Stereotypes & Diversity

Mattel’s Manipulative Monster High Marketing Machine: Unkind.

June 15, 2012 by Amy Jussel

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 tired of sexploitation, sassy, rude, mean behavioral cues sent to kids, blatant consumerism and vapid values.When Mattel tried to backpedal from the toxic messages in their webisodes … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Damaging Drek, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Misogyny & Racism, Product Placement, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity, Vapid Values Tagged With: anti-bullying, Bailey Shoemaker Richards, big media, brandwashed, brandwashing, Bratitude, Brattitude, Bratz, bullying, business ethics, Buyology, CCFC, childrens rights, Clawdeen, corporate accountability, corporate responsibility, crap detection 101, critical thinking, damaging toys, Daughters, Does Monster High Teach kindness?, Dr Jennifer Shewmaker, Emily-Anne Rigal, girls-self-worth, Goodwashing, halo effect, Hasbro, in-school marketing, kids media influence, Kind Campaign, Mattel, mean ghoul, mean girls, media mindfulness, media-literacy, Miss Representation, Monster High Dolls, Monster High's New Low, neuroscience of shopping, objectification, parenting girls, Peggy Orenstein, PigtailPals, preteen-health, preteen-self-esteem, Pro-social product placement, product propaganda, Pussycat Dolls, Sexed Up Toys, Sexualization, sexualized childhood, So Sexy So Soon, SPARK, spark change, spot the spin, targeting tweens, toxic cues to kids, tweens, unhealthy products, WalMart, worst toys

Sexism in Video Games: Tropes, Trolls and Terrific Upstanders

June 13, 2012 by Amy Jussel 4 Comments

Update YET AGAIN: Oct. 15, 2014 Reprising Anita Sarkeesian's important words, "The most radical thing you can do to support women online" given the cancellation of her Utah State University event slated for today due to "massacre shooting" terrorist threats impacting public safety at the school. Sheroes won't be silenced, and the upstanders and journalists helping explain with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Damaging Drek, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Misogyny & Racism, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity, Vapid Values, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: Anita Sarkeesian, anti-bullying, APA, Bailey Shoemaker Richards, benevolent sexism, bullying, Bystanders, Chell, female gamers, Feminist Frequency, GDC 2012, hate speech, Kickstarter, Lara Croft, media vitriol, misogyny, MMO, MMORPG, objectification, rape culture, Samus, school climate, SeX-Box Exposure to sexist video games, sexism, sexism in video game culture, sexism in video games, sexist attacks, sexualized violence, target women, The Bro Code, Tropes vs Women, Upstanders, video games, violence against women, violence and video games, women and media

Boys, Body Image and Sexualization: An Equal Opportunity Destroyer

June 5, 2012 by Amy Jussel 9 Comments

Aug. 8, 2016 Update More new research shows marketing is responsible for creating body image issues with boys, which I've written about here, and certainly here devoted to the impact of 'bigorexia' on children's health for a decade, so no surprise there. BBC News reports the survey was conducted by advertising think tank Credos...Ironically, this excellent NYT think piece … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Damaging Drek, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Misogyny & Racism, Nutrition & Wellness, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity Tagged With: Achilles Effect, Bailey Shoemaker Richards, Bigorexia, body dissatisfaction, boys and body image, boys steroid use, Buffed-Boys, Credos Think Tank, D'Angelo objectification, male eating disorders, manorexic, Media Smarts, Mens Health, Muscle dysmorphia, NEDA, obsessive workouts, Packaging-Boyhood, Proud2BMe.org, pursuit of perfection, race and class stereotypes, Sexualization, SPARK, spark a movement, SPARK! summit, summer abs, swimsuit ready, Taylor Lautner abs, teen boys, Twilight, what happens when men get treated like women

Miss Travel: Misrepresentation Way Beyond Arm Candy

April 26, 2012 by Amy Jussel 5 Comments

April 26, 2012 “If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck”… It doesn’t take much inductive reasoning to see Miss Travel is afoul. That said, using critical thinking skills to see why this new ‘dating site’ offering ‘free travel for attractive people’ (ahem, cough, prosti-travel) doesn’t pass the sniff test is a useful mini-lesson. Miss Travel is a teachable … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Damaging Drek, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Misogyny & Racism, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity, Vapid Values, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: Am I Ugly videos, Amy-Jussel, APA sexualization study, appearance cues, arm candy, Bailey Shoemaker Richards, beautiful people fly free, beauty myth, Beauty Redefined, commodification, dating sites, degradation, escort service, generous and attractive people, girl caught, girls-self-worth, golddiggers, hotties fly free, human trafficking, Media Education, Media Literacy Clearinghouse, Media-Influence-Kids, media-literacy, Miss Bimbo, Miss Travel, objectification, outrage baiting, profiteering, prosti-travel, self-objectification, self-worth, Sexualization, SPARK! summit, stop disrespecting women, Sugar daddy, Take Back Beauty, teen depression, The Illusionists

Public Health: DV Grammys, Too Short Of A Memory, Sexualization

February 29, 2012 by Amy Jussel 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 choosing to honor and award with media messaging and masculinity. Without vilifying an entire genre, specific artist, or lyrics lens (not interested in uncorking a censorship convo; … [Read more...]