WUNRN
GIRL SCOUTS PROMOTE HEALTHIER MEDIA
FOR GIRLS' SELF ESTEEM
"Watch what you watch." That's the Girl
Scouts' new public service announcement. It's part of a project to improve
girls' social and emotional well-being by teaming up with studios and
advertisers to promote healthier media.
WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)--The days of inaccurate,
stereotypical or even missing portrayals of women and girl characters on
television and in movies are long over.
Or so actress Geena Davis was told when she approached
studio and television executives six years ago about the problem she was seeing
in the shows and films she was watching with her then-2-year-old daughter.
"That issue has been taken care of,"
To persuade them otherwise,
"They were shocked," said
Among the findings she showed the executives: Males were
nearly three-quarters of all characters in the 400 top-grossing films in a
recent 16-year period, and animated movies are more likely to portray both
women and girls in sexually-revealing attire than live action films.
Other researchers have found that the more television a girl watches the less likely she is to believe that she will be successful. At the same time, the more hours of television a boy watches, the more likely he is to hold sexist views of girls.
Dora the Explorer in Short Supply
Dora the Explorer--Nickelodeon's intrepid animated
girl adventurer--as it turns out, is still an exception to the rule.
Girl Scouts of the
The group--an umbrella organization for 3.4 million girls
in scouting troops--has enlisted the help of such industry leaders as the
National Association of Broadcasters and the National Cable and Television
Association. The goal is to get entertainment and media companies to improve
the images of girls projected by
The girls' image campaign and ongoing gatherings is led
by a partnership of 12 groups representing girls' advocates, broadcasters,
studios and lobbying firms. The Girl Scouts said they have no funding numbers
to put on the project, just "countless staff hours."
As part of this effort, the Girl Scouts lobbied for
support of proposed federal legislation--introduced by Reps. Tammy Baldwin, a
Wisconsin Democrat, and Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican in
March--to fund more detailed research on media's impact on girls.
Additionally, a national "Watch What You Watch" public service announcement sponsored by The Creative Coalition, a nonprofit, nonpartisan political advocacy group of the entertainment industry, began airing on cable outlets on Oct. 15. It is aimed at girls and recommends avoiding broadcasts or Internet sites that feature negative images of girls.
Social and Emotional Well-Being
"Girls' social and emotional well-being is not being
talked about [in pop culture] in a way that makes sense to girls," said
Laurie Westley, senior vice president of Girl Scouts of the
The Scouts' decision to partner with media groups,
instead of attacking or boycotting them, follows the lead of one of its
partners, The Entertainment Industry Council, based in
One sign of the council's success: a leap in industry
nominations from 35 in its first year in 1997 to 430 last year. The group says
that television producers are also increasing their requests for mental-health
advisors.
Marie Gallo Dyak, an executive vice president for the
council, says it will be easy to pitch more positive media portraits of girls
to studios and networks.
"There are not only amazing women with stories to be
told, but there are also a lot of men with amazing women in their lives,"
she told Women's eNews.