I think the link to the APA article is key because we are finally getting plenty of studies that link media exposure (yes, this shirt counts) to a host mental health concerns, and health concerns…eating disorders, anxiety, obesity, it goes on.

I think most people are willing to agree that actual human models, re-imaged to size -4 and splashed across most magazines, creates an unhealthy backdrop for how we view our own bodies, and who we compare ourselves to.

But it’s interesting that we don’t look at where this begins.
And that we discount the equivalent of this for our pint-size pipsqueaks.
Taking this “way too seriously” has not been done enough…and kudos for drawing your own line in the sand!

Also, I like Nic’s idea of sitting our girls down and talking about what they think is a healthy body image. What they think about their own bodies. It can be a real eye-opener (do this with boys, too – they are under similar pressure). In college I even wrote a research paper on the damaging effects of Barbie on girls’ perceptions of themselves as women. I was careful to teach my daughter that Barbie was a toy and that if she was real, she’d have impossible proportions, so no woman can ever look like her, nor should they try.

I think some of you might find this blog interesting – all about the Disney Princess phenomenon and how to avoid some of the more glaring issues.

http://disneyprincessrecovery.blogspot.com/

I am completely, utterly disgusted & terrified at the world I am raising my daughters in…

So…. all she found in there was a JOKE christmas apron my husband’s grandma gave me a few years back, one I’ve never worn because, hello, inappropriate, with the giant painted on boobies and tiny little Mrs. Claus waist and short skirt, and yet I kept it because, “HI Grandma, yes, here it is in the cabinet. Thank you for the lovely gift”

Anyway… Alison just grabbed it and put it on, not even looking at it, and when I went in to help her cook the soup, yowza. My 6 year old with superimposed breasticles. I laughed, snapped a twitpic (yes, yes I did) and then took it off, turned it inside out, and helped her put it back on. Because it was funny for a minute, but at that point she hadn’t even seen herself in it and I didn’t WANT her to.

No way in freaking hell I’d buy that shirt for my kid!
Dre´s last blog ..Beast

“Media portrayals, real or fictional, don’t merely inform us – they form us”

Rest assured, this will be fodder for the SPARK Summit on Sexualization big time. (the teen attendance is more about the actionist/activist/what are we gonna do about it) side…Little girls are OBVIOUSLY going to be included in the pervasive harm being seeded in “Inception” style…

“I’m not good enough” should not become the mantra of the media minions exposed to such ongoing surround sound in order to ‘sell insecurities for profit’ and REsell self worth back to these kids one product at a time. Bah. Not. Okay.

Put this next to the wired cup bra for 4-6 year olds on America’s obsession with breast size. Geezus. Oh, and on a related note: give Keira Knightley a Hollywood hurray and a high five while you’re at it: http://www.shapingyouth.org/?p=2003
Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth´s last blog ..Media Slave ReShaping Habits For More Summer Fun

Also, not only are we teaching girls that they are to have big boobs and no waist, we are teaching them that those are people you look up to.

Nothing against Cinderella or anything, but she’s no rocket scientist. Really, all that you did for a BOY? No college aspirations? I mean, I know I’m not 3 and all in to princesses, but really…come on!
Heather´s last blog ..Help Me Fight the YMCA