Pop-Culture

When We Were Free To Be: Revisiting A Classic w/Deesha Philyaw

December 18, 2012 by Amy Jussel Leave a Comment

Dec. 18, 2012 This year marks not only the 40th Anniversary of Title IX changing women’s sports forever, it’s also the 40th Anniversary of the cycle-breaking, movement-making pop culture childrens' classic Free to Be, You and Me created by one of my very first childhood ‘sheroes’ Marlo Thomas. Marlo Thomas’ Free to Be Gold record and '70s era bestseller flipped the script on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, People Shaping Youth, Positive Picks, Pro-Social & Positive Picks, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity Tagged With: 40th Anniversary Free to Be, 40th Anniversary Title IX, 70s sitcoms, African American sitcoms, Amy-Jussel, black sitcoms, children's classics, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Co-Parenting 101, cultural literacy, Deesha Philyaw, feminine versus feminist, Free to Be, Free to Be at 40, Geena Davis Institute, gender and media portrayals, Gender neutral toys, Gender Portrayal, gender research, Girl Child Press, Glee, kids free to be kids, Laura Lovett, Lego Friends, Lori Rotskoff, Marlo Thomas, media-literacy, Michael Jackson Grew Up, Modern Family, Nancy-Gruver, New Moon Girls, Norman Lear Center, Packaging-Boyhood, Packaging-Girlhood, Peggy Orenstein, Pop culture impact on kids, Pop-Culture, race and class stereotypes, SEL, Self-worth-kids, Social Emotional Learning, Title IX, When We Were Free to Be

Bratzillaz, Novi Stars, Monster High: Same Sexualized SnoreFest

July 12, 2012 by Amy Jussel

Update April 7, 2015 Toy Joy! New offerings upending the toy industry to send healthier cues to kids: Lottie Dolls, GoGoSportsGirls, and now this new Kickstarter, Ember World adventure dolls, highlighted in this post. July 12, 2012 It's ironic that with over 900 cable networks choice is sorely lacking, as copycat formulaic media producers churn out new Reality TV genres … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, 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 Tagged With: APA report early sexualization, Barbie, Be Bratz, big 6 media companies, Brattitude, Bratz, Bratzillaz, canted poses, Celebrity worship, coarse culture, cult of celebrity, Dr Jennifer Shewmaker, Etsy, girls self esteem, girls sports, girls-self-worth, Go Go Sports Girls, harm of early sexualization, illusion of choice, indie toys, Jodi Norgaard, lack of toy choice, Lego Friends, Little Bits, maker faire, Mattel, Mattel Monster High, MGA, MGA Entertainment, MGAE, Monster High, Monster High sexualization, Novi Stars, PigTail Pals, Pop-Culture, preteen-health, Reality TV, roominate, ScrapKins, sexist toys, sexualized dolls, Super Tool Lula, top 10 toy manufacturers, vamp tramp toys, who controls the media

Lego Friends: Please Build on Possibility, Brain Plasticity

January 1, 2012 by Amy Jussel 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 female cousins as 'most active owners' in the young generation family mix, I have high hopes we'll see some gender stereotypes disappear and brain plasticity triumph! Here's to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Emerging trends & STEM, Interactive Games, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity Tagged With: 2012 Lego, beauty industry, brick box, Buildables, Case for Make Believe, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Cordelia Fine, corporate blunders, Delusions of gender, Does stripping gender from toys really make sense?, early child development, Empowering girls, gender equity, Gender Portrayal, girls-self-worth, Kids health, LadyFigs, Lego femininity, Lego Friends, Lego masculinity, Lise Eliot, media analysis, media mindfulness, media-literacy, nature vs nurture, neuroscience, neurosexism, New Moon Girls, Peggy Orenstein, pink brain blue brain, Play-Patterns-Kids, Pop-Culture, role play, science behind sex differences, sexism, Sexualization, spark change, SPARK! summit, stealth STEM, STEM for girls, stereotypes-girls, Stuart Brown, Tetris, Think Different, toy choice, toy marketing

Glee Teen Sex: Facts & Opportunities Using CDC vs. Hollywood TV

November 21, 2011 by Amy Jussel 13 Comments

Nov. 20, 2011 Truth is, Hollywood is lying about teen sex. Big time. New CDC research points to numbers that might as well frame Hollywood shows as a public health statistical version of ‘The Lying Game’ since TV consistently paints youth onto a recklessly bleak canvas of stereotyped imagery as impulsively hormonal lusty idiots …when the exact converse is true. Of those … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth Tagged With: abstinence, Advocates-for-youth, APA sexualization study, birth rates down, CDC October 2011, CDC Teen Sexual Health, compassion boom, comprehensive sex ed, First Times, Glee, Glee on Fox, Glee Season 3, health literacy, HIV/AIDS Awareness, Hollywood Health & Society, hyper-sexualizing, Kids health, Kids Prime Time TV, Kurt and Blaine, LGBTQ, media-literacy, Parents TV council, Peer pressure, Pop-Culture, Rachel and Finn, sex sells, sex-education-teens, sexed, SexTech, Sexual Teens, sexual-health-teens, sexuality, So Sexy So Soon, socio emotional health, STD-prevention, STDs, suspension of disbelief, teen dating violence, teen moms, teen pregnancy, teen sex, teenagers having sex now in minority, The First Time, the talk, Tips for talking about virginity and sex in teen dramas, virginity, youth sexual health

Man Down? Girl Up, Rihanna. Own Your Influence.

June 6, 2011 by Amy Jussel 12 Comments

June 6, 2011 We interrupt our positive picks programming to hand over a pail and a scrub brush so parents can prep for the latest mop up of "young and the RECKLESS"... This week in Rihanna Redux, she's once again baiting outrage by splattering revenge fantasies around the interwebs with ambient buzz in Rihanna's new "Man Down" video about a woman who shoots and kills her … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Branding & Consumerism, Damaging Drek, Emerging trends & STEM, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Misogyny & Racism, People Shaping Youth, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity, Viral & Buzz Media Tagged With: Amy-Jussel, Baiting Outrage, BET, Center for Media and Childrens health, children media violence, dating violence, do no harm, domestic violence, DV, Elin Waldal, Hollywood health, Industry Ears, Kanye Monster, KFF.org, Love is not abuse, Love is respect, Love the way you lie, Man Down, media influencers, MTV Movie Awards, music influencers, National Domestic Violence Hotline, NDVH, Pop-Culture, pop-culture-icons, PTC, rape crisis, Reese Witherspoon, Rihanna, Rihanna Eminem, Safe Youth, sexual assault, TDV, teen dating violence, teens, Tornado Warning, violence