Today’s breakfast cereal shows female on the box, guess what she’s proud of?

A couple days ago, I blogged about how my kids love to read the cereal boxes while they eat breakfast and how the games and toys advertised are ridiculously male dominated.

Our current favorite cereal is Special K with red berries. It’s really good. And there’s a woman on the box! A superhero? A villain from Star Wars. Um, no. It’s a woman on a diet.

It is really driving me crazy that from cereal boxes to LEGO to card games to movies, we are bombarded 24/ 7 with these messages and images about gender. It sucks!

Reel Girl rates Special K ***SSS***

6 thoughts on “Today’s breakfast cereal shows female on the box, guess what she’s proud of?

  1. It especially frustrates me how this campaign operates under the guise of empowerment. By making it look like women are gaining “pizazz” or “glow” or “delight” (actually examples from their website), it seems like these women are taking charge of their lives and their happiness. But then the message “What will you gain when you lose?” clearly means that these women are only capable of having these things when their bodies meet the definitions of acceptability defined by someone else. It’s just so frustrating.

    • BalancingJane,

      I believe the exact wording is: “My success on the Special K challenge has given me a sense of pride I’VE NEVER FELT BEFORE.”

      This is just what I want my kids reading at breakfast.

      MM

  2. They should put Supergirl or Wonder Woman on the box! They may be fictional, but at least they stand for more than “Lookee! I’m insecure and need to lose some poundage!”

    Course, they’re usually drawn in a very unrealistic fashion, but so are the boys so I guess that’s fair.

  3. Jeezus H. Christ. It doesn’t help that the ad I get when clicking on WordPress depicts a super-skinny model from Lacoste…

    What’s the ratio of women to men in weight loss ad like 100 to 1?

  4. There just isn’t any up-side for showing a strong, capable woman.

    Have her save Steve Trevor’s life and then carry a message of peace from Themiscyra to Man’s World, then join the Justice League and stand up for truth, justice and the American Way…people end up complaining that she’s wearing shorts and showing her legs.

    Have her travel to the ends of the earth, raiding tombs, discovering relics, putting pieces together, and keeping them away from murdering madmen who want to bring about the end of the world…and you have to field a lot of complaints about her (pixelated) breasts being too big.

    If she does what you’re doing, taking an active interest in what kind of garbage is being peddled to her daughters, and does something about it, it seems everything is good until she dares to homeschool. And then the teachers’ unions will work overtime to destroy her so they can make an example out of her. Oh and if she’s Sarah Palin, marrying her high school sweetheart and actually making it work, standing up for causes she believes in, carrying a Downs’ Syndrome child to term…well. Just look out. Don’t even face the direction of the blast without eye protection.

    There’s a lot of heat and flak where anything female is concerned…the corporate interests are trying to play it safe. They’re always all about playing it safe. It isn’t about men-over-women, if it was then the bathroom cleaner and headache reliever commercials (where the hubby is using Brand X all the time) would look very different.

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