Taking Girls Childhoods-one icon at a time

I was an 80's kid. This means neon colors, bad hairdos and most of all awesome cartoons. My cartoon icons were cute, sweet and lovable if they were young and could kick butt if they were older and that was OK by me. 

I was very excited to see a lot of yester-years coming back to cartoon land as my own kids would be able to enjoy them as I had before them- but wait something was seriously amiss- where was the demure dresses and sweet innocence I remembered from my youth?

I looked to little avail... Now I like these cartoons for the most part. They are still sweet with good morals and story lines and my kids like watching them and aren't trying to kill one another afterwards, which is always a bonus...but I miss the days when little girls looked like little girls.

A personal favorite, Rainbow Brite is supposed to be a six year old orphan named Wisp who saves the Color Kids and brings color and rainbows back to her world and Earth- in this new incarnation, Rainbow looks more like 16 and her dress looks like it is about to go flying. Still cute but not appropriate for the story line or little kids anymore, in my opinion.  

Strawberry Shortcake still looks young and in this guise at least still looks modest though slimming her down was unnecessary. She was made so mainstream looking really that I feel it took away from the cute raggedy-ness that made her a classic. All her friends are basic carbon copies of the same look as well no matter the ethnic background with just tiny hints to their ethnicity.

Now Cheetara, from Thundercats started off with a woman's figure, but as you can see with their reinvention they added way more cleavage, took away half her uniform, and made them hip huggers and cut away her waist into insane proportions. This new Cheetara is also supposed to be a teenager rather than a twenty-something from the older cartoon.

In a really weird transformation we go between species for our sexualization. My Little Ponies Friendship Is Magic, Equestrian Girls takes the carefree Ponies into a world where they are human- which of course means knee high boots, stomach showing tops, mini skirts or short shorts, and heels or thigh-highs... 

RIGHT.

Even Disney apparently felt the pressure to sex up their newest princess, Meridia, from the hit Brave. Taking her from a semi-good role model willing to stand up for herself to another, in my eyes, dolled up bimbo- something the character- humorously enough fought against in the movie like crazy.

Victoria Secret are targeting teens again

Victoria's Secret for Teens/Tweens

Since when is it OK for teens to even be at a Victoria Secret show, let alone be shelling out money for the sexy lingerie that the company provides? Apparently it is now since the company has an entire line out called PINK- though it states it is aimed at college girls, even an executive at the company stated that the core buyers of the line are teen girls because,

"When somebody’s 15 or 16 

years old, what do they want to be?" Chief Financial Officer 

Stuart Burgdoerfer said at a conference. "They want to be 

older, and they want to be cool like the girl in college, and 

that’s part of the magic of what we do at Pink."

 http://www.businessinsider.com/victorias-secret-markets-to-teenagers-2013-11#ixzz2lbR3ngaP

Some of the underclothes seen on the runway this year.

What girl teen OR tween wouldn't want these fun fashions? And therein lies the problem- Victoria Secret is selling sexy outfits to children- the fun, cute outfits are playful enough the balloons seems innocent and sweet- but its underwear people- and if its so adorable not only are they preying on the brand loyalty at an earlier and earlier age but should what amounts to kids be wearing such sexualized undergarments? I certainly don't think so!

But don't take my word for it lets look at some of the items they are selling right on their site. With this little gem you dont even have to wait for puberty to hit to enjoy lacy, sexy (read slutty) clothes.  The description reads:
No girl should be without a blingy bralette & matching v-string panty combo—all in pretty peek-a-boo lace. Ready to go in a pretty box.

Bling Bralette and Panties Gift set

UMMM Yeah my girl should, can and WILL be without v-string panties-thanks, and this is just the tip of the iceberg of sexualized items being purposely sold to younger and younger girls in fun colors and patterns. 

 View entire PINK collection HERE at the Victoria Secret's website.

Manly men sell

When companies want to sell something that isn't considered "manly" or "tough" the best way to do it is to put a tough spokesman behind the product as a way to make it more acceptable for a man to purchase. This tactic can be seen in many commercials and the latest, I have seen in this batch is Shaq selling men's lotion- something not manly at all.

Other instances of this tactic include Terry Crews in the infamous Old Spice commercials.

Even Chuck Norris has gotten into the commercial business- he is seen below in an advertisement for the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) World of Warcraft.

Other spokesmen for  WoW have been Mr. T and Ozzy Osbourne.

Edutainment - "Turn game time into brain time"

The edutainment industry is a booming business- from shows to toys to flashcards there is everything and anything out there to make babies and toddlers smarter in the parental market.

Beginning with the Baby Einstein Boom, products flooded the market to improve a baby's mental aptitude and abilities. Just plop Junior or Princess in front of the flashy puppets singing and showing famous art and musical compositions and they will be smarter. (not to mention mom will get five minutes of quiet without feeling like a "bad mom" because this is "good for them" right?)

After Baby Einstein came Brainy Baby and hundreds of other DVDs, toys, video games, and other items have flooded the marked preying on a parent's insecurities and want to make sure their kids have and are the best.

But there is no research to confirm the giant promises these companies are making to parents everywhere- in fact some early research is even showing that increased watching of these videos might stunt language and developmental skills rather than improve them. Though screen time in general is not recommended for children under two at all, these DVDs are being hawked to parents to babies barely out of the womb.

Have an older kiddo? A toddler need not worry there are plenty of edutainment opportunities for mom and dad to spend their money on. Game systems like Leapster and V-Flash advertise themselves as learning game systems- not all like the mindless gaming machines...right...

Then there are the gaming edutainment websites such as ABC Mouse, Funbrain.com, and BrainNook to name a few.

A multi-million dollar industry built on the idea that babies and toddlers are in need of higher education, rather than free play, fun and old fashioned pretend. 

Drop Dead Diva- Society's View of Women

Drop Dead Diva

Meet Deb- a "actress/model" in Hollywood whose dream job is a prize announcer on The Price Is Right. 

Her life is abruptly ended while putting on make-up for a modeling interview in traffic. Sent to the Heaven waiting station, she discovers her life hasn't really been good or bad and panicking she hits the large red return button thinking she will be returned to her old body back on Earth. 

Not so much, at the time of her return Jane- an overweight lawyer was dying and Deb got sent into Jane's Body instead. Now the once skinny, vapid model whose power and self worth came from her  perfect body and dreams of being a model/ actress are down the drain. 

Meet Jane- an overweight, overworked lawyer who cares nothing about her looks, social life or anything but her job. When she dies she is depressed and unhappy with her life. Though she is very smart and good at her job she is belittled by the other women in the office due to her weight.

So who has the most power here? Deb is now Jane and is struggling with being "ugly and fat".

In fact most of the first episodes are of her trying valiantly to "fix" this new body into her old one's shape. The new Jane has no memory of being Jane, of course, so is winging it as a lawyer and learning that without her looks to skate by she really is smart and can learn and do many things she never thought she could before her second chance.

I think that the show is very telling in that only when her physical "perfection" is taken away, that Deb is able to see the beauty and intelligence she has always had. It reminds me of the beauty and the beast tale where once the outside wasn't the main attraction the inner light could be seen. Mainstream media doesn't often promote this ideal and this show was a huge hit, I think because many people LIKED the idea of the skinny chick being forced to be the one she had always made fun of or at least had an uber fear of becoming.

The Mom Wars

BOTTLE VERSUS BREAST

CLOTH VERSUS DISPOSABLE

STAY AT HOME VERSUS BACK TO WORK

We have all heard of - and probably been (or will be at some point) a part of the mom wars; whether as the mom yourself, the husband/ significant other or the other person in the argument. In today's society, it seems like the media is pushing the separation of the moms out there as if having a unified force of women is a disaster waiting to happen- and i suppose it is.

Women of today are so busy trying to be the perfect mom and wife and woman that society keeps shoving down our throats that we have no time for ourselves let alone other women and valuable relationships, causes and cares.

Televisions earliest images of women were contented house wives and mothers. Women whose sole pleasures came from providing a life for her family. even when later the wife did work outside the home the husband and children always came first and the women were always perfectly coiffed with immaculate homes.

You never saw a toy out of place and a errant child was quickly turned around with a sound word or two. In todays media we see an entirely different view of motherhood- the battlefield. from even before one gets pregnant women are harked on about thee "vital" issues.

What will they eat? Wear? will you continue to work?
and I have been on both sides of all three arguments and the media plays a huge role in the animosity between loving mothers who all in the end only want whats best for their baby.

Why would the media care?

MONEY!
From the millions of books sold on how to do everything baby related to  talk shows, self help gurus and all around consumerism built around the my parenting is better than yours strategies the media is making a killing by making new moms feel like a failure no mature what choice they make.

From Scary to Slutty- Halloween Advertisements and the Media Monster

~Mean Girls

At younger and younger ages the idea of dressing in a slutty manner for Halloween is becoming the accepted norm. In movies and T.V. shows the idea of the slutty (insert something random here) costume has taken on a life of its own making everything from a pirate to a zombie into a sex symbol and selling that idea to a younger and younger audience every year.

~Idle Hands

We have all seen the movies where the teen girls are dressed in next to nothing are in "costume" and so its OK...not so much people! The girls in these movies are perpetuating the idea - along with the Halloween advertising and costuming websites that sell scraps of cloth and call them costumes that it is alright to look like a hooker waiting for her next John in the spirit of Good Fun...

~Night of the Demons 1988

Still most of these movies involve older teens at least- 15 or 16 and above- unfortunately the Costume industry doesn't feel the need to stay to even that low standard but insists on targeting not oly teens in slut-tacular hot messes but even younger audiences as well. 

This highly offensive ad was in the Spirit Halloween Store Tween Section. 

Some other truly terrifying costumes to make it onto their tween/teen pages are below. These are all available in 12/14 size- that's the size my 12 year old neighbor girl wears! My daughter will be in that size by next year and there is no way that any of these would pass the fingertips test- you remember ladies- if your fingertips didn't touch cloth it was too short? What happened to that here?

Swashbucklin Sass

Forest Bandit Tween

Blue Peacock Tween

None of these young (ahem) ladies can be more than 14 or 15 - at most.

And to really send the message home lets see what one little starlet is being for Halloween.

Noa Cyrus- Age 8

The media in both movies and advertising has sold teens for years on sexy costumes and now they are truly targeting our children as well.