mindfulness, friendship & joy featuring Laura Fuller of Yoga in Mar Vista! Camp will be held at Pamper & Play on Westwood Boulevard, just a few blocks up from Westside Pavilion, June [...]
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