babble » blogs » Strollerderby
Strollerderby
Yeah, I can open it. WHEN I BREAK IT ON YOUR SKULL.
The first thing I feel when I look at these atrocious ads is grateful. Grateful that we are where we are now. Grateful that my daughter is growing up in a world where women are increasingly seen as equal to men. Granted, women still earn something like 75 cents for every dollar a man makes. There is a gender-related wage gap in virtually every occupational category.
And still…
Take a look at the 25 advertisements below and you might also feel grateful to those who went before who beat bloodied hands on glass ceilings to pave the way for us, our daughters and their daughters.
Wives and mothers from sixties and before had it particularly bad. They were prisoners of society’s expectations. How could they ever truly know who they were if they had to conform to what was deemed appropriate feminine behavior?
Thank God I came of age in the age of “You can be anything you want to be” movement. I know sexism and gender inequality is alive and well, but when I look at my daughter the possibilities seem endless. Especially compared to the little girls who grew up seeing advertisements like the ones featured below. Some are so horrible it’s tough to believe they’re real. But they are. Continue reading »
If you’ve ever dressed a young girl, you know girls’ fashions can be problematic. There are the string bikinis for toddlers. There are the sparkly high heels sized for three-year-olds, just waiting to snap an ankle. There are endless frilly skirts, not so great for climbing monkey bars.
Then there are the t-shirts. There’s been a whole string of scandals recently about t-shirts with slogans like “Too pretty to do homework” on them. A lot of these awful shirts have been pulled from the market after a hue and cry on the Internet about their offensive content. Good work, Internet. Those bad shirts needed to go.
Sadly, they were just the tip of the iceberg. Jezebel took a good look at what’s still on the market for girls’ clothing, and it’s pretty scary.
Do you have to know if the baby is a boy or girl?
A couple in Toronto decided around the birth of their third child that they weren’t going to tell anyone whether that child was a boy or a girl. Fewer than 10 people know the gender of baby Storm, who is now 4 months-old.
Only Storm’s two big brothers, Jazz, 5, and Kio, 2, parents Kathy Witterick, 38, and David Stocker, 39, the two midwives who attended Storm’s birth, and Storm stormself know what lies beneath the diaper. It will be up to Storm to decide when — if ever — to tell. In the meantime, the parents say, the baby gets to live unconstrained by societies assumptions about what a girl is and a what a boy is. Continue reading »
Do scout manuals perpetuate gender stereotypes?
Here’s one for you. University of Maryland Sociology student, Kathleen Denny, reports that a study she recently conducted found that the Scout manuals for the 5 million American kids who are active Girl or Boy Scouts deliver messages that are full of gender stereotypes. The study concludes that Girl Scouts are steered away from scientific endeavors while the boys are steered away from artistic pursuits.
And here I was thinking that it was all about the badges. And it is. Well, kind of.
Juke looks like a lady?
Car ads can get a little dry — all that loading soccer equipment or pulling up to five star hotels or climbing over muddy streams or weaving in and out of traffic cones. No wonder the ad company handling Nissan’s new Juke resorted to a beautiful woman in a bikini. What they came up with isn’t exactly dry, but it’s awfully throw-back, and I don’t mean that in a retro-hipster way. It’s the kind of ad your own mother probably hoped wouldn’t be around for you when your daughters are grown.
It’s sexist in the simplest way: woman = object.
I love what Babble personal blogger Jane Roper has to say about it. Continue reading »
That better be done by the time I get back from hunting.
You know what bugs me? When men don’t treat women with the respect they deserve. Maybe it’s because I grew up with three older sisters. Or maybe it’s because my mom is such a strong and accomplished woman.
Whatever the reason, I believe that women are equal to men in every way and in every context. And I’m not looking for a medal, but sweeping, misogynistic slights against women are not something I take lightly. And while there has been much improvement with regard to gender equality, there’s still a long way to go.
A recent post on Baby’s First Year proves that fact in spades.
While Disney’s latest princess film shakes up gender norms with a ninja-like Rapunzel, there’s still plenty of traditional gender norms to be had in kids’ feature films.
Toy Story 3 is out, and along with vivid animation, clever dialog and a great marketing campaign, it’s delivering a heaping helping of sexism and homophobia. Yum!
Ms. Magazine calls out the film for a laundry list of offenses against their female viewers, especially the little girls in the audience.
That the latest Toy Story film continues the tradition of downplaying girls power and intelligence isn’t that surprising. Ms. also points out that every film Pixar has made features a male protagonist. They’re not exactly a chick-flick kind of company.
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.
48