How to get to Stereotype Street

The Boston Globe ^ | August 10, 2006 | Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown

[txroadkill]

AT LONG LAST there's a new girl moving to ``Sesame Street." The hopes of mothers everywhere rest on her little shoulders. Will she be smart? Will she be computer savvy? Will she love sports or play an instrument? Will she explore like Dora or love books like Hermione? What will she teach our daughters about growing up girl in the new millennium?

<- snip ->

It's true. Abby Cadabby is being sold with gusto in the same way stereotypes are sold everywhere to girls -- as a choice.

<- snip ->

Girly is more than a type these days, though -- it's a lifestyle.

<- snip ->

And what do the little girls watching get out of the deal, other than glitz? Abby's a ``fairy in training" ready to make all those cute little mistakes girls will soon read about as preteens in the ``Traumarama" section of Seventeen magazine. She's designed to appear ``vulnerable looking," in case any girl might get the outlandish notion that being strong or sure of herself is a good thing. To top it off, she can hover only when she's happy, lest girls imagine a world in which they don't have to smile all the time to be successful.

[txroadkill]

Fairies are a bit like pretty-in-pink princesses but with the power to -- what? -- sprinkle fairy dust on someone? Look around children's media, the morning cartoon shows, the tween movies; look at all the gadgets, swords, cameras, and binoculars boys get to use in order to act in the world, while girls, with a few exceptions, are still mainly spectators. When girls are given power, it's typically magic power, not real power to act and change the world. And, incidentally, we all know what happens to girls with magic powers after a while -- either they morph into the characters from ``I Dream of Genie" and ``Bewitched," using their powers to keep their ``masters" happy or they disappear without a trace.

Liberal Femanazi wack-jobs really crack me up.

 

[Obadiah]

Sad, no matter how had they try, Feminazis simply seem incapable of finding any traction in life. Every hardship they have endured is a result of some malevolent male force that insists on keeping their boot on the back of women's necks.

[camle]

styled after nancy pelosi?

[SMARTY]

They want a character with hair armpits, messy hair and earth shoes. We did that already, right? Funny, my brother never brought one of those home. But then HE shaved, bathed and wore clean clothes. (Incidentally, NO female in our family looked like that either.)

[BelegStrongbow]

Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be,
The future's not ours to see...
Que sera, sera.

Which now will run through my head for the rest of the day.

Thanks.

[Torpedogirl]

Are you calling the author of the article a femi-nazi or the creator of the character a femi-nazi. In either case, the label is incorrect. There is no femi-nazism in this article or the creation of the character.

[BelegStrongbow]

I think you meant Obadiah.

And I'd call either no more than a Femin-secretary of labor.

[waverna]

Girls have to smile all the time to be successful? A lot of women missed THAT memo!

[Obadiah]

Generally speaking, the authors. The point being is they refer to feminine traditions pejoritively as stereotypes. Why is it wrong to be pink, or pretty? Why is it that authors like these cannot be happy unless girls/woman are able to ape anything a man does? Why can they simply not be happy being a woman and being feminine in the traditional way? Who are they to strongly infer that unless girls are shown in a certain way to theirliking, that girls are somehow being short changed? Who are they to lay claim to defining what girls and women have enjoyed, formerly free from any negative association, for epochs of time?

[Obadiah]

Generally speaking, the authors. The point being is they refer to feminine traditions pejoritively as stereotypes. Why is it wrong to be pink, or pretty? Why is it that authors like these cannot be happy unless girls/woman are able to ape anything a man does? Why can they simply not be happy being a woman and being feminine in the traditional way? Who are they to strongly infer that unless girls are shown in a certain way to theirliking, that girls are somehow being short changed? Who are they to lay claim to defining what girls and women have enjoyed, formerly free from any negative association, for epochs of time?

[Obadiah]

Sorry for the double post.

[MonroeDNA]

Lyn Mikel Brown (co-author of the article) is a pretty radical lesbian.

'nuff siad.

[freedumb2003]

Lyn Mikel Brown (co-author of the article) is a pretty an ugly radical lesbian.

[MonroeDNA]

Yeah, after I posted that, I did a "DOH" thing.

[MonroeDNA]

She is a well known lesbian and FemmiNazi.

Use your brain. Up there in your forehead. Strap on your thinking cap.

[GretchenM]

she can hover only when she's happy

Sort of like the real life of a pessimist: get your hopes up, get them dashed, crash and burn.