The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has finally agreed to research how companies market PG-13 advertising to preschoolers and elementary-aged children.
The idea being that if your movie is PG-13 then you should not be marketing in Happy Meals, because those are generally purchased by small children. Nor should commercials run during television shows mean for pre-schoolers and elementary-aged children. Nor should they hand out movie paraphernalia in schools to primary kids.
Does this mean they shouldn’t be allowed to advertise?
Does this mean they should not be allowed to make their movie?
Does this mean they shouldn’t be allowed to market products in connection to their film?
Does this infringe on their free speech?
No, idiot.
It means, they should direct advertising and marketing afforts to those people for whom the film is age-appropriate, in this case, 13-year-olds and older.
More information about what the FTC has agreed to consider and how YOU can have a real impact on the FTC’s decisions visit Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.
I thought gender stereotyping was mostly nurture when I had my daughter. I was right. Until I had a son.
Given equal opportunities and equal access to both gender’s toys and games I have to concede:
Zack likes cars, trains, and balls far more than Ainsley does. He is more likely to build stuff with tinker toys and shoot me with his fingers. He can hear a train whistle 2 miles away and point it out. He will inspect tires on machinery.
However, he is also very likely to play dress up, play with babies and Barbies, enjoy cooking and pretend to be the next American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance contestant.
Ainsley’s far less flexible about gender roles and identity than he is. Though, she is seven and he is three and this may account for his willingness to cross gender lines. (Also the fact that we never say, “pink is for girls, boys don’t wear that, what are you gay?” probably has a lot to do with his freedom of play.) I’d love to preserve it in him and instill it more in her.
Ainsley really is more gifted in language, including arguing and negotiating. Zack tends to pretend I never spoke if I say something he doesn’t like, just like someone else I know.
Ainsley is also the natural and obvious leader if she is ever in a group setting with boys.
In fact, it’s so distinct, her natural role as leader, I wonder if the whole gender gap exists because girls felt compassion for boys and threw the game so boys wouldn’t feel so bad.
What observations about gender can you share from your house?
Look what I found on Julie Pippert’s Blog: Using My Words
My girls are girly girls. They like their dolls, their dresses, their creature comforts. My little one prefers bows in her hair.
But this has never, ever stopped them from reaching out to traditionally “boy” areas of play. One of my favorite photos is of my girls and a couple of friends in princess dress-up costumes paying with Tonka dump trucks outside.
In our backyard, we’re creating a natural habitat. We started with the pond and it has grown from there. We’re planting ecosystem- and fauna-friendly plants, and trying to make sure our backyard helps the plants and animals we share our space with. This gives our children ample opportunity to delve into the world of bugs, tadpoles to frogs, crawfish (yes!), snakes (yes!) and even some cute mammals such as bunnies, not to mention our bird families.
Overall, I’d say our kids are the normal amount of skeptical reluctance to new things, but their natural curiosity leads them to try anyway, which is our general family rule.
So when we got invited to a promotional party at Ridemakerz, I was a little put off by the big focus on boys, even though I understood why it was specifically reaching out to boys. Making a car sounded wicked cool to me, even better than stuffing some bear (although my kids are huge fans of Build-A-Bear).
This would be funny on Saturday Night Live or John Stewart.
As actual marketing targeted to children its disrespectful and inappropriate.
Parents can effectively fight this kind of nonsense. Write a protest letter to Nickolodean, Sponge Bob Square Pants and Burger King and tell them to stop sexualizing girls using cartoon characters, kid’s meals and butt rap. Click here.
Someone had to be the first to attempt to capitalize on our collective fascination with the First Daughters, and the Ty Corporation has that dubious honor.
Ty is responsible for the Beanie Baby craze and the questionable TyGirlz line of plush celebrity dolls.
Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia join a collection of dolls that include Lucky Lindsey, Bubbly Britney, and Precious Paris.
Following First Mother Michelle Obama’s disapproval along with public criticism, the dolls have already been “retired.”
A spokesperson for the Ty corporation insists that the dolls, despite being two of only three brown-skinned dolls in the collection (the third is Supercool Serena), are not based upon the youngest members of the first family. The dolls are named Sasha and Malia simply because the names are “so beautiful.” Yup. Apparently, we are supposed to buy that along with the dolls.
Michelle Obama’s spokesperson, Katie McCormick Lelyveld expressed the first lady’s sentiment in a statement that read “We feel it is inappropriate to use young, private citizens for marketing purposes.”
I couldn’t agree more. Is nothing sacred?
Others, like authors of Packaging Girlhood are upset that Ty inappropriately and unnecessarily sexualized the 7- and 10-year-old Obama daughters by making the dolls with breasts.
“TY has made two dolls, Sasha and Malia, to match their other dolls. They’re the same height, look very teen, and even have breasts. What’s going on here? And they surround them with butterflies and hearts… typical little girls, soon to be partying little teens?”
The authors of Body Impolitic, feel Sasha and Malia dolls could be a healing thing for black girls especially.
“They represent black dolls that all kinds of people will want to own–and that bit of doll magic can also be a good thing.”
Sasha and Malia are making a difficult transition from girls who earned a weekly allowance of $1 to overnight celebrities and fashion icons. When the girls appeared in CrewCuts outfits during the Inauguration of their father, viewers quickly turned to the J. Crew website hoping to buy coats identical to those seen on televisions around the world. J. Crew’s website crashed.
Michelle and Barack Obama have gone on record as saying that they will try to maintain a sense of normalcy for the girls.
In an interview with Barbara Walters, Michelle explained her conversation with White House housekeeping staff:”I said, ‘You know, we’re gonna have to set up some boundaries,’ ” she said. ” ‘Don’t make their beds. Make mine. But skip the kids’ – let ‘em make their own beds.’ They have to learn these things.”
Perhaps President and Mrs. Obama have the political muscle to bring stop Ty from mass marketing dolls of their daughters. But, for how long?
Americans are fascinated by Sasha and Malia, as they have been by other First Children.
How do we celebrate Sasha and Malia for who they are – two adorable little girls – without rewarding those who seek to inappropriately profit from them?
Leola Dublin is a third year doctoral student in the Program in American Studies at Washington State University. Leola’s interdisciplinary research examines the effects of mass media on identity development in adolescent girls, investigating the ways that gender, sexuality, race, and beauty are constructed and marketed. She is especially interested in the representations of African-American women’s bodies and the ways that young African-American girls negotiate these images as they attempt to define themselves. A native of North Carolina, Leola grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC. She is currently preparing to take her preliminary exams this spring, and hopes to successfully defend her dissertation by May 2010.
