Raising girls is extremely risky business these days. Maybe it’s always been so, and now there’s just a greater awareness of the dangers. I tend to think that as media creeps into further depths of our lives via the Internet, television, cell phones, advertisements in public spaces, etc, it becomes more and more difficult to keep children, well, children.
This is particularly difficult with girls, where there is such extreme amount of media pressure that places value on the superficial qualities of being female.
In addition to the nigh-constant onslaught of images pressuring girls to be thin, to dress a certain way, to value their outsides more than their insides, there’s this nauseating sexualization of younger and younger girls, as the lovely influence of Bratz.
As Lulu grows, I want to be able to help her have a positive self image, to value her character more than her exterior, to be a trend bucker rather than chaser. I don’t want my Ophelia to drown in the river of toxic media messages.
In honor of that, I’m adding a category for “raising girls” where I’m going to stuff all the ideas and cool things I come across that can help to engender esteem along the way to adulthood.
