MetaFilter posts tagged with Girls

Disney Isn't "Brave" Enough To Leave Princess Merida As Is

SkylitDrawl — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:17:18 -0800

Merida, Pixar's "Brave's" red-headed heroine will be crowned Disney's 11th princess on May 11. And just in time for her royal coronation, she has been given a "Victoria's Secret" makeover. This makeover has caused some outrage in the blogosphere, and has even inspired a change.org petition launched by A Mighty Girl, a girl's empowerment website.

Hello, Lanie the organic gardener

roomthreeseventeen — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:00:17 -0800

The Atlantic reports on the 2008 removal/"archiving" of the original three American Girl dolls, dolls whose arrival on the market in 1986 represented a "sensibility about teaching girls to understand thorny historical controversies and build political consciousness." The original dolls, Samantha, Kirsten and Felicity are no longer sold to make room for dolls like Saige, the "2013 Girl of the Year." HuffPo responds: How Radical Can a $105 Doll Be?

Not the shirtless She-Hulk you were expecting

camcgee — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:28:28 -0800

Little Girls R Better at Designing Superheroes Than You is a (sparsely populated) Tumblr with illustrations based on little girls in superhero costumes, by Eyeburst. Via Project Rooftop.
Previously on MeFi, little girl superheroes.

"the current system is the most practical and 'seems to work'"

Rory Marinich — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:56:10 -0800

"Despite her pedigree, success came slowly," the story bravely ventured. This slowness was maybe not so apparent to several thousand other 24-year-olds who want to be actresses, but who haven't even figured out how to get to a reading for Law & Order to fail at it. Tom Scocca on Nathaniel Rich, Lena Dunham, Zosia Mamet, and cultural nepotism. (Related: How David Carr Became the Daddy of Girls)

Star gazing girls of Georgian England

salishsea — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:06:18 -0800

An intriguing essay on how young women in Georgian England were able to do science by hiding in the pursuits of the domestic arts.

"Women didn’t find it easy to participate in late eighteenth century science. Experimentation and discovery were not easily compatible with the ideals of domestic femininity – but there were women who rejected these social expectations and became active and renowned."

What My Daughter Wore

neroli — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 15:15:19 -0800

Documenting the sartorial choices of my ten year old daughter, her brothers, and their friends.

An unlikely reviewer

HuronBob — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:00:27 -0800

"Girls" is a bit of a hit. Although it lost out to "Modern Family" at the Emmy Awards, it continues to receive significant attention as the 2nd season gets underway. Nearly everyone with a entertainment industry related blog has mentioned it, but perhaps the most unlikely reviewer (if you ignore the fact that a large percent of the viewers of "Girls" are older men) is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who compared it to "My So Called Life" and "Wonderfalls" in terms of its being a vehicle to understand the "next generation". People reacted to his review, and he responded. Added Treat: perhaps the best part of this is the fact that, in the process, I came across, and present for your viewing pleasure, the unaired pilot (almost identical to the first episode, but Jaye's brother and sister are played by different actors) of "Wonderfalls", enjoy!

The flicker of the campfire, the wind in the pines...

Miko — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:21:33 -0800

Girl Scout Camping, 1919. More at the Smithsonian/American History blog.

Hey, you've got your black people in my American TV show!

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 10:48:17 -0800

'I'm a White Girl': Why 'Girls' Won't Ever Overcome Its Racial Problem-an article from The Atlantic with several interesting links on the larger issue of including (or not) black characters into American television.

Delusional Downtown Divas

Artw — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:53:07 -0800

Lena Dunham shows her art-world roots in her 2009 web-series: Season 1 at Index Magazine, Season 2 at delusionaldowntowndivas.com. Meanwhile Season 2 of Dunham's HBO series "Girls" arrives Sunday night, expect online fireworks.

H+

zarq — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 11:00:17 -0800

This past August, producer Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men) launched a new digital series: H+. The premise: in the near future, 33% of humanity has retired their smartphones, tablets and computers in favor of an implanted computer system, H+, which connects them directly to the internet 24/7. The story begins as a computer virus attacks the implants, killing billions. In intersecting storylines across four continents (told in part through flashbacks,) the series then unravels what happened, who caused it and why. In the storyline, the H+ System was developed by Nano Teoranta, which was originally a medical device company. H+ has financial backing from Warner Bros (reportedly $2 million USD,) was shot in Santiago, Chile and is almost done airing its first season. The first season of the series takes place over 48 episodes lasting between four and eight minutes, for a total running time of 255 minutes. Though Warner Digital Distribution plans to release the series on a weekly basis, like any regular series, the episodes are meant to be viewed differently than anything on TV. "We set out to write a nonlinear story," explains series co-writer and co-creator John Cabrera. "The big question for this disjointed story was whether there were ways to view it that felt good. At a certain point we started to realize that might be something we put into the hands of the audience." The fragmented nature of the short episodes means viewers are encouraged to mix and match to create episodic playlists that may better illuminate the show's intricate, ongoing mysteries. Instead of making watching a passive experience, being online encourages interaction.
New episodes premiere Wednesdays at 12pm PST. The series is broken up into ‘chapter’ playlists of 20-30 minutes each: Chapter 1: The Beginnings (Also see a new annotated playlist for Chapter 1) Chapter 2: Foreign Bodies Chapter 3: Connections Chapter 4: Malfunctions Chapter 5: New Visions Chapter 6: Convergences Chapter 7: Residual Effects Cast Interviews and Behind the Scenes Footage YouTube Channel / Official Site / Facebook (requires login) / Wikipedia (Includes cast list)

Girls: Fact or Fiction

ColdChef — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:50:53 -0800

Girls: Fact + Fiction Gallery (some images MNSFW)

Goldie Blox

gruchall — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 18:27:10 -0800

Move over Barbie, Goldie Blox is coming to town. A kickstarter-funded construction toy + book series targeting at 5 to 9 year-old girls.

teenage girls: "...they haven’t been living, they’ve been performing."

flex — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 16:36:57 -0800

Teenage girls try to navigate the minefields of desirability, attractiveness, and self-objectification in the age of Facebook. The first two links via Miss Representation's Facebook page; Miss Representation previously on MeFi. "What a Gross Facebook Page Tells Us About a Woman’s Need to Be Desired":

The crux of the problem for this girl, let's call her Susie, is that she's stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side, there is the crushing pressure to be sexually desirable. She is aware of this pressure even before she caves to it, and at a much younger age than adults would like to believe. Why do you think we cake make-up on toddlers, sell push-up bras to 9-year-olds, or suggest that tweens get bikini waxes? We are preparing them for what we know is coming. They are smarter than we think and they know these tricks and tips are not for their benefit, but for the benefit of people who look at them. On the other side, Susie knows that she loses the desirability game if she caves to the desires she has inspired. Though "sexual capital" isn't a phrase she will run across until her gender studies classes 10 years later, Susie intuitively understands that she loses hers if people think she's too accessible... The wiggle room between the rock and the hard place-that sweet spot between being wanted and being respected-is all but non-existent.

"We tell young women that they can achieve anything they want, but the extra pressures are everywhere to be seen":

She continued: “I always feel like if I don’t look a certain way, if boys don’t think I’m ‘sexy’ or ‘hot’ then I've failed and it doesn't even matter if I am a doctor or writer, I'll still feel like nothing...successful women are only considered a success if they are successful AND hot, and I worry constantly that I won't be. What if my boobs don't grow? What if I don't have the perfect body? What if my hips don't widen and give me a little waist? If none of that happens I feel like [sic] there's no point in doing anything because I'll just be the 'fat ugly girl' regardless of whether I do become a doctor or not.”

"Inside the dangerously empty lives of teenage girls":

T-shirts that say, “Yes, but not with you” are now sold to eight-year-olds. Girls understand what these T-shirts are about: pretending to be sexually aware. We have girls who are now putting on a pretense of adult sexuality that they couldn’t possibly feel, and the danger of putting on a show is that you lose touch with your own sexuality. You’re wearing a mask, and when you take off the mask, there’s not a face there. Another thing that’s happening is the acceleration of the onset of puberty. Girls are losing what psychologists used to call middle childhood: eight to 12 years of age, which is the age of Pippi Longstocking and Harriet the Spy, the time for girls to have adventures and develop a sense of who they are as people without worrying about whether they’re hot. ...In the ’70s and ’80s, sex was about intimacy, trying to give each other pleasure. Today, so many teenage girls I’ve spoken to across Canada and the U.S. regard sex as a commodity that girls provide to boys. Increasingly, unfortunately, that is the case... I find it troubling that so many girls are using their sexuality in an instrumental way, in order to accomplish some other end such as raising their social status, but not as an expression of their own [feelings and desires]. Girls spend a lot of time photoshopping their pictures, making themselves look a little bit thinner than they are and getting rid of the pimples, because they know boys are interested in the photos on these sites. So you’ve got 14-year-old girls essentially presenting themselves as a brand, trying to create a public persona, polishing an image of themselves that’s all surface: how you look and what you did yesterday, not who you are and what you want to be. And that leads to a sense of disconnection from themselves, because in most cases, these girls don’t even realize that their persona is not who they are. They’re just focused on striving to please their market and presenting the brand they think will sell. It’s one thing for Angelina Jolie to be doing this—she’s an adult—but it’s really toxic for a 14-year-old. It gets in the way of the real job of adolescence, which is figuring out who you are, what you want, what is your heart’s desire.

"For Teenage Girls, Facebook Means Always Being Camera-Ready":

Trying on 10 outfits and staring critically at the mirror before leaving the house is practically a teenage rite of passage. But these days, girls know precisely how their peers are judging them, thanks to the “Like” button on Facebook. “When I choose my profile picture, I want people to ‘Like,’ it,” said Grace. In fact, she and her friends are keenly aware of how to goose the numbers. “You get more ‘Likes’ if it’s a model shot and not a goofy picture with your friends,” she explained. The formula is simple: The more “Likes” you get, the more popular you appear. “Girls don’t just want to get ‘Likes’ from their close friends,” said 14-year-old Lily. “They want to get them from boys, or older kids or kids from other schools who are popular.” One way to be popular is to be sexy.

Cripes!

Artw — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 07:49:14 -0800

The Economist on the decline of British boy's comics as The Dandy ceases print publication. As it circles oblivion it risks joining the ranks of Whizzer and Chips, Buster, The Beezer and subversive late entry to the genre Oink. The days of the Great British girl's comic are sadly long passed.

a Disney princess besides Mulan whose mother is alive, let alone named

gerryblog — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 20:18:51 -0800

Just Another Princess Movie. Lili Loofbourow on Brave. I suppose most girls remember when they became aware of themselves as specifically female viewers. Growing up in the eighties, I watched movies about boys and girls with equal relish, empathizing with the protagonists and getting totally absorbed in story without my parts getting consciously in the way. When I realized the boys in my classes didn’t do the same thing — they refused to see themselves in female protagonists and found the prospect humiliating to contemplate — I felt I had overstepped my bounds. Feeling simultaneously embarrassed at being so profligate with my sympathy and spiteful towards those who weren’t, I started watching movies the way I was supposed to: as a girl, specifically. Boy, was it bleak.

It happens three times in every life. Or twice. Or once.

gauche — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 21:34:42 -0800

Two Little Girls Describe The Worst Haircut Ever (SLAudio)

I think I might be the voice of my generation. Or at least _a_ voice of _a_ generation.

coraline — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:51:26 -0800

"The world of entertainment still, all too often, values women only as objects of beauty to be placed on screen and ogled. [...] [T]he world is full of other women who have profound, intelligent, often hilarious things to say, and Dunham is very quietly making a space for those voices on TV, in a way that’s revolutionary both in terms of the show’s gender politics and in terms of its presentation. - AVClub critic TodVanDerWerff on "how [the HBO show] Girls challenges the masculine expectations of 'good TV.'" The weird backlash against Girls has been going on on the AVClub boards already from the comment section of the review of the first episode. Here is the piece, mentioned in the article, Alyssa Rosenberg made to Todd's original response to a commenter who said that "Lena Durham needs to be funnier because of how unattractive she is" (paraphrase, original comment deleted). On a more positive note, here is Todd's review of the show's season finale.

The ‘precious vagina’ can easily become the ‘shameful vagina’.

Kitty Stardust — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 13:26:48 -0800

One thing I am going to do differently as a parent is go easy on the ‘save sex for someone special’ rhetoric with my kids – both with my daughter and my son. Feminist and mother Blue Milk on the downside of encouraging young girls to "save themselves."

"You look nice. Who dressed you, the Great Depression?"

lunasol — Fri, 25 May 2012 08:52:59 -0800

What Should We Call Me? (a very silly tumblr for your Friday)

Season 1: Episode 1

kliuless — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:09:01 -0800

Girls is being compared to Louie.

"Perhaps in American cinema, women have typically been reduced to types like mom, girlfriend, or victim. But in the Y.A. books of our youth, they are far more complex, and more thoroughly drawn."

box — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:23:41 -0800

'The Atlantic Wire' kicks off its new YA For Grownups series with The Greatest Girl Characters of Young Adult Literature.

That just means he likes you!

Dojie — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:50:16 -0800

Look, if you want to tell your child that being verbally and/or physically abused is an acceptable sign of affection, i urge you to rethink your parenting strategy.

Princeless, Bayou Arcana, and more

flex — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 12:28:59 -0800

"Princeless" is a new comic book in the self-rescuing princesses genre (more page previews here and here) - perhaps a younger-audience example of women kicking back against comic-book sexism? (previously on MeFi - wik, alsø wik, alsø alsø wik)

"By no means am I saying that these shows aren’t compelling. They are."

flex — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:34:58 -0800

What Reality TV Does To Girls - referencing Jennifer Pozner's book and a new Girl Scout Research Institute national survey, this piece discusses "how did we get here?" and "how does this affect the viewer?" Jennifer Pozner talks about her work in Maclean's in much more depth.