“Bring Your Baby to Life With Your Wii Remote?”

Nov. 2, 2009 Not sure which part of this creeps me out more, the fact that 21st century baby dolls have a Wiimote crammed up the wazoo to ‘bring the baby to life’ as a Wii system accessory, the passive pink gender cues for girls and total absence of boys as video parenting poppas, or the product picture being a dead-ringer look alike of my own offspring at that age. Ewww all … [Read more...]

Halloween Beyond the Cliché: Packaging Boyhood Part Two

Oct. 7, 2014 Update I realize I've been 'deconstructing' Halloween for years with pushback on the societal sexploitation of girls as we fiercely try to "Take Back Halloween" by mythbusting "market demand"...But the little boys' lens of how some of the girls costumes land on them is one to watch too, instilling critical thinking early on...in this case, two posts by SheKnows.com … [Read more...]

Packaging Boyhood: What About BOYS Halloween Costumes?

Oct. 25, 2016 Update: Given that media is slowly giving more coverage to the impact of body image on boys, including wee ones as young as six years old being 'fat-shamed' and toddlers even at age three, it seems sites from WebMD to health platforms are finally beginning to 'get it' that boys are being impacted with buffed boy cues and puffy superhero abs too! Choosing a … [Read more...]

What About the Boys? ‘Packaging Boyhood’ Authors Respond

Oct. 12, 2009 Tomorrow Shaping Youth advisors and authors of Packaging Boyhood launch their sequel book to my favorite media literacy teaching tool on the 'pink think' stereotypes front, Packaging Girlhood. For years I've been asking the 'what about the boys' question in my work, because frankly, boys are getting just as hammered with negative cues about what 'real men' … [Read more...]

Attention KMart Shoppers: Dating Violence on Aisle3

Oct. 11, 2009 This morning I was in a Sunday reflective sprawl, dogs piled atop the bed, newspaper everywhere, family away, foggy S.F. Bay keeping me nuzzled into my comforter, when I checked in on my laptop and almost spewed my coffee seeing this shirt. Our Shaping Youth advisors at Packaging Boyhood.com are launching their new book in 48 hours on saving our sons from … [Read more...]