Yearly Archives: 2012

A doll is a doll is a doll

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Melissa Silverstein, founder and editor of one of my favorite blogs Women and Hollywood is pissed off about the Katniss Everdeen Barbie doll. She hates Barbie.

Silverstein writes:

There are many Barbie fans in the world.  I am not one of them.  Yes, Barbie does have many aspirational dolls.  There even is President Barbie.  There is also TV newscaster; vet; Soccer player; doctor.  There is even an Angela Merkel Barbie doll.

But for every aspirational Barbie there is Ballerina Barbie; Barbie Tea Party Princess Doll; Barbie Royal Dress Up Doll; Beautiful Fairy Barbie Doll;  Princess Bride Doll; Beach Doll.

I hate Barbie too, and I get where Silverstein is coming from. I attended a conference of female architects when Architect Barbie came out and they all talked about how stupid looking she was. I couldn’t agree more. With her A line dress, ever present smile, and pink house, she looks like any other Barbie. She looks like she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing the white hard hat that sits at her feet.

I’ve also blogged about these idiotic “aspirational” Barbies that come with McDonald’s Happy Meals. All I see here are hair and smiles. I can’t tell these Barbies apart. Their “aspirations” also look like props.

Here’s Katniss Everdeen. Yesterday, I blogged about how much I like her.

Mattel could have put the Katniss doll in any of the dresses or outfits that Cinna, her stylist, made for her. One thing I loved about “The Hunger Games” movie was how well Jennifer Lawrence portrayed Katniss’s discomfort and awkwardness when traditional femininity was forced on her. Lawrence played this disconnect so well that when critics noticed it, they mislabeled her too fat to play the part.

Remember Mulan, the most feminist of the Disney princesses? In the movie, Mulan like Katniss, hated being dressed in ceremonial “princess” wear. Yet, almost every single Mulan doll, or image in a coloring book or on a T shirt or diaper, she is wearing the dress that she hated in the movie. And she’s smiling while wearing it.

One thing I love about the Katniss Barbie is that she is not smiling.

But Silverstein makes a great point: why should we be grateful that Katniss actually looks like Katniss?

It’s like when I complain about a LEGO minifig and people say, “At least its not a Bratz doll.”

So those are my choices?

I wish girls had many more options of brave and heroic females to play with. I wonder if Katniss has curled feet under those boots. But mostly, when I look at this doll, I’m thinking: What is she about to DO? That’s a great question to ask my three daughters. I’m grateful that she’s out there for all kids, boys included, to play with.

Here’s where I disagree with Silverstein. She writes:

“I hate that we need dolls for aspiration.”

But most kids use dolls for “aspiration,” that is imaginary play. If boys play with dolls we may call them something different: “LEGO minifigs” or “action figures” or “robots,” but a doll is a doll is a doll.

Dolls are tools that kids use to make up stories. Kids need tools to make up stories. I’ve seen my kids make up narratives using their fingers or sticks or cheerios, so those tools don’t absolutely have to be humanish, but it helps. It helps me, as a mom. I’ve complained to places like Pepperidge Farm about its male characters and sexist narratives: give me something more to work with, people. I’m creative, but help me out. Also, I’m better with a humanish tool than a finger or a stick. I know I can make up stories with this doll, exciting adventures. I know my kids can. She’s a tool I want. I’ll just call her an action figure.

Reel Girl’s kidlit picks of the week

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These are more like picks of the month, it’s been a while! But the good news is that I’ve been dying to write about these three books, and they are worth the wait.

Super Tool Lula by Michele Yulo is a hands-down, all out FABULOUS story about the superhero we’ve all been waiting for: Lula is strong, brave, compassionate and skilled. She’s passionate about carpentry, science, playing drums, and her dog. All characteristics and activities that are traditionally considered for boys. Lula whizzes around on her skateboard saving the day. I love this! I live in San Francisco and all the boys skateboard here. It’s one of the early ways that girls and boys separate.

Not only is Lula talented and smart, but she uses her gifts to rescue kids from being bullied and transforms the bully along the way. Every kid in school should read this book. Lula shows that it is brave to be kind. And in truth, courage is just what kids need to take the risk of being kind to each other when they witness someone getting picked on.

The moment I finished reading Lula, my three daughters made a beeline for the tool box. (Lula is a master at carpentry and uses magical tools to save kids.) I have seen this kind of influence happen many times after I read a book (I wrote about my five year old daughter finally trying to ride a two wheeler.)

Read your kids this book and then talk to them about what they’ve learned from it. The whole Super Tool Lula website is awesome. Visit it for more stories, cool T-shirts, and activities.

Reel Girl rates Super Tool Lula ***HHH***

Lola at the Library is a sweet book about a girl who loves to read.

Reading this book with your kids make them see going to the library as a special event. Not only that, if your kids need a little help in this area, Lola has amazing library etiquette. Before heading there, she puts all her borrowed books into her backpack and she remembers her library card; when she arrives, she stays in the children’s section. Maybe I should adopt this kid. This is a book for little ones, ages 2 – 6.

Reel Girl rates Lola at the Library ***HHH***

Angela’s Airplane is my favorite Robert Munsch book.

Sometimes I think his stories are too goofy or gross (Like Stinky Socks, though my kids love that one, too. Maybe I need to embrace the gross factor…) but Angela hits the perfect balance of absurdity and adventure. Angela goes to the airport with her dad, but then “a terrible thing happened: Angela’s father got lost.”

Angela wanders into an airplane and starts pushing buttons and ends up flying the plane. The part where she realizes she’s up in the air is suspenseful and exciting. Finally, Angela grabs the radio and calls for help. With direction, she lands the plane and is met on the ground by firetrucks, police, and her father who makes her promise never to fly another airplane. She keeps the promise for a long time, until she grows up to become a pilot.

Reel Girl rates Angela’s Airplane ***HHH****

Ashley Judd talks back to sexist media

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Ashley Judd has a great post up on the Daily Beast that she wrote in response to the media frenzy about her “puffy face.”

Here’s a quote from it I love:

That women are joining in the ongoing disassembling of my appearance is salient. Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it. This abnormal obsession with women’s faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times—I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly. We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.

A case in point is that this conversation was initially promulgated largely by women; a sad and disturbing fact.

This internalized sexism is exactly what I was writing about in my letter to Dara-Lynn Weiss, the mom who put her seven year old daughter on a diet. It’s also predominantly women who perform cliterodectomies on girls in countries that practice this brutal procedure.

Try to be aware of how you buy into sexism. Don’t think that you are immune. We all live in a world that privileges males and we are all affected by it. The first step is awareness. When you look back in history, it’s easy to wonder how could people ever believe slavery was okay or let the holocaust happen. But today, too many of us refuse to recognize, take action, or give money to help stop the discrimination against women and girls happening all over the world.

If you doubt how serious gender discrimination is RIGHT NOW please read Half the Sky by Sheryl WuDunn and Nicolas Kristof.

Katniss Everdeen action figure is here!

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I love this. She looks like Artemis, the Greek goddess.

Ok, technically this is a Barbie, but I’ve written quite a bit before how toys for girls and called “dolls” while toys for boys are called “action figures.” Part of the fun of blogs is that you make up your own damn headline, and obviously, this womangirl is all about action.

Just looking at this figure makes me want to make up stories. Katniss Everdeen personifies what Reel Girl is all about. We are stuck in the same old bullshit narratives and we recycle and recycle and recycle them through toys, images, movies, TV, books, advertisements, and art.

Here is something new, someone new. Or maybe she is someone ancient finally reborn. Let her inspire you. Make up some new stories, people! Or retell some long lost, forgotten ones. Too many of our kids are playing to a sexist script. Their imaginations are being colonized. Do what you can to protect you kids’ imaginations!

Shop to win, guest post by Margot Kramer Biehle

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Here’s a question I can’t wait for my daughter to hear:  “If you can’t celebrate finding a leopard print bag on sale at Kohl’s, what CAN you celebrate?”  I mean, really, what else is there?  Especially for someone as decorated and lauded as sensational athlete and gold medal soccer player Mia Hamm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xl5aP_fKBo  Kohl’s new “Shop to Win” campaign features Mia, Lindsey Vonn (Olympic gold medalist and world class skier) and Dara Torres (Olympic gold medalist and international swimmer), describing the intensity and thrill of competition. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAOSB3jtz7k&feature=relmfu  In the sport of… shopping.  In 31 seconds all of their hard work and successes have been cheapened.

Ladies, you have become conspirators in advertising’s new sexist low.  Girls around the world who worship these symbols of incredible sacrifice in making a dream come true can now shoot for the grand goal of:  scoring a killer deal shopping?  Is that the message they really want to send to younger girls?  And how does this campaign help their athlete sisters, fighting for recognition from men, when their message is effectively, “Thank God all that sporty stuff is done so we can get down to what we REALLY want to do – SHOP!” The ad campaign must have been conceived at Sterling Cooper Draper Price.   Right?

Wrong – Lindsey loves the campaign. Check out her interview with Bloomberg TV telling the interviewer Kohl’s fits with her image because, you know, we girls have GOALS when we shop and like to feel like we are WINNING!  http://mobile.bloomberg.com/video/88881222/  If you are still unconvinced that this is the real Lindsey Vonn, her explanation of sponsor choice reveals her true colors.   It’s not all about the money apparently–I mean, Red Bull provides a trainer and a massage therapist that travel with her, and Vail Resorts has a training camp named after her. And, y’know, like, that’s what matters.

Heaven help us when a smart real female role model comes along and says I like myself for who I am and screw anyone who wants to paint me into a dumb pretty girl corner.

See my post on SFGate about this campaign and the gender discrimination in endorsement options offered to male versus female athletes.

Tell Koh’s how you feel about its new ad campaign on its Facebook page.

Lawsuit against Belvedere Vodka consistent with its history of ‘comic’ date rape ads

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The Huffington Post reports that Belvedere Vodka (Moet Hennessy USA) is getting sued for stealing imagery for an ad from a video depicting a date rape.

The woman featured in a controversial Belvedere Vodka ad showing what many believe to be date-rape imagery is suing the boozemaker for emotional distress and unlicensed use of her image, KTLA reports.

Alicyn Packard, a voiceover actress in Los Angeles, said in the suit that the image of her was stolen from an on-line video that her company, Strictly Viral Productions, produced, according to KTLA. Interpreted by many as depicting a rape in progress, the ad features a man grabbing and fondling Packard from behind, as panic overtakes her face. The tagline reads, “Unlike Some People, Belvedere Always Goes Down Smoothly.”

The commercial sparked a severe viral backlash, with critics saying the ad made light of rape. Belevedere apologized and removed the ad from its Facebook page. But its parent company, Moet Hennessy USA, apparently has not reached out to Packard…

The ad was apparently a screen grab of a comedy sketch that Packard did in which her character is forced by her mother to reenact a childhood moment.

Turns out Belvdere’s promotion of “comic” date rape goes way back. When Belvedere isn’t stealing images of date rape, they’re making up their own. Here’s a repost of Rape or Menage a Trois with your Vodka? which I wrote about Belvedere’s creepy and horrible ad in 2010.

Check how similar the two photos are: both black and white with a man grinning demonically in the background while the woman in front seems both terrified and to be having a good time. Message: women enjoy being raped.

The Belvedere ad guys must have marveled at the likeness between the images as well. They were probably pretty psyched when they came across Packard’s video. Wonder how they found it?

Here’s my 2010 post:

She’s blind folded, her fingers curled in fear, teeth bared, she’s screaming. Just behind her lurks a man’s face, smiling demonically, a deadringer for Jack Nicholson’s grinning psycho-killer in “The Shining.”

The latest horror movie? No, a new ad for Belvedere vodka in Gourmet Magazine’s May pasta issue. There within the pages of recipes for orecchiette with cauliflower or pappardelle with lamb ragu, a rape scene. I count three penises in this ad. Can you find them?


The three erect penises in the Belvedere Vodka ad:

(1) the Belvedere Vodka bottle

(2) the garnish of two olives and swizzle stick

(3) the shadow on the woman’s arm and blue balls (ha ha)

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At Stride Rite, girls are pretty, boys are active

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You’ve got to read this post At Stride Rite, girls are pretty and boys are active by Rebecca Hains about how shoes are marketed to girls versus boys. Check out the photos. They are really amazing. Here’s just one:

Parents, you buy your kids shoes. You have the money. Do not cave into this. It is a big deal.

If you’ve been reading my M & Ms posts, the main physical difference between the hyper-sexualized females and the playful, funny males are shoes. The males get sneakers; they can move. The females get heels; then they straddle trees and pose for SI Sports Illustrated.

I saw the link to Hain’s shoe piece on three descriptors and other such nonsense. That blogger takes her daughter outside to play everyday. Totally admire that. I am going to try harder. As I told three descriptors, it’s easiest for me when my kids are quiet, reading or doing art, but every time I actually get myself outside, I love it. I live in California for God’s sake. And in the long run, it is better for me, too, to get them out because my kids are happier.

Thanks to all the mom bloggers for writing about this stuff and being aware. It’s the first step.

Reel Girl rates Stride Rite ***SSS*** for major stereotyping.