July 8, 2012 No secret the 'world according to teen magazines' is abysmal for girls, and we've seen mega-stats, studies and fact sheets about the impact on tweens and teens, (KFF pdf here) but as the … [Read more...]
Mattel’s Manipulative Monster High Marketing Machine: Unkind.
June 15, 2012 by
June 15, 2012 Last year when I wrote about Mattel’s vampy campy Monster High dolls I purposely didn’t even name their brand, hoping it would quietly fizzle and bury itself in the outcry of parents … [Read more...]
Graduation, Prom, Pressure, Stress? Keeping Up With The Joneses
June 1, 2012 by 2 Comments
June 1, 2012 Personally, I don’t think 8th grade and ‘cocktail dress’ should be uttered in the same sentence, but alas, there are entire websites ratcheting up the ‘kids getting older younger’ (KGOY) … [Read more...]
Visa Spending Survey Invalidated: Stats Are Bogus, Yet No Retraction?
May 30, 2012 by 1 Comment
May 30, 2012 Before we ramp up with the next surge of ‘graduation spending’ stats or infographics citing what ‘media’ deem to be ‘credible sources’ without diving deeper into fact checking, I’d like … [Read more...]
Prom Spending Surges? Media Panics, Hype & Critical Thinking
May 19, 2012 by 7 Comments
May 15, 2015 Update! Great then/now retrospective in the New York Times that spans proms over 60 years, all the way up to current "promposal" shenanigans, spending surges and social media selfies! … [Read more...]
Public Health: DV Grammys, Too Short Of A Memory, Sexualization
February 29, 2012 by 16 Comments
Update Feb. 12, 2016 With the 2016 Grammys coming up this weekend, I wanted to add two posts by the author of The Achilles Effect and Boys, Sex & Media as a ponderable question about what we're … [Read more...]
Kids, Media & Intimacy: What’s Love Got to Do With It?
February 14, 2012 by 5 Comments
Update Feb. 13, 2018 Related research and an excellent NYT read on the need for "porn literacy" given that teens exposure to online porn sites is distorting their lens of peer social norming, healthy … [Read more...]
Miss Representation Sparks Change As a Film, As a Movement
February 4, 2012 by 4 Comments
Ready for Feb 3, 2013? Miss Rep will be at it again. Here is the new list of 2013 Twitter handles for advertisers, just use the #NotBuyingIt hashtag on Twitter to make a social media statement … [Read more...]
The Supermodels, Then and Now + A Chat With Janet Lansbury
February 1, 2012 by 3 Comments
Feb. 1, 2012 “25% of young women 18-34 would rather win America’s Next Top Model than the Nobel Peace Prize..." ..."And 23% would rather lose their ability to read than their figures” opens Lisa … [Read more...]
Lego Friends: Please Build on Possibility, Brain Plasticity
January 1, 2012 by 37 Comments
April 28, 2016 "37 year old son of Lego billionaire takes the helm as Vice Chairman" Congrats, Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, now that you've inherited the Lego legacy, and named your daughter and five … [Read more...]
It’s Veteran’s Day: If I Have To Tell You One More Time…
November 11, 2011 by 8 Comments
Nov. 11, 2011 As schools let out for the Friday Veteran’s Day holiday, I double-dog dare you to ask each child why they get the day off and submit the answers here for a positive parenting … [Read more...]
Kids Think A Blackberry Is A Device Not A Fruit? Eat Real.
October 24, 2011 by 3 Comments
Oct 24, 2012 Food Day 2012! On Twitter, follow #FoodDayConf with great tips on label lingo, decoding kids aisle food claims. In honor of the day, I'm reprising "Food for Thought: Media to Digest for … [Read more...]
Food Marketing to Kids: Occupy Wall Street Applies Here, Too
October 16, 2011 by 6 Comments
Oct. 16, 2011 It's Blog Action Day today which coincides with United Nations' World Food Day, so my contribution among 80 countries participating is about food policy, profiteering and public health. … [Read more...]
The Bro Code: Media, Masculinity & Misogynistic Misfires
September 29, 2011 by 19 Comments
Update Sept 3, 2015 From the maker of The Bro Code and Generation M, Thomas Keith announces his newest film trailer via Media Education Foundation titled, "The Empathy Gap: Masculinity and the Courage … [Read more...]
Storytelling Via Stickers: Girl-Caught Aims To Dial Down Disrespect
September 22, 2011 by 8 Comments
Sept. 22, 2011, Celebrating "Day of the Girl" Brands and broadcasters are always talking about “authentic engagement” and they’re about to get some. It all starts today, with New Moon Girls’ … [Read more...]
Deconstructing Spongebob, Pt2: A Preschool Parenting Lens
September 20, 2011 by 1 Comment
Sept. 20, 2011 In part one, the prelude to this post, I tried to frame the notion of critical thinking skills as a sphere to hold up to the light and rotate slowly instead of banging out opinions in … [Read more...]
Deconstructing Spongebob: Reasoning, Research, & Critical Thinking
September 19, 2011 by 6 Comments
Sept. 19, 2011 “So, Amy, whose side are you on with the pundits talking and the press reporting about the new University of Virginia Spongebob research?” Whaaaa? Sides? Really? That's cartoonish, … [Read more...]
Dear Media: Please Change Your Channel of Influence
September 12, 2011 by 27 Comments
Sept 12, 2011 After the ludicrous JCPenney toxic tee-shirt with a wink and nod to academic underachievement "I'm Too Pretty For Math, So My Brother Has To Do It For Me" and the fabulous rapid-reply … [Read more...]
The LAMP Shines Light on Media Literacy: NAMLE Recap
August 5, 2011 by 3 Comments
Aug. 5, 2011 In internet time, the couple of weeks that have passed since NAMLE (the Nat'l Assoc of Media Literacy Educators' conference) may SEEM like a virtual eternity or 'old news' as digital … [Read more...]
Redefining Beauty, Reclaiming Yourself: Backtalking Billboards!
July 29, 2011 by 20 Comments
July 29, 2011 Do you feel the rumble of the “I’m mad as hell and not gonna take it anymore” massive mindshifting among young women talking back to the ad industry and media machine? The “Take Back … [Read more...]
