Who’s Going to Save Shiloh!?

This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen and, thus, I have to deconstruct it via an open letter to the author (calling her out publicly in the same way she decided to call three-year-old Shiloh out.)

Jennifer Murray:

I have a few comments to make about your recent piece for Hollywood Life…

Shiloh, you were the prettiest little girl I had ever seen … then all of a sudden you were a tough, tousled tomboy!

Next thing I hear, you want a military-themed fourth birthday party! Fine, boys will be boys, but really? Shiloh you’re a little girl, so why do you really want to wear army pants with gun holsters? You don’t have to wear pink everyday and play with Barbies but c’mon — do you really want to be a prince … or a frog, for that matter! I am just waiting for someone to give you a big kiss and break the horrible tomboy spell.

First off, I’d just like to point out: you are addressing this article to a three year old child, a child who likely could not even read your missive all the way through… and thank god for that because if she could, I can only imagine how badly your words would hurt this defensless three year old child who never f*cking asked to be shoved into the public eye and criticized by COMPLETE STRANGERS. Am I the only one who sees how horribly messed up this is?

And furthermore, who even decides this shit? Why is pink for girls and blue for boys (it hasn’t always been that way!) why can’t a little girl want a military-themed party or short hair? Why can’t a little boy wear a skirt or have long hair? Who the hell made these arbitrary decisions that limit us all… and why are you choosing to enforce them?

Luckily this letter isn’t really for Shiloh, no its not even for Angelina – if it was just for them, you wouldn’t have published it. This piece exists in a public forum to call out all of us “tomboys,” all of us gender-non-conforming women who don’t fit your pretty pretty princess vision of what a woman should be.

Check out the photos above: You were such an angelic infant, and resembled a itty-bitty Taylor Momsen, but now you’re slouching towards Zach Galifianakas. Save yourself!

Because we all know that the second the clock strikes midnight on the eve of a pretty pretty princess’ fourth birthday she is doomed to a life of  misery, unless of course she breaks the spell by swathing herself in pink? I mean, the most important life choices are made when you’re three, right? No? Oh… so then what exactly is Shiloh saving herself from? The only bad thing to come out of her style choices are some catty articles written by pathetic reporters for tabloids and gossip magazines… and that trauma is not her fault at all, the blame lies firmly in the hands of the writers and editors that choose to get their ratings by bullying a three year old for her wardrobe and haircut.

The brilliant thing about being a full human being with unique likes, dislikes, thoughts, and free will is the ability to change your mind whenever the hell you want. Maybe Shiloh loves camo and short hair now but who knows, next week she may go through a unicorn phase. I mean, she’s not even four, she has almost a whole lifetime full of choices ahead of her… sure she may regret some of those choices later on, but who’s to say this will be one of them? If she chooses to remain a “tomboy” for life… even if she grows up to look just like Zach Galifianakas that will be her OWN CHOICE that she is free to make. It’s sick enough when you criticize the choices of fully grown celebrities, but a three year old child? That’s just downright disgusting… you’re the one who needs saving, not Shiloh.

Redefining Powerful Women

This is just bizarre:

The Oxford English Dictionary Online has been updated and amongst the new entries is Girl Power. Defined as “power exercised by girls; spec. a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition, assertiveness, and individualism“, the term is one of several hundred that have just been added to the OED Online, the most up-to-date version of the world famous authority on the English language. The Spice Girls are credited with using the term in the late 1990s; however, riot girls (also a new entrant to the dictionary) adopted Girl Power in the early 90s, in the United States. A riot girl, also known as a grrrl, (another new entry) a young woman perceived as strong or aggressive, esp. in her attitude to men or in her expression of feminine independence and sexuality, is defined in general terms as a member of a movement expressing feminist resistance to male domination in society and esp. to the abuse and harassment of women.

Its bizarre and, moreover, it bothers me. It seems honestly a bit sexist, a bit ridiculous that we need to add new words to the dictionary in order to describe strong or powerful women. Why won’t woman do? Or female? Or girl? Or feminine? Decisions like this more clearly reveal the antiquated notions we have as a society: in this case the idea that women, by default, are not already strong or powerful. The need for a separate term entirely for a powerful woman implies that woman in general are not always powerful – an independent, powerful woman is a riot girl, has girl power… she is an exception. Or, at least, that’s what the Oxford Dictionary would have us think.

Girl Power! (Or, you know, just women in power – these are some female heads of state, the link leads you to information on more current and former female leaders, in case anyone has an interest!)

Marketing to Women 101

Allergies, illness, or something has taken over and made me really lethargic, headachey, and scrambled lately which is why this post is both slightly old news, and slightly all over the place… but I hope you enjoy all the same!

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For a month or two of my life ( in between wanting to be a teacher, psychologist, or writer) I decided I should go into marketing. I’m creative, I reasoned, I could be good at coming up with slogans and advertisement ideas. I never changed my major but news like this makes me think I should have… the decision-makers of the advertising world apparently need smart women (and men!) to explain to them that not all women (or people for that matter) are alike and marketing to the gender binary is not going to turn out well for them, at least not now as we enter further into the 21st century. (They should join us!)

Recently, two advertising campaigns (from Dell and Mars) have caught my eye due to their sheer stupidity. The common thread? Both campaigns were aimed at women… but I’m struggling to see how even a single woman could have been involved with the creation of these campaigns. Surely, if they had asked a woman what she thought she would have been able to explain to them that women are not all variations on the same stereotype and, for instance, probably won’t respond as well as they are expecting to a sparkly, pink-packaged, low-fat chocolate bar or a miniaturized computer that comes in enough colors to go with every outfit and has an appropriate girl-y name (Della).

According to the marketing world there are only a few ways one can market a product to women:

1) Make it pink & sparkly! I mean, it worked for Stephanie Meyer and her sparkly vampires. As Cara of Feministe put it, “Fling is a new chocolate bar that’s aimed at women. You can tell, because the packaging is pink.” The Della laptops may not all be pink, I’ll give them that, but the pink one does come with the added bonus of a donation to a Breast Cancer Charity (none of the other laptops have a charity attached) and they’re still marketed as “adorable” and “cute” because that’s what women care about, adorable and cute computers, not, you know, functional and  durable ones.

2) Make it low fat because all women care about losing weight, unlike men who don’t need to diet constantly and, therefore, can enjoy “man candy” like Snickers and M&Ms. (Not that women don’t eat these candies too… something has to put on the weight that needs to be dieted off!) Even Della’s new laptops manage to buy into the “low fat” trend – a quick look into the website’s “tech tips” shows us that our laptops can be used to help us remember to exercise and even look up low-fat recipes! (As this article outlines, since I started writing this article the website has already changed – the recipe tip is gone and the exercise tip has become “get moving” but still…)

3) Make it teeny – Its not a chocolate bar its a chocolate finger because women, with their diets and whatnot, cannot handle a chocolate bar. Similarly, the Della computers are miniaturized – I suppose to fit into our purses better or something? Smaller laptops have their place, I won’t deny that, but to focus the marketing of these computers specifically onto women is where the gender stereotyping and fail comes in.