[Wamvan] Fwd: Too Skinny Minnie & Gendered Halloween Costumes

Fri Oct 19 10:25:04 PDT 2012

Thought I would share a couple things in this latest Miss Rep newsletter,
below. I didn't even hear about the skinny Minnie Mouse thing. Of course,
some argue the capitalist, sexist, patriarchal institution of Disney on the
whole should be boycotted (so singling out this one example of bizarro body
re-designing is moot) but still, interesting.

Another subject here is Halloween. Jarrah Hodge at Gender Focus recently
published a great post
<http://www.gender-focus.com/2012/10/06/halloween-2012-not-just-sexy-costumes/>on
the sexy Halloween costume phenomenon on Gender Focus, complete with
alternative, very creative costume ideas.

And on a related note, I know Miss Representation was recently screened at
UBC, and the panel after included WAM! Van community members Jarrah (go
Jarrah, busy lady!) and Beth Hong, one of the organizers of the first WAM
van conference back in 2011.

Who was there? How did it go? I couldn't make it, but would love to hear
any highlights of the discussion :)

cheers,

Nat

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Miss Representation <Miss_Representation at mail.vresp.com>
Date: Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 9:09 AM
Subject: Too Skinny Minnie & Gendered Halloween Costumes
To: nhill10 at gmail.com

<http://cts.vresp.com/fbl?93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/http%3A%2F%2Fhosted-p0.vresp.com%2F816967%2F93073e9a1a%2FARCHIVE%23like>
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**

[image: actionalert]<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/ff5146500d>

Dear Natalie,

The recent "re-imagining" of Disney's Minnie Mouse, the iconic animated
character beloved by children the world over, is a frightening example of
our culture increasingly sexualizing children and perpetuating a limiting
standard of beauty for women and girls. The new
Minnie<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/d1408aea39>,
created for retailer Barneys New York, is depicted impossibly skinny and is
stretched beyond recognition. In its efforts to sell a product to young
women, Disney and Barneys are reinforcing the media's already unhealthy and
dangerous body ideals for girls.

With Halloween fast approaching, the season for scary displays of sexism is
upon us. Costume shopping for October 31st has become a disturbing yearly
experience - an unavoidable reminder of just how much money is being made
through the objectification, sexualization, and degradation of women.

These days you can put "sexy" in front of nearly anything and make it into
a Halloween costume for women (in fact, there's already a "Sexy Minnie
Mouse<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/07794f1505>"
costume); and, as a result, girls are learning at younger and younger ages
that the* point* of Halloween is to show off their bodies.

Last year we wrote<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/c402a8323f>
:

 "Halloween seems to amplify our cultural trend of women being raised to
manipulate their bodies and boys being taught to master their environments.
With these costumes, are we again teaching girls to value themselves only
for their beauty and boys to glorify violence? When are we going to provide
a wider array of opportunities for our girls to portray characters that
aren’t easily objectified or sexualized? Where are the costumes for my
daughter that actually represent power or authority?"

 We want to counter gender stereotypes again this year by presenting
positive Halloween alternatives for our daughters *and* sons.

*This week, submit your favorite positive costume ideas on
Tumblr<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/e5a35902c0>or
send them to us via email!
*

You can also use
#NotBuyingIt<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/5bd5954c5c>on
Twitter to call out the most egregious and offensive costumes - not to
mention companies - you find.

Over the next two weeks we'll spotlight the best costume ideas from Tumblr
and continue to keep pressure on
retailers<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/426bde0269>and
corporate America to give our children healthy ideas on who and what
they can become!

Warmly,
Jennifer Siebel Newsom & The MissRepresentation.org Team

Facebook<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/64e428e693>
 | Twitter<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/57a2071477>
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|
Pinterest<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/f82ed0823a>|
YouTube<http://cts.vresp.com/c/?MissRepresentation/93073e9a1a/1eb99f04bd/740645022d>

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