(Amelia playing guitar with her teeth, from
Girls Rock! The Movie, www.girlsrockmovie.com. Photo by Nicole Weingart)
Using your voice powerfully isn’t just about being a loud, outspoken bad-ass chick — something we grown women often want for girls. It’s also about finding your vulnerabilities, and turning them into strengths. This came to me, a grown woman, while watching 8- to 18-year-old girls learn how to play instruments and sing in a rock band.
Alyza (About-Face’s Director of Programs) and I saw Girls Rock! The Movie when it played in San Francisco recently. The filmmakers interviewed some of the campers at the Girls Rock Camp in Portland, Oregon, as well as their parents. What resulted was funny, fun, true, and transformational.
Watch the trailer for the movie:
By the way, we are still trying to cleverly answer the question, “How do you tune a taco?”, posed by the performance-artist type Amelia in one of her many improvisational and truly weird songs. That line was such a crack-up.
Laura, a young woman adopted from Korea, says early on, “I pretty much accept that I hate myself.” But later, she says, “I’ve been waiting so long to admit to myself that I’m amazing.” (That’s Laura there on the left. Photo by Nicole Weingart from www.girlsrockmovie.com.) At that moment, I wished we all knew that we’re amazing from the day we’re born. It gave Alyza and I fresh hope, and a reminder that girls still need to be taught to find their voices, get on stage, and use them — the earlier, the better. We’re working on that here at About-Face.
Take Action! Support Girls Rock! The Movie, and the Girls Rock Camps. Here’s how:
1) See the movie when it’s playing near you with or without a girl in your life. (Click here for screening dates/locations.)
2) The Girls Rock Camps need your support to keep raising girls’ self-esteem through the medium of music. Make a donation to the rock camp of your choice. There are camps all over the country, including one on July 7-12 in About-Face’s home base, the San Francisco Bay Area.
3) Send your daughter, niece, cousin, or young friend to Girls Rock Camp this summer. She doesn’t need any prior musical training to be a camper.
Did you see the movie? Leave your comment below.
– Jennifer
April 23rd, 2008
Once again Dove has spoken to the hearts of About-Facers. Their latest “Onslaught” commercial tells parents to “talk to [their] daughters before the beauty industry does” after showing clip after clip of advertisements, commercials, etc. parodying messages given to girls and women every day (or more acurately, every minute) by the beauty industry.
We hope you’re calling your daughter or sister or friend to tell her all about it. It’s wonderful to see an advertisement that doesn’t leave us feeling inadequate. Instead of telling us to get up and buy some product that will wipe out our bank accounts (not to mention our self-esteem), Dove tells us to take action and talk! Do it Dove. We hope you will keep it up!
–A.J.
February 18th, 2008
When my friend’s three-year-old daughter answered the door wearing some kind of brownish makeup smeared all over her face, her mom and I had a good laugh. She had done it herself; we joked that she missed a couple spots, and the little girl busted out a belly laugh that almost knocked her over.
Most of us have played in our mom’s makeup. But yesterday on Salon’s Broadsheet, Tracy Clark-Flory commented on some real, high-quality makeup for 6- to 9-year-old girls that Mattel and Bonne Bell are going to be releasing in 2008. MGA Entertainment (which makes Bratz) already has been selling makeup for girls through Markwins International and Added Extras.
OK, moms, teachers, aunts, we ought to stop this craziness, and quick. Let’s not dismiss this as “just playing dress-up.” Already, there are Bratz-branded padded bras for 6 year olds (which they call “bralettes”) that came out just months ago. And by buying little girls their own makeup, we will continue to make them into sexualized beings way too early.
Yes, these are padded bras for little girls.
I’m not just some overprotective woman saying, “Keep the girls young and cute!” According to the American Psychological Association (APA)’s “Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls” published February 2007, the early sexualization of young girls contributes to a host of psychological problems, including issues of cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development. Who wants their daughter to have these problems? Since makeup is one of the accessories of women’s sexuality, you’d better believe that buying little girls fancy, real makeup serves to help our culture sexualize them.
(The report defined “sexualization” as occurring when a person’s value comes only from her/his sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is sexually objectified, e.g., made into a thing for another’s sexual use.)
If you’re a parent or teacher of a young girl, check out these APA recommendations on what parents can do to prevent early sexualization.
And I’d add to that great list: Think good and hard about the toys you are giving the young girls in your life. Do they encourage sexuality too young? Just let them be little girls, running around and playing, not obsessing over their eyelashes in the mirror every day.
Taking Action: Four Ideas
1) Talk back to Bonne Bell and Mattel: Tell them that marketing makeup to 6-9 year olds is a bad idea and that you won’t be buying their sexualization of little girls. (Click here for contact info.) And if you own Mattel stock, use your stockholder status and contact (888) 909-9922.
2) Hit ‘em in the bottom line: Don’t buy Bonne Bell or Mattel products (that means American Girl, Hot Wheels, Barbie, or LipSmackers lip balm, etc.)
3) Make a stink: In 2008 when the line launches, go to your local mall or Bonne Bell retailer and stand outside with copies of this article or your own writing, and talk to people entering the store.
4) Encourage your friends not to buy makeup for their young daughters: Remember, little girls pretending to be Mommy sometimes (with Mommy’s makeup…) is fun role-modeling, but putting on makeup to look “sexy” or “grown-up” is inappropriate for girls’ development. Make sure you tell your daughters that it’s not important for them to be sexy at age nine.
– J.B.
June 13th, 2007
