Spark a Movement

I went to my bff's house to learn about an issue that she has always been riled up about, the sexualization of girls in the media.  She is involved in an organization that is actually helping change that.  It is called Spark Summit with the tagline Spark a Movement. 

Just like our eating habits changed in the 70's when we got really good at making delicious high calorie fake food the sexualization of girls and women has changed too.  If you take a look at old magazines such as Seventeen in the 70's, you do not see photoraphs geared towards sexuality like we do today. 

What separates this organization is that it was built because of findings through research.  For instance, those sexy ads that supposedly make women feel good about themselves actually make women bad about their own bodies. 

Awhile ago there was a big controversary around Legos creating pink toys that were submissive and directly geared towards young girls.  Spark got involved and found themselves talking with the top people at Lego about why they should not be creating legos that are gender based for the princess in them.  They listened. There was recently a controvery surrounding Seventeen magazine where a young woman complained about the photoshopping of every girls in Seventeen magazine.  Once again, Spark got involved and that woman spoke directly to Seventeen.  BTW, there have been articles written about how Seventeen undermines young women for years.

Here is the mission: SPARK is a girl-fueled activist movement to demand an end to the sexualization  of women and girls in media. We're collaborating with hundreds of girls 13-22 and more than 60 national organizations to reject the commodified, sexualized images of girls in media and support the development of girls' healthy sexuality and self-esteem.

This is no doubt that this is an issue that ties back directly into posts I have written about women needing to be more confident in pitching their businesses and not making sure that every single T is crossed and every single I is dotted before they move forward.  Take control of your desinty.  Here it is about women taking control of the media.  This group has decided to be the champions of something that we all know exist. 

Glad to see someone is finally saying that ads like the one above is just not ok or more little girls are going to be believe that at 4 being sexy is the only way they are going to move forward in life or get attention.