At our blog, we pride ourselves on being authors who write
intelligent, strong, positive heroines. As a group of bloggers, we work to
support each other in our publishing careers. When you are around these types of women, you forget that
not all women are treated in the same manner. Three stories this week make that
issue abundantly clear.
First, Disney faced a maelstrom of criticism with their
choice to give Merida, from the movie Brave, a makeover.
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| Original Merida |
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| "Makeover" Merida |
Second, H&M rolled out their summer campaign featuring a
model more in line with the average American woman, only to face comments that
she’s too fat and she needs to lose weight.
Finally, an Oklahoma City Thunder NBA cheerleader, was
called out on a blog post, written by a woman, for being “too chunky.” The
passive aggressive nature of the post is a thin veil for its meanness. The blogger thinks the cheerleader is beautiful, but she's just "discussing what men like." Did this
post even need to be written?
The lack of sisterhood is disturbing and it’s very
pervasive. Even on something like reality competitions where the American
public votes, most of the winners turn out to be “attractive” boys, the magnet
for the tween/teen girls who tend to vote. While watching Good Morning America
on Friday, where they were discussing this week’s Dancing with the Stars finale,
an anchor mentioned she thought the lone male left standing would win because young
girls are the ones “who vote.” On shows like Survivor, where alliances are
important, you rarely see women align together, even when they have the numbers
on their side.
Am I the lone “conspiracist,” foil hat and all, for seeing a
link between these stories? Or am I a seeing a problem where none exists?
