The pinkification of girlhood - How surprised are you by the results of this survey?

Recently, I learned about an organization called Pinkstinks based in the UK. There’s also an active group in Germany and sometimes they spray messages on billboards (that’s how I got to know them).

http://www.pinkstinks.org.uk
http://pinkstinks.de

“Pinkstinks is a campaign that targets the products, media and marketing that prescribe heavily stereotyped and limiting roles to young girls. We believe that all children – girls and boys – are affected by the ‘pinkification’ of girlhood. Our aim is to challenge and reverse this growing trend. We also promote media literacy, self-esteem, positive body image and female role models for kids.”

These are worthy goals I fully support. How about you?

Now here are two percentages from a survey called ‘The Girls’ Attitudes Survey, Girlguiding UK’:

“Almost all [girls] feel that TV and magazines focus too much on what women look like instead of what they achieve (90 percent), and 82 percent think that there’s a lot of pressure on girls to wear the latest fashions and have the latest gadgets.”

I was quit surprised by this, but also pleased, because when girls (and boys) realize they get tricked by the media, the ads might lose their impact.

What else could be done about the problem? Boycotting products? Are there similar organizations in the US?

Do you know of ads highlighting what girls and women achieve (instead of how they look)?