Healthy Youth Media Act Pt 2: Can Change Be Legislated? (interview)

July 21, 2010 Can you hear the drumbeat, Hollywood? It’s getting louder. Girl advocates like Jessica Lawrence head to Capitol Hill to discuss H.R. 4925 tomorrow to share firsthand data about how depictions of women and girls in the media affect youth health and are landing sideways. Small business entities like Melissa Wardy of  Wisconsin based PigtailPals has devoted an … [Read more...]

Steamed About Sexualization? Healthy Media for Youth Act Now!

July 12-16, 2010: Healthy Media for Youth week! Fed up with “boy chasin’ bed swappin’ lip-lickin’ hottie-hoochie booty-bouncin’ appearance-is-everything” cues comin’ at your girls? Yah, so are we. It’s damaging, destructive, and fouling up a healthy sense of sexuality and self-worth as girls are objectified and ‘sold’ a bill of goods about behaviors, bodies, and what … [Read more...]

Help SPARK a Name for the Sexualization Summit To Ignite Change!

June 21, 2010 As the summer solstice kicks off, the energy is heating up over the buzz about the SPARK! summit challenging the sexualization of girls and women in media, and advocates are already been asking the ‘who what where when’ questions (alas, the ‘why’ is self-evident, from BabyGaga to daily drek d'jour) SPARK! Ignites a flame of action bringing together teen girls … [Read more...]

Redefining Girly: Girls Rights Week W/Founder of Pigtail Pals

May 6, 2010 Call her a mompreneur, entrepreneurista, or "the original PigTail Pal," Melissa Wardy is a mama bear with a mission and a voice that roars when it comes to changing the way our society thinks about girls. What better way to celebrate Girls Inc's Girls Rights Week than to honor the first year anniversary of a "stay-at-home mom turned work-at-home activist" … [Read more...]

Girls Are Not Candies. Tweens Are Not Teens. Thongs Are Not Undies.

May 4, 2010 A few years back I commented on the post Confessions of a Lingerie Lover by Fae Goodman on Alternet and copped to being “one and the same.” Fae uncorked a doozy of a conversation that brought out the best/worst in femme debates as she pithily contrasted the difference between adult media messages and ‘costuming’ cues and the marketer’s desire to target adolescents, … [Read more...]