Media images stereotype girls, foster violence in men, say speakers

Girls are bombarded by advertisers with images of princesses, fairies, and things that are sexy, pink, and glittery, and this entrenches stereotypes of girlhood, according to Sharon Lamb, co-author of Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes.

The message is that girls gain power by being sexy and pretty, Lamb said during an all-day conference promoting media literacy on March 30 in Bishop Center.

The conference, “The Mass Media, Children, and Values,” was sponsored by the Neag School of Education.

Thomas Goodkind, a UConn professor of curriculum and instruction, coordinated the conference, which is in its fifth year.

Lamb is a clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology at St. Michael’s College in Vermont.

“The term ‘Girl Power’ is used over and over in marketing,” she said. “In the ’70s, Girl Power meant that girls could enter into all sorts of careers.

Today it means something entirely different: Marketers use it to mean the power to shop, the power to attract boys, and the power to choose among different types of girls to be.

This boils down to two types: a girl can either be for the boys, or one of the boys.”

For the book Packaging Girlhood, Lamb and co-author Lyn Mikel Brown collected data from some 600 girls; met with focus groups of girls, guidance counselors, and parents; and conducted a content analysis of the “stuff”’ in girls’ worlds.

Girls were asked what kinds of clothing they wore, the television shows and movies they watched, what they read, the music they liked, and what they did in their spare time.

Some of the stereotypes Lamb found that spanned different ages were that girls love to shop. Another is that girls watch, and boys act.

“Girls are not usually in the driver’s seat on a toy package, unless it’s a particularly ‘girly’ car,” she said. “They’re on the sidelines watching.”

Some of the stereotypes found in books, television, and movies, according to Lamb, are that girls are mean, and hate math, and that only boys are geniuses.

“In a science education toy catalog, boys were constantly looking through telescopes and using remote controls for the helicopter, cars, or boat,” she said.

“Girls were arranging flowers and working an ATM machine.”

In movies such as Disney’s Meet the Robinsons, boys are the inventors. “Little girls are marginally represented,” she said, “and are often the sisters, friends, or helpers of boys.”

Films like Mean Girls encourage girls to get power by being mean, Lamb said, “which encourages girls to label and typecast.”

She said marketers use the illusion of choice to sell products such as sneakers.

“They argue that you have a lot of choice: ‘I’m a pink and black kind of person. I’m a green and black kind of person.’”

That’s because it’s difficult to market to real girls, said Lamb.

“It would be hard to know what product to market and how many girls would like it. To encourage girls to form types is to encourage them to buy a product that fits that type.”

The popular Bratz dolls are highly sexualized, she said, and “are not good for girls. They dress like prostitutes. They’re sold with a party plane and a juice bar. They’re hot-tubbing with boys or partying on a plane.”

Lamb said marketers developed the term ‘tween’ to sell more products to young girls. They market transitional items like cherry cola lip gloss: “You’re a girl; you need lip gloss.”

Girls are getting their sex education from MTV and movies, she maintained.