http://www.today.com/money/who-says-girl-insult-not-empoweri... (there is a video on the site that is very good)
Who says 'like a girl' is an insult? Not this empowering new tampon ad
Since when did "throw like a girl" become an insult? According to a new ad from Always, somewhere around puberty.
The new campaign had a documentary filmmaker ask women, men and boys to act out what "throw like a girl" and "run like a girl" mean. Out came the stereotypical limp arms and silly facial expressions. Then she asked pre-pubescent girls the same questions. The viewer's heart can't help but melt as the kids throw, run, and fight as fast and as fierce as they can, demolishing "like a girl" as a negative social myth.
Then the swelling music swooshes in.
The video was spurred by a new study from Research Now, sponsored by Always, that found more than half of the girls surveyed claimed their self-confidence levels dropped around puberty and when they got their first period. So the feminine products manufacturer says it's trying to spark a broader conversation around female confidence. And yes, there's a hashtag.
"We're kicking off an epic battle to make sure that girls everywhere keep their confidence throughout puberty and beyond, and making a start by showing them that doing it #LikeAGirl is an awesome thing," wrote the P&G brand in the description on its YouTube clip, which has over 10 million views.
The campaign is part of a larger trend to recast as a social statement which brand of female-marketed products you choose. Dove has been doing "social experiments as ads" for a few years now, GoldieBlox launched a line of girl-empowering engineering toys, and startup Hello Flo has caught attention with its frank and funny ads about girls getting their first periods.
It's still marketing, however. Click through to the landing page Always has set up for the campaign and there's little more than prompts to re-tweet the message and buy more feminine hygiene products.
Comments
Chicken and egg
Yes the film is built around a marketing campaign but isn't this a chicken an egg situation? I don't think advertisers create a desire rather they try to exploit one. I'm not going to throw away my vacuum cleaner just because it became synonymous with the company Hoover in the time I grew up in England.
Rhona McCloud
I'm for anything
That promotes Girl/Woman power. Its always been a pet peeve of mine when girls I knew downplayed their intelligence.
Then again, at least here in the USA, girls are seriously outpacing boys in going to and graduating College. I wonder what the future holds when the women are better equipped/educated and men are left behind intellectually.
What we really need is more women to run for office and get a real balance in all branches of government.
{{Hugs}}
"Then again, at least here in
"Then again, at least here in the USA, girls are seriously outpacing boys in going to and graduating College"
The number of men is increasing too. There is also the rise of apprenticeships for engineering and tech jobs run by the major companies in the sectors that are almost entirely filled by men and which offer university-quality, specialized training.
I also think that the change in the education systems in both the US and UK has skewed things in favour of women.
In Britain (not sure how it works in the US) we have things called Key Stages. Years 1 and 2 is one key stage, 3-6 is another key stage, 7-9 is another and 10-11 is the last one, with sixth form collage making up years 12 and 13.
The old system, which had very little difference between success rates for males and females, was where the curriculum was not based around individually graded modules. At the end of each key stage in middle school and high school (years 7-13), there would be a 'do or die' test or tests which were up to and over 4 hours long and could be on anything covered over the previous 2-3 years.
Males and females had almost equal success rates, with boys having a slight lead.
Now, with the 'feminisation' of the education system and what is essentially a war against male behaviour (no running, no rough games, no contact sports, no fighting, mischievousness etc etc, you know, natural behaviour of young boys), things have changed - for the worse, especially in the long term.
Now, with modular systems, females have a not massive but noticeable lead over their male counterparts. Modular systems of education are, for some reason, easily taken to by females however males tend to not like modular education. They prefer the 'do-or-die' testing.
What does this mean?
Well, for the males who do manage to get good grades and get into collage or into an apprenticeship, nothing will change.
However, there i s a growing group of men who are highly dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. They have been told they are 'bad' for doing what comes naturally to them. They have been ridiculed and told they aren't as good as the girls just for being male. They dont get the support they may need due to some misplaced belief in some sort of 'male privilege'. Etc etc etc.
This breeds substance abuse. This leads to depression and ultimately suicide. This leads to individuals and even gangs who essentially say 'fuck the world' and decide to do what they want, when they want. This leads to an increase in crime.
But the biggest and most noticeable problem is that it leads to anger, and anger leads to hate.
If things do not change, if humanism does not overcome radical feminism and the problems afflicting men are not sorted with the same degree of fervour radical feminists tackled 'problems', then things will turn out badly.
"What we really need is more women to run for office and get a real balance in all branches of government."
Women on average tend to not go for jobs which require high degrees of competitiveness.
Education and job training ....
.... aren't the same thing. This is a time when many have been trained for jobs that no longer exist without having had the benefit of an education to help them cope with change. Sex and gender are usually peripheral issues except outsiders are often the first to recognise and demand to have the right to take advantage new opportunities
The last thing I want is to see the children of my family used as cannon fodder in some external war trumped up to keep a marginalised domestic population under control.
Rhona McCloud
I believe it's the entire western school system...
...misinterpreting the former feminism to hinder boys from getting the same good grades as the girls. The radical 'feminism' as it is currently practiced in the western hemisphere aims more to surpress males than to foster equality of both sexes. It starts in school, if not even in kindergarden, that girls are encouraged in competitive activities whereas boys are strongly discouraged in engaging in their competitiveness.
I can only agree with kahnage. This increasingly readical 'feminism' becomes more and more organised hatred towards males. As kahnage already writes I am too afraid that this will not only lead to more suicides among young males but also to open hatred and war between men and women.
The feminism I believe in is inclusive and stands for equality, for empowering girls and women to the same make careers as men. We do not need quotas, we also do not need the same number of males and females in every branche of the government or every industry. We need the most competent people for every job, regardless of their sex. We need the same chances for boys and girls, for men and women. We need the same, good education for everyone and we need to teach them social skills like team work.
--
>> There is not one single truth out there. <<
Hmm...
I probably shouldn't. But I will anyway.
There is no inherent "male" quality that encourages rough housing, or rough play. I know other gals who grew up playing with trucks, tackling their brothers to the ground and hitting as hard if not harder than the boys around them. Granted I was more of a gentle girl growing up, I did try to play with my brothers and hurt myself so much x.x But still not every female is the same.
These statistics do seem quite bad (though I would like a source as none of my sources point to this at all)
And the thing about women on average tend to not go for jobs which require high degrees of competition? Bullshit, they are brainwashed as children NOT to do these things and yes sadly not too many have been going against the programming but that's life. Though honestly more and more HAVE been so I guess that statement isn't entirely true. Need I remind you of the group that threatened Hilary's life if she ever became president? That's a pretty damn big deterrent.
Seriously, I'd love some sources of this and I'd like to know what group of men you are talking about? And male privilege is real sweetie. So is white privilege, black privilege, asian privilege, tall privilege, thin privilege, able privilege ect. Just because it's real though doesn't mean it has to be used in a fashion in which to halt heatlhy discussion.
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D
So...
I would love to throw like a girl, or a guy, or anyone in good health without vision problems.
I have no depth perception in half my field of vision.
I suck at throwing.
:(
Internet High Fives All Around
Stardraigh
( •_•)>⌐■-■
My Deviantart
(⌐■_■)
perfect
I think those is the only comment that speaks the truth of the matter in its simplest form, all the others are just regurgitatedd generic arguments.
♥♥
Throw like a girl?
If someone thinks "throws like a girl" is an insult, they've never seen a fast pitch softball game.
Isn't this
about the previous labelling of girls as being unable to look after themselves, thus are property of males which still exists in such things as the 'fair sex'. We need to stop seeing either sex/gender in isolation and begin to see the people society needs and where everyone is encouraged to develop their unique potential to the optimum. We need a society that is inclusive and doesn't abandon its dissenters but encourages them to explore their needs and fill them. Utopia, perhaps, but without dreams how can we see the future?
Sadly at the same time we need to be wary of alternative cultures where mediaeval values still seem to be held and who seem to feel a god given right to malign and damage our values.
Angharad