1. How did the book get started? Was there a specific moment when you knew — "I must write this!"?

Sharon: For me it was reading Lyn's analysis of children's programming in her book Girlfighting. It was very much like what I had been asking my students to do in my Gender Issues in Psychology class.

Lyn: I was shocked by how many products were sold to girls using girlfighting images. But marketers know how to create anxiety (by suggesting other girls might be whispering, pointing, laughing, competing) in order to sell girls something to relieve that anxiety. Sharon asked me if I wanted to write about the whole culture of marketing and media and how it packages a certain kind of girlhood and I jumped at the chance to work with her.

2. How many daughters do you have? What was the hardest part about talking to her/them about media literacy?

Sharon: I have no daughters but Lyn will probably have some things to tell you about that. I certainly teach my sons about media literacy. The hardest thing is that they argue with me that I am OVER analyzing everything —

Lyn: I have a 12 year old daughter. The hardest part was when she was very young, watching her face when a cartoon character would say something bad about girls, suggesting girls weren't as funny or smart or imply that being a girl was icky or that girls didn't like things that I knew she loved — like catching frogs or getting dirty. That's when we first starting talking about how the images she sees on TV aren't real and that she can make different choices. It's hard conveying that to really young girls who can't yet distinguish fantasy from reality.

3. While teaching media literacy is necessary, do you think anything could be done (consumer pressure, etc) to convince companies to offer more options for girls or to change their products?

Sharon: Competition. We need more creative companies and investors to compete.

Lyn: Agree! And as consumers, we need to demand better than we're getting.

4. Did marketers limit girls when you were growing up? If so, was it limiting in the same or different ways? Did "girl power" exist? If so, did it mean something different then?

Sharon: Girl power was an invention of the 80s that followed 2nd wave feminism...we didn't even have Title IX when I was a girl; the options for girls when I was growing up seemed to be all motherhood/nurturing vs. bad girl... It was limiting but we weren't constanty being exposed to the media and marketers as girls are today.

Lyn: Marketers co-opted girl power to sell girls the illusion of choice, freedom, and power through consumerism. It's not so much that this is a new idea — to use a popular issue or movement to sell products — it's just that when we were young it was just TV, and a few channels. Today it's mega-companies invested in all forms of media — TV, movies, toy sales, internet, magazines and with increasingly complex and subtle forms of advertising — product placement, viral marketing, immersive advertising. They have so much more influence and opportunity to create reality.

5. What were you most repulsed by when researching for the book? What were you most inspired by?

Sharon: Most repulsed by turning Dora the Explorer into a princess. Most inspired by some of the movies and good books we list — maybe the Girlcott by the girls who protested the A&F t-shirts...

Lyn: Repulsed by the Girl Scouts joining with Limited 2 to deliver girls to a L2 concert (and products), by sexist ad campaigns and t-shirt slogans that define girls as competitive, boy crazy, bitchy, and mean. Inspired by music artists like India Arie and Ani DiFranco.

6. According to Packaging Girlhood, Disney movies often portray women in unhealthy ways/roles. What is the best advice you have to convince a Disney lover that those princesses may not the best role models?

Sharon: I don't think Disney lovers think that these are good role models; they just think that there's so much more that the films offer. I don't think I could convince them —

Lyn: Agree. I think they would have to see and agree that the Disney girl images are connected to ideas and qualities that aren't great for girls when they grow up--being saved by a man, staying in relationships that aren't good (or trying to change a beast into a prince), being willing to give up your voice for a boy, not having girlfriends or women you can trust, being content with sewing, housework, and talking to animals....

7. Has anything happened as a result of the book that you did not expect?

Sharon: We won an award — Books for a Better Life Award. YAY!

Lyn: And we've heard from so many parents that the book has had a real impact on how they parent. That's fabulous!

8. Will there be a new edition in the future?

Sharon: The paperback is out and we're starting work on a Packaging Boyhood with Mark Tappan.

Lyn: Due out in 2009.

Interview by B. Brownholtz

Find out more about Packaging Girlhood at packaginggirlhood.com or read Sharon and Lyn's blog at packaginggirlhood.typepad.com.

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