Week 5: Chapter 5: Barbie vs. the Menstrual Kit (p. 167-201)

Summary:

The focus of this article was the “girls’ movement” within feminism that focused on younger girls and the issues that they faced. The authors discuss a work titled: In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan. Gilligan’s writing is a celebration of diverse experiences and “called for the appreciation of women’s voices, their different values and views” (p. 173). Approximately ten years later Gilligan started another work titled Making Connections. In this book she gave girls a voice by examining girls at a private school ranging from ages eleven to sixteen (previously a group that was not researched). Gilligan’s conclusion in both of these books was that women had to find their own voice and form strong relationships with other women starting from an early age.

Next, Baumgardner and Richards discuss another important figure in the girls’ movement, Nell Merlino. Merlino came up with the idea for “Take Our Daughters to Work Day” that was presented in the beginning of the chapter. This program was created to give girls a chance to see different kinds of working environments, especially if their own mother was not able to take them to work (for example, stay at home moms or women on welfare). The program was very successful and by 1999, fifty-six million adults and nineteen million girls had participated in the program. However, due to its immense success, not every program could be properly regulated. One issue within the girls’ movement is the portrayal of girls. The authors state that “The problem is not that we can’t simultaneously acknowledge girls’ strength and sexism; it is that girls are being labeled victims of society and, by implication, passive dupes whether or not they themselves feel this way” (p. 185). They also state that for future programs to be successful “We need to listen to girls instead of lecturing them” (p. 185).

Baumgardner and Richards discuss Barbie near the end of the chapter. They
begin by introducing the fact that “The literature of the girls’ movement might not be saying ‘you’re not thin enough or pretty enough,’ but it is saying ‘you’re not strong enough or confident enough’” (p. 191). Basically, girls are concerned with appearances and they should not be made to feel guilty for this reason. The title of the chapter comes from this section because the authors discuss “the menstrual kit” or the “first-blood ceremony.” This is supposed to be an empowering event, but it does not consider the girl’s point of view. They also provided an anecdote proving that the younger girls celebrating the ceremony often felt uncomfortable about it. This leads to the discussion of Barbie. Barbie has generally been viewed as very negative within the feminist movement. However, Baumgardner and Richards argue that girls do not always feel that they want to become Barbie, but often use the dolls to act out different scenarios and it really is not as negative an influence as everyone thinks. The authors do not dismiss Mattel though, and state that they have a responsibility to not give negative representations of women.

The concluding remarks of this chapter suggest that in order to improve girls’ self-esteem, and ultimately the women that they become, there needs to be a focus now on the younger generation. This needs to be accomplished by giving girls voice and the ability to make decisions.


Response:

I really enjoyed this chapter and I think that girls should be given voice within the feminist movement. This really was a difficult time of my life and I can only imagine how much it would have helped to have someone there to work through issues with me, especially if it was a group composed of my peers. I feel like adolescence can be a very isolating time and that by giving girls a support system it would ultimately help them to grow up and become well adjusted adults. I really feel like it would be best to stamp out self esteem issues immediately and give them the opportunity to really grow while they are still young. I think that this time period is also important when you consider identity. Overall, I thought the projects and programs presented in this chapter should be implemented on a larger scale.