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!
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.
Commenters keep saying she is only in adult spaces. Not true. Here she is at Party City in San Francisco. I first saw her here a couple weeks ago while shopping with my daughter for her birthday party. Yuk.
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)
And I am getting reports that it is deleting them. Please let me know if this is true. Post a link to my post, take a screen shot, and post the screen shot on Reel Girl. I am technically challenged and took a photo with my camera. THANK YOU
to show she’s naked? That’s what commenters are saying. What do you think? She’s holding her skin? This has got to be the worst ad campaign EVER. I have seriously lost my appetite for M & Ms. So gross. Yuk.
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.
Time Magazine is reporting that new research shows “preschool girls are 16% less likely than boys their age to be taken outside by their parents to play.”
This is a fascinating article and you should read it. It speaks a lot to parents expectations of their children. I really think that parents still have drastically different expectations for their daughters than sons.
How to change that? Try to be aware of how your expectations are gendered, even if you think they’re not. Try to be more open. For moms, that may mean going out of your comfort zone. Sign your daughter up for a class where someone else will challenge her in a way that maybe you can’t, in a way that she isn’t used to. Get excited about whatever that class/ skill is. Parenting is so challenging but be careful not reinforce stereotypical “feminine” qualities that are useful to you because they make your kid easy to parent. Get your daughter used to healthy risk taking, speaking out, using her body, and most importantly, trying new things. Be careful not to pigeonhole your kids: the smart one, the athletic one, the artsy one etc. Kids are changing, even their taste buds are constantly changing. Obviously, parents want to hep kids establish a strong identity but pigeonholing is limiting.
To anyone who thinks this S & M-M & M is outdated because it’s from a few years back:
Here is Ms. Brown on back cover of the 2012 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue:
To anyone who thinks that I just have a dirty mind and there’s nothing sexualized about M & Ms for God’s sake, here is how Sports Illustrated promotes the ad on its own Facebook page: Sports Illustrated Swimsuit: “Did you see the sexy Ms. Brown made the cover of the Swimsuit issue again!? Welllll, the back cover; Check her out.”
Keep in mind that Ms. Brown is the new female, that before her debut on TV during this year’s Superbowl, even Time Magazine called the animated M & M characters “male-centric.” Ms. Brown has since been called the feminist M & M (as opposed to the boy-crazy Ms. Green.) Brown wears glasses (that means she’s smart!) and tweets empowering messages about women’s issues.
So why is our token feminist character peeking out the window with kissy-lips waving a towel (implying she’d naked, I guess?) on the back cover of SI, so in full view of any kid whose parents have this magazine at home?
Why does M & Ms have to sexualize its female cartoon characters? Before Ms. Brown, there was only one female out of five; now there are 2 out of 6, and this is what M & Ms does to them? These cartoon characters appear in toys, games, and in full size at CVS and Party City stores.
Why are we allowing these stereotypes to sell sexism to kids in any available blank space? If M & Ms promoted racial stereotypes, there would outrage. Parents, this is not OK.
Please go to M & Ms Facebook page and tell the company to stop sexualizing females. As I posted earlier, the M &Ms marketing strategy is just as sick as using a cartoon camel to sell cigarettes to kids.
Update: I am getting comments that the M & M pictured above is actually Ms. Green, that green thing she’s waving? It’s her shell which she has stripped off and is waving to show that she’s naked. I have seriously lost my appetite for M & Ms. Gross. Thoughts?
Wow, so many commenters are upset that I described Cutlass Liz’s breasts as “beach ball” when clearly, her breasts are not large enough to beach balls. I was referring not to size but shape; they are ball-like. Perhaps baseballs would’ve been a better simile. Of course, my point here guys, is that in “Pirates!” one of the very few female characters in the movie is sexualized and that sucks for kids, especially girls, who go to see this movie.
Secondly, people keep writing that there are no female pirates in real life. I have answered this so many times before but here I go again: Who gives a shit? In the animated world, toys come to life, rats cook, and lions befriend warthogs. Why when it comes to gender roles do people suddenly become so dedicated to depicting a sexist “reality?”
Update: People are already sending me lists of female pirates in real life. Thank you! I think the commenters would still say the majority of pirates are male, therefore the majority of male pirates in the movie is accurate. To which I still say, who cares? Be creative, people! Isn’t that what you get paid for?
