While women debate if 50 really is the new 30, with Walmart’s help 8 may be the new 18. On February 21, Walmart launches geoGirl, a line of cosmetic and beauty products specifically formulated for 8- to 12-year-olds. The line, which boasts a total of 69 (let’s hope that’s coincidental) products, contains everything from eyeshadow, [...]
On our way to high school recently, I asked my friend, “Do you consider yourself a feminist?” After a slight hesitation, she responded, “Well, I support women’s rights and all, but I’m no bra burner.” Besides the fact that the bra-burning story is apocryphal, I was surprised by her answer. Is that what feminism meant [...]
I was an active Girl Scout through third grade, and I hated almost every minute of it. I hated being told what to do, so I hated the uniforms and the badge-earning activities, and I just wasn’t touchy-feely enough to enjoy the singing or promises of friendship forever. My mom forced me to stay enrolled [...]
As a political activist who called Tucson, AZ, my home until I moved to Los Angeles just last week, the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, her staffers and constituents has been a heartbreaking personal as well as national tragedy. I have worked with Gabby–that’s what she’s familiarly called in Arizona–at neighborhood canvasses sponsored by Planned [...]
I will never forget the day my Mom brought me–her 3-year-old, blond haired, blue eyed little girl–to Zellers (the Canadian equivalent of Target) to buy my first Barbie. My Mom was a dance instructor, so I chose work-out Barbie. She seemed most similar to my real-life role model–they both wore spandex and sweat bands. As [...]
I wasn’t surprised when my son, Zachary, was teased for bringing My Little Pony in for first-grade show-and-tell. After all, I had been following the story of Katie, a first-grader in Evanston, Illinois, who had been mocked for choosing a Star Wars water bottle. Katie’s mother, Carrie Goldman, blogged about the incident, and her post [...]
Previously the Sociological Images blog has posted on the sexy makeovers recently given to Dora the Explorer, Strawberry Shortcake, Holly Hobby, Lisa Frank, Trolls, Cabbage Patch Kids, and the Sun Maid. Here we have three more. My Little Pony The original My Little Pony, chubby and adorable (source): Today they’re thinner, with an open mouth, [...]
What’s the right age for parents to talk to kids about sex? Is it overstepping boundaries to have that talk with a child of another gender? Sex educator Heather Corinna, founder of top-ranked sex-advice site Scarleteen, shared her feminist advice for parents on that diciest of subjects: “the sex talk.” This is part 2 of [...]
Heather Corinna is the founder of Scarleteen, the highest ranked website for sex education and sexuality advice, and author of S.E.X.: The All-You-Need-To-Know Progressive Sexuality Guide to Get You Through High School and College. Heather spoke with Ms. about the current, not-so-evolved state of sex ed in the United States and which messages about teen [...]
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, the breakaway bestseller first published in 1994 was possibly the one book that touched off the notion of a self-esteem “crisis” in pre-adolescent girls. Its author, Mary Pipher, based it on her experience as a psychologist working with adolescent girls in Lincoln, Neb., indicting American culture as [...]
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