I was teaching a class not long ago on the sexualization of women in the media and how it impacts children and adolescents. While discussing how media’s pressure on girls to focus on their sexu...
As I was working with some tween girls to develop critical media literacy, we decided to make our own media to share our thoughts on sexualized media and marketing. I wanted to share one of the produ...
Ah, Mother’s Day. Some argue that it’s just a day created by marketers to get more sales while others see it as a sentimental favorite. Whatever your views, today is a great time to think about the b...
Last week I was in beautiful Malibu, California at the Pepperdine Lecture Series. I attended a talk by a colleague of mine, Brady Bryce, who talked about how to live in this increasingly connected wo...
“I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward....
If you read the review or information about the book Cinderella Ate my Daughter, you may be wondering, are princesses really that bad? Are they evil? Is it wrong to let my child play with anything pr...
From the Archives: A year ago, we talked about some consumer victories. This year, we could add the productive conversation between SPARK Summit and LEGO about their new Friends line and J.C. Penney ...
Image by davemc500hats via Flickr “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” — Dr. Seuss (The Lorax) As the mother of three childre...
I loved this thoughtful article about Katniss from Rebecca Hains, a media studies professor who writes about children and media. I have cross posted it with her gracious permission. Rebecca’s p...
My youngest daughter turned 8 years old this week. This means that she has moved into the world of tweens. Tween marketing is commonly focused on kids between the ages of 8-12 years, and it has becom...
When I was a college student in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, there were few women leaders on the campus of the religiously affiliated school that I attended. Rooted in a church system that was v...
This week-end, a longtime colleague and friend of my husband’s, Sue Ann Gibson, passed away after a being diagnosed last year with a brain tumor. Today, as we remember Sue Ann, I’m remind...
The Biggest Threat of Dara-Lynn Weiss and Vogue’s ‘7-Year-Old on a Diet’ – The Daily Beast. Some of you may have read the article in Vogue by Dara-Lynn Weiss about putting her 7-year-old daught...
I was listening to Jonathan Storment yesterday, and something that he said really caught my attention. He talked about how we can spend hours of our day, months of our lives, pursuing things that in ...
I have yet to see The Hunger Games movie, although I plan to soon. The release of the movie has a lot of parents asking, “Should I let my child read these books and see this movie?” So, I...
Cate Blanchett Goes Un-Photoshopped for Mag Cover – MSN Entertainment – Wonderwall. This goes along with the amazing MAC Cosmetics ad campaign featuring 90-year-old Iris Apfel, who design...
Candies is Girl Caught In the post linked below, Amy Jussel of Shaping Youth shows how New Moon Girls has come up with a virtual sticker, similar to those I advocated in the post Stick it To ‘...
Disney will be coming out with a new Princess, this one is younger and directed primarily at the pre-k audience. One has to ask, do we really need a new princess? The others aren’t enough? Taki...
After my last couple of posts about gender stereotypes forced on girls and boys, one of my readers, Phillip, made a great point. He said that the best way to help kids see that they can follow their ...
A few weeks ago, I was listening to my colleague, Randy Harris. He was talking about life, this strange and wonderful experience that we share. Randy said something that really struck me as I contemp...
Serge Gasore A few years ago, I had the privilege of meeting an international student who was attending the university where I teach. The first thing that many notice about Serge Gasore is his gentle...
Image via Wikipedia I’ve been talking a lot about promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields lately. Some of you may be wondering how that is related to fighting against the s...
Stem Cell Research Curriculum Field Testing (Photo credit: NWABR)
Born to Not Get Bullied – NYTimes.com. In this article Nickolas Kristof shares some insights into Lady Gaga’s new Born This Way Foundation. She has teamed up with top educators to promote...
New Moon Girls and Pigtail Pals have launched the Yes, I’m beautiful campaign to use media in a positive way to promote true beauty. Responding to a rash of media attention over teens and tween...
After my post from yesterday sharing some female superheroes, I thought you would like to hear about this film about American SuperHeroines and how they emerged, changed, and are still growing. I can...
On my Facebook page, one of the members of the community asked for recommendation for non-sexualized female superheroes. If you’re familiar with comic or even movie versions of female superhero...
In the wake of the YouTube “Am I Ugly” trend, with girls going on line to ask perfect strangers to weigh in on their value as measured by their physical appearance, I thought it was impor...
Check out the paper Media & Kids Daily for great stories about children and media issues. There’s something here for everyone! My favorite is the link to the ad gender remix applicat...
Check out this short film encouraging people to take back childhood, pushing companies that promote sexualized media, marketing, and products to stop sexualizing children. This is the kind of positiv...
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