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"I'm a Barbie girl in a fabulous world."

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I recently spent some time watching afternoon cartoons on Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network, and look what I found.

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“Nerf’s N-Strike arsenal has a specialized blaster for any mission”

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“4 Ever Kidz pets. It’s snap on fashion play”

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“Dirt, mud, we don’t care. These trucks go almost anywhere”

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“…Barbie girls and we’re making the scene. Our jammin’ jeep wrangler is one glam machine”

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Holy crap! What is going on here!?

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Clearly it’s been a while since I’ve raced home after school to watch cartoons but I

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was amazed how highly gendered these commercials were.

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Have they changed or did I just not notice them before?

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The messages being promoted in these commercials are deeply restricting and

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severely limit the development of boys and girls in different ways.

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The ads are actively demonstrating that boys and girls have different social roles and skills

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that are highly stereotyped and just outright sexist.

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So let’s take a closer look at ads targeted directly at boys.

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“Battleground. Prepare to attack. Fire”

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“Whose gonna win? Whose gonna win? YA”

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“Arc light powered up. 3 in 1 repulser. Ready for action.”

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“Close combat pistol. Rapid fire blaster”

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“Always ready for action, G.I. Joe. Are you in?”

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“Defend the castle! Imaginx Adventure”

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Boys have power and get to be active and destroy things, YA!

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These commercials directed at boys value competition, being in control,

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having power, and conquering and commanding.

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Those values restrict the acceptable options for what boys are allowed to express emotionally,

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I’ve yet to see a commercial where boys are nurturing or caring.

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They are limited in examples of how to react to problems and how to solve conflicts.

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They are taught to fight, to be competitive and to be aggressive.

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I noticed that there are also a few other reoccuring messages embedded in these ads targeted at boys.

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“Bat cave building power. Trio building system lets you build the ultimate Trio bat cave. YA!”

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“You can build the massive Neptune sub.”

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“You can build up and customize your heavy duty truck with tons of parts”

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“You decide how much firepower to arm your ships with then build your fleet and battle your way to victory.”

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These ads encourage boys to build new worlds, use their imaginations and be creative.

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They are actively making and constructing.

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These are the training blocks for creative and fulfilling adult lives.

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The confidence that is fostered through the act of making and building and doing is

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something that is almost entirely lacking in girls toys commercials.

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“The Liv girls have a flair for hair”

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“I can make my own magic snow”

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“Change the colour, change the style, add the gel and look at the glitter”

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“The easy way to make designer cakes. Bake your cake in the microwave in 30 seconds.”

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“… beauty of the bride, share the gown and light up ring, handsome groom and everything”

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“Go Go and me we’re walking round, Go Go and me we’ve hit the town.”

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“Baby alive is so real, you can feed her. ‘I made a stinky.’

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And then she leaves an uh-oh in her diaper.”

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So girls get to play with sparkly glitter and bake cakes and changing stinky diapers,

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how fun!

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Commercials targeted at girls heavily focus on teaching child rearing, homemaking,

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domestic work, popularity, self image and an obsession with beauty.

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This restricts their imagination of what women are capable of and prioritizes appearances over intelligence.

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They are not encouraged to be creative, to build and construct and really take control of their environments.

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Girls toys are generally unimaginative and lack the creative element of play

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that is critical in the development of young people.

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We can see this even in the way the same basic product is marketed differently to boys and girls.

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“Moon Sand is the amazing moldable, squishable, buildable, demolishable sand that never dries out.”

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“Moon Sand is the amazing moldable, holdable, decoratable sand that never dries out.”

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Clearly this isn’t a coincidence since advertisers spend $17 BILLION dollars a year marketing to youth.

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That’s billion, with a ‘B’.

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Young people are seeing more than 25,000 advertisements a year on television alone,

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and that doesn’t even include product placement which is so common on popular television shows.

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The enormous amount of money advertisers are spending isn’t just on producing and airing ads,

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it’s also spent on the latest neuroscience research to find out EXACTLY what images,

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feelings and representations will appeal the most to developing minds.

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Although many factors influence our socialization such as families, peer groups,

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churches and schools, the media plays a highly critical role.

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Advertising aimed at youth is especially dangerous because young children are

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unable to differentiate between television programming and commercials,

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they are still developing the necessary critical skills.

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Youth may have a hard time recognizing that these commercials are teaching them what is

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expected, what is desired and what is possible for their genders, for their careers,

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for love, relationships and creative endeavors in the future.

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These messages are so manipulative, deeply embedded and carefully crafted

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that it’s even hard for us as adults to recognize them.

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As someone whose really interested in promoting and encouraging the use of technology in young women,

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I found a stark difference in the way technology is marketed to boys and girls.

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Girls get a fun little purple computer that’s “hot”

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or a program that can help them cook and look pretty.

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“It’s the Bratz laptop with over 100 games, you can have fun learning.

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It’s fun, smart and hot.”

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“In my fashion mall, make pizzas, do makeovers and more,

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and throw the ultimate pajama party.”

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Whereas boys get to go online and play adventure games.

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“Become a pirate and join thousands online.

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Captain your ship and command the seas.”

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“Now you can be the hero and join your friends in an epic online adventure.”

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One of the reasons that the gender specific marketing of technology is so concerning is

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when we look at the statistics of adult women in technology fields.

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Only 3% of open source programmers are women

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and only 11.5% of video game developers are women.

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Although as I stated, there are many factors that affect the jobs and careers people enter,

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it is not hard to connect gendered advertising at such a young age

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to the socialization of women who don’t feel confident or supported in

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heavily male dominated and male identified tech fields.

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I was originally going to say that “We need to hold the media accountable for what they are teaching our young people”

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but no, really...

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advertising directed specifically at young people needs to STOP altogether, no exceptions.

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A precedent has already been set to implement these types of restrictions.

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Quebec has banned print and broadcast advertisements for youth under the age of 13

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and Sweden has banned advertisements for youth under the age of 12.

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In the mean time we need to encourage critical media literacy skills in people of all ages.

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I’ll leave you with an amazing remix created by some female youth at Reel Grrls during a workshop with Jonathan McIntosh.

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They were able to actively resist these harmful media messages and really begin to talk back to the media

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by simply swapping the audio and video of gendered commercial.

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The results are hilarious and very illuminating.

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“Nerf’s N-Strike arsenal has a specialized blaster for any mission.

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You can improve your blasting speed with the maverick rapid fire blaster.

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While the night fighters light beam targeting system allows for pin point accuracy.

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And you can nail targets from long distance with Nerf’s long shot blaster.

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Two blasters in one, quick fire clips and detachable scope, everything you need to blast your skills to the next level.

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N-Strike, blaster sold separately, batteries not included. Nerf.”