We need more Lindsay Lohan.
Actually, we need Lindsay Lohan to eat more. But if that happened, we'd have more Lindsay Lohan, so same diff.
If you read past the title, you're either a fourteen year-old girl or someone who is busy suppressing righteous outrage borne of my suggestion that there is some kind of a double-L shortage. Let's assume, though, that either way you're going to pay attention to the rest of what I say. It's why I wake up in the morning, after all - I do love me the attention.
I had to do a radio show last night. I say "had to do it" because I am just stupid enough to book myself into a radio show in the middle of the Super Bowl - you know, the biggest sporting event of the year, one of the biggest shared pop cultural moments, the evening in which all sorts of new commercials are premiered, and a big gathering with a bunch of friends - all things that I hate, obviously. So I trundle my miserable ass up to Yonge and St Clair where I am greeted by the lovely Dr. Karyn Gordon, who had asked me to join her on her call-in show. CFRB 1010: not just the home of misinformed Sun readers (ooh, redundant), it's also a place for niche talk shows like hers, called "Bridging the Gap". Helping parents to connect with teens, and all that.
I had asked Laurie Mah, who works with me, for any issues that I should bring to the table - things that we are seeing with young girls, specifically, since that is one of her areas of expertise. Here's what Laurie had to say:
"Something interesting that i experienced in a focus group on eating/ health... these young girls seemed to be oddly 'proud' of knowing about diets and stuff. they seemed to brag about not eating lunch, not having money to eat anything all day. I was hoping that in this day of DOVE beauty campaigns, that we would be moving towards broader views of beauty and greater acceptance of one's own looks. is there something we can derive from this? was this just one set of vain girls from Toronto, fronting?"
Now, sure, Laurie says things like "fronting," but that doesn't mean she's wrong. What the hell is happening? Shouldn't even our most conspicuous consumers be loving Lululemon, dazzled by Dove and harping over Healthy Choices? And shouldn't there be some sort of button on your computer that automatically deletes alliteration like that?
So if we're living in the age of healthy branding, why are so many young girls too thin (and don't get me started on why so many young girls and boys are too large)? The truth of the matter is that celebrity is more important than ever because we are giving it more importance than ever. And the younger one is, the more one looks to cues from the outside world as to how to act, how to look, what to buy and how to be. That is a natural part of the journey to self-definition - we amalgamate all sort of outside influences and turn ourselves into a sum that is (hopefully) more than the parts of all that.
For girls, celebrity equals lifestyle - now, more than ever. It's why there are so many successful celebrity 'brands' aimed at young women. MaryKateandAshley, the indestructible Hilary Duff - they would have simply been actresses (generous, I know) or actress-singers (doubly generous, I know) in the past, with commiserate merchandise, bearing their likenesses. Now, they are clothing lines and accessories. You used to want to wear your favourites on your t-shirt or hang them on your wall - now, you want to wear what they wear and hang what they hang.
Which gets me back to Lindsay. Aside from inspiring millions of teenage girls to drive really badly, she can also inspire them to be really, really thin. And when hotties like Kate Winslet are considered overweight - really - my liberal white male guilt gets all fired up. Who the hell is going to start sending some positive body messages to young girls in a way that resonates as much as starring in a goddamn Herbie movie? And how terrifying is that last sentence?
This isn't something that I think about all that often - my deep love of Veronica Mars notwithstanding, I'm not a teenage girl. I'm also not one of those guys who took Gender Studies courses to meet girls, so if any of this appears self-serving, it's really just that I work in the pop culture industry. I'm not trying to curry anyone's favour. But I meet a lot of young people over the course of my work. For me, there is nothing as impressive as meeting a 16- or 17-year-old girl who has all of her shit together (at that age, sorry, they really do mature more quickly than boys). I speak to these girls and there is this amazing feeling of possibility. It's awesome. Speaking to someone and knowing that they are going to well, and that the people they choose to bring into their circle will be enriched, as well. Conversely - and this might be transference from my own experiences - I just think internalised disappointment with one's self is just about the worst, especially when it's driven by such ridiculous external messages.
The next step, I guess, is to see if a Raven or an America Ferrara can cross over. Or maybe for one of them to eat Mary-Kate. That's a win-win, I think.
If you read past the title, you're either a fourteen year-old girl or someone who is busy suppressing righteous outrage borne of my suggestion that there is some kind of a double-L shortage. Let's assume, though, that either way you're going to pay attention to the rest of what I say. It's why I wake up in the morning, after all - I do love me the attention.
I had to do a radio show last night. I say "had to do it" because I am just stupid enough to book myself into a radio show in the middle of the Super Bowl - you know, the biggest sporting event of the year, one of the biggest shared pop cultural moments, the evening in which all sorts of new commercials are premiered, and a big gathering with a bunch of friends - all things that I hate, obviously. So I trundle my miserable ass up to Yonge and St Clair where I am greeted by the lovely Dr. Karyn Gordon, who had asked me to join her on her call-in show. CFRB 1010: not just the home of misinformed Sun readers (ooh, redundant), it's also a place for niche talk shows like hers, called "Bridging the Gap". Helping parents to connect with teens, and all that.
I had asked Laurie Mah, who works with me, for any issues that I should bring to the table - things that we are seeing with young girls, specifically, since that is one of her areas of expertise. Here's what Laurie had to say:
"Something interesting that i experienced in a focus group on eating/ health... these young girls seemed to be oddly 'proud' of knowing about diets and stuff. they seemed to brag about not eating lunch, not having money to eat anything all day. I was hoping that in this day of DOVE beauty campaigns, that we would be moving towards broader views of beauty and greater acceptance of one's own looks. is there something we can derive from this? was this just one set of vain girls from Toronto, fronting?"
Now, sure, Laurie says things like "fronting," but that doesn't mean she's wrong. What the hell is happening? Shouldn't even our most conspicuous consumers be loving Lululemon, dazzled by Dove and harping over Healthy Choices? And shouldn't there be some sort of button on your computer that automatically deletes alliteration like that?
So if we're living in the age of healthy branding, why are so many young girls too thin (and don't get me started on why so many young girls and boys are too large)? The truth of the matter is that celebrity is more important than ever because we are giving it more importance than ever. And the younger one is, the more one looks to cues from the outside world as to how to act, how to look, what to buy and how to be. That is a natural part of the journey to self-definition - we amalgamate all sort of outside influences and turn ourselves into a sum that is (hopefully) more than the parts of all that.
For girls, celebrity equals lifestyle - now, more than ever. It's why there are so many successful celebrity 'brands' aimed at young women. MaryKateandAshley, the indestructible Hilary Duff - they would have simply been actresses (generous, I know) or actress-singers (doubly generous, I know) in the past, with commiserate merchandise, bearing their likenesses. Now, they are clothing lines and accessories. You used to want to wear your favourites on your t-shirt or hang them on your wall - now, you want to wear what they wear and hang what they hang.
Which gets me back to Lindsay. Aside from inspiring millions of teenage girls to drive really badly, she can also inspire them to be really, really thin. And when hotties like Kate Winslet are considered overweight - really - my liberal white male guilt gets all fired up. Who the hell is going to start sending some positive body messages to young girls in a way that resonates as much as starring in a goddamn Herbie movie? And how terrifying is that last sentence?
This isn't something that I think about all that often - my deep love of Veronica Mars notwithstanding, I'm not a teenage girl. I'm also not one of those guys who took Gender Studies courses to meet girls, so if any of this appears self-serving, it's really just that I work in the pop culture industry. I'm not trying to curry anyone's favour. But I meet a lot of young people over the course of my work. For me, there is nothing as impressive as meeting a 16- or 17-year-old girl who has all of her shit together (at that age, sorry, they really do mature more quickly than boys). I speak to these girls and there is this amazing feeling of possibility. It's awesome. Speaking to someone and knowing that they are going to well, and that the people they choose to bring into their circle will be enriched, as well. Conversely - and this might be transference from my own experiences - I just think internalised disappointment with one's self is just about the worst, especially when it's driven by such ridiculous external messages.
The next step, I guess, is to see if a Raven or an America Ferrara can cross over. Or maybe for one of them to eat Mary-Kate. That's a win-win, I think.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home