Didn't light a fire though.
"Teens confront sexualization of girls in media" by Joseph P. Kahn | Globe Staff July 11, 2012
WATERVILLE, Maine — This quaint New England town seems an unlikely garrison from which to wage digital-media warfare. But as Seventeen magazine editors have learned, youth activism can be ignited anywhere, given the right spark.
In April, Waterville eighth-grader Julia Bluhm, 14, journeyed to Manhattan to protest Seventeen’s practice of retouching photos, making girls and young women look sexier and less flawed.
Related: A GALLERY OF FAKE DEAD BIN LADENS
Thank heaven for little girls.
After an interview with CNN, she was invited to the magazine to discuss her objections and spent an hour doing just that.
Maybe CNN will do an interview wi... never mind.
Bluhm and her teammates at SPARK — which stands for Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge — eventually collected more than 84,000 signatures on their anti-Photoshopping petition, distributed online through Change.org.
After meeting with Bluhm and hearing from thousands of like-minded readers, Seventeen’s latest issue announced a Body Peace Treaty. The editors now promise to “never change girls’ body or face shapes,” to feature “real girls and models who are healthy” and to give readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how it shoots and edits photo spreads.
Bluhm is delighted, if somewhat surprised, by Seventeen’s response to her petition. “I didn’t think they’d do anything,” she admitted. “But I definitely believe [their action] will change things, not only for their magazine but for making girls aware.”
The policy change signals a major victory for SPARK, launched two years ago in response to a report by an American Psychological Association task force on the sexualization of girls. Among the APA’s recommendations: the need for more age-appropriate multimedia education and more public awareness of the sexualization issue in general.
SPARK is at work on both fronts....
Who’s listening? Not only editors, advertisers, and merchandisers, but also parents, educators, and researchers concerned about the negative effects that hypersexualized images and messages are having on teenage — and younger — girls....
Since the dawn of the feminist movement, if not longer, women have been protesting how the media have portrayed them in a sexist and exploitative fashion. Moreover, gender stereotyping and the altering of female images may not be any more blatant or offensive than it was a generation ago, said SPARK cofounder Lyn Mikel Brown, 56. But the confusing and often harmful mix of messages is getting worse, she said....
Brown, an author and Colby College education professor, said, “This attempt by a younger generation to be more sex-positive — that you can be sexual and powerful and smart all at once — is being picked up by the media and sold as sexualization, basically to sell products.”
SPARK convened its first summit in New York City in October 2010, where the audience heard from speakers like Gloria Steinem and actress-activist Geena Davis.
Related: Gloria Steinem: How the CIA Used Feminism to Destabilize Society
Divide and conquer. How sad that things are never as they seem.
Its targets have included Anna Rexia, a Halloween skeleton costume (accessorized with a tape measure) pulled from the shelves of a New York store after SPARK’s protest last fall; and Lego Friends, a pink-hued line of the popular construction toy that was introduced this year and heavily marketed to girls. SPARK members met with Lego representatives in New York, but so far have not seen any action taken on that protest campaign.
SPARK’s critics — and there have been many — serve a useful function, according to SPARK member Maya Brown, 18, the daughter of Lyn Mikel Brown. “It means you’re getting noticed.”
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Bluhm and SPARK teammate Izzy Labbe, 13, created the anti-Photoshopping petition last spring. They circulated it among their schoolmates while capturing their reactions on video. Edited down to 15 minutes, then posted on YouTube, it soon got thousands of views and caught the attention of Maine Public Radio. Bluhm’s subsequent trip to Manhattan drew coverage from CNN, ABC, and The New York Times.
Labbe, also of Waterville, is just as outspoken as her teammates. “A male-dominated culture where girls are made to be sex objects — I don’t want to stand for that,” she said. “When I found an outlet for my angst and energy, I was like, ‘Yeah! Blog! Feminism!’” Laughing, she raised a fist in the air.
Social media allow SPARK to be “in the center of things as much as anyone,” said Lyn Mikel Brown. Still, she added, expanding the group’s mission must be done with care. Like Bluhm, Labbe, and the others, new SPARK teammates will be required to blog regularly and perform two “actions” per month, which might be as ambitious as organizing a petition drive or as simple as slapping a Post-it note (“You’ve been SPARKed!”) on an offensive toy, photographing it, and sending the shot to the toymaker’s website....
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Related:
The Feminist Movement was a CIA project of social programming
Feminism in the New World Order
That's the agenda my paper is pushing!
