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: 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 [...]
Tags: age compression, fighting back, girlie girl culture, pink princess culture camd, premature sexualization
Posted May 3rd, 2012, in Recommendations, Recommendations Girls, Recommendations Grown-ups, Why I Wrote CAMD | 4 Comments
When we called people “plastic” back when I was a teenager, it was an insult. These days, apparently, not so much. Joe Kelly, over at The Dadman (an expert on how to father girls, as well as husband to Nancy Gruver, founder of New Moon Girls online community/magazine) sent me a press release discussing the 71% rise in chin implants in 2011, in large part driven by teen girls asking to have the procedure done…for prom. That’s right, 20, 680 surgical procedures at $3,500-$7,000 a pop were performed last year. There has also been a spike in “ear-pinning,” (for those up-dos) which Darrick Antell, a spokesman for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, informally called “Clark Gable Wings.” Antell told the Sunday Times: At proms in the past, teens would line up for photographs and face the camera. But the rise of more informal images, captured during video chats or by smartphones when they are [...]
Tags: CAMD, Disney, girlie girl culture, pink princess culture camd, princess culture
Posted April 24th, 2012, in Creepy Marketing, Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 27 Comments
The garden used to be a wholesome place where you could wrest your child away from the tentacles of licensed products, right? No more. the ever-brilliant Rebecca Hains has made me aware of Burpee’s new Disney Princess seeds (oh yes, that’s what I wrote). Needless to say, the ladies only grace flower packets—Mickey, Donald and the rest get vegetables because, as Rebecca notes, “princesses are meant to be gazed on; they are delicate beauties…” Too bad for boys who will now doubtless be expected to reject the flower patch. Meanwhile, Rebecca points out that while regular seeds cost about a buck a pack, The DP ones weigh in at $1.99. That’s quite the royalty tax Disney’s levying ! Then there’s the mark-up accompanying Disney Princess plant labels which cost a whopping $2.97 for 6 while the regular labels are a mere $1.99 for twenty. Rebecca concludes so beautifully [...]
Tags: fighting back, girlie girl culture, pink princess culture camd, princess culture
Posted April 24th, 2012, in Creepy Marketing, Recommendations, Recommendations Girls, Recommendations Grown-ups | 1 Comment
I’ve been off-line for two weeks which is like two centuries in social media time. Here are some of the things I’ve apparently missed. A reader sent me a photo of Kraft’s Girlz cheese. Beyond the gratuitous sexualization of dairy products…um, cheese pods???? This one is from the Abraham Lincoln Library and Museum: So, blue or gray for historical accuracy and pink….for girls? I would hate to have been wearing pink in a field of gray. Seriously, pink Confederate soldier caps? As a 7-year-old, my parents took me to Gettysburg. I happily popped my traditional Union blue soldier hat atop my favorite outfit: a red-and-white striped t-shirt (decorated with a jaunty, patriotic blue anchor), cut-off jean shorts and navy blue sneakers. If my scanner weren’t broken, I’d post a Kodak moment of my brothers and me decked out in our caps, dangling our legs over a cannon, waving Old Glory. [...]
Tags: fight fun with fun, fighting back, girlie girl culture, pink princess culture camd, premature sexualization, princess culture
Posted April 5th, 2012, in Boys and Girls, Creepy Marketing, Equal Parenting, Princesses, Why I Wrote CAMD | 39 Comments
I can’t get this new study on preschoolers and outdoor play out of my mind. Initially brought to my attention by KJ Dell’Antonia at Motherlode, it found that roughly half of parents of preschoolers did not take their children outside to play regularly–suggesting that those children are not getting the level of physical activity they need (see KJ’s post for important caveats). But here’s the kicker: parents were 16% more likely to take preschool boys outside than preschool girls. Why? Researchers theorized it was ingrained (and probably unconscious) stereotypes about how much exercise girls need. This sets the stage for sedentariness in adolescence and beyond. Which, I’m guessing, plays into distorted body image and unhealthy dieting. Great for the 60.9 billion dollar diet industry (with its 95% failure rate); not so great for girls. So you know I’m going to loop this back to the Princess Industrial Complex, right? Girls don’t seem to [...]
Tags: fighting back, girlie girl culture
Posted March 21st, 2012, in Creepy Marketing, Recommendations Girls, Recommendations Grown-ups, Why I Wrote CAMD | 4 Comments
Ah, the ironies of our media culture. First the film version of “The Lorax” commercialized anti-consumerism by pimping out its namesake to seventy corporate sponsors (including IHOP pancakes and Mazda cars). Now comes the deluge of “Hunger Games”-inspired products that are so contrary to the books’ message that they seem like a parody. Take the press release I received today: SAVING FACE in The Hunger Games – Best Beauty Solutions to Shed the ‘Tribute Tomboy’ Hi Peggy, Hope you’re doing well! In just two days the world will be watching as Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and the rest of their star-studded cast take center stage in The Hunger Games… so with all the hype surrounding the premiere, I figured you might enjoy this fun story idea! Fighting to the death doesn’t always end pretty (case in point, Glimmer’s notorious tracker jacker scene), but Katniss Everdeen made it look so easy, [...]
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