Generation Diva

I'm expecting a baby girl in August, and this article is pretty scary. I was already nervous about the awful sexual messages that are being forced on girls today (the most sexually agressive girl usually wins the guy on reality shows), and now I'm nervous about this issue too! I plan on doing everything I can to teach her to value her intelligence, humor, and ability to be a good friend, but how can I help how the world treats her? I won't be buying her any makeup before at least 13, but what can I tell her if boys don't pay attention to her because she doesn't have bleached blond hair and fake nails? I believe that men are as brainwashed as women by the constant media flood of images of "perfect women", and can almost understand why girls and women are so desperate to keep up.

I have to confess that I get annoyed when I go to my local manicure place and I see a bunch of 6 year olds getting the same manicure and pedicure that I started getting well into my 20's. I think the message is that it is a harmless way for these little girls to " feel pampered" but at 6, or 8 or even 12, I think girls should learn other things, and graduate to beauty "chores" ( nothing I hate more than watching paint dry after a manicure or a pedicure, for instance) later in life. It is a question of priorities and degrees of relevance on one's life over the long haul. As long as we send a message to girls and little girls that what counts the MOST for a woman is her looks,we will continue to perpetuate the objectivization of females. As far as the way "fat" women are regarded, I am one of those, and I assure all you skinny malevolent bony b...ches that I am not lazy, irresponsible or stupid. I have spent my life battling a vey peculiar metabolism, that keeps the pounds creeping up and I am frankly sick of the skinniy B..es who judge negatively everybody that does not conform to their ideal of beauty. Truth is many of them, and my mom is a naturally skinny person, never dieted ( for real) one day in their life. I also find it interesting that disciminating and being very judgemental about people who are overweigh is the only and last form of tolerated discrimination: nobody will ever get in trouble for saying the things I have read in some of the posts, and yet if instead of "fat" you substitued the word with " black" or homosexuall, the same people calling overweight persons lazy irresponsible and ho, just so ugly, would be screaming at the top of their lungs.
I hope there is really karma in the universe and all you thin people came back fighting for the rest of your lives with the scale and stupid people who think they know all about you based on the way you look.

I am a 56 year old male. I think women are very competitive, this drives them to be more aggressive when it comes to an outward appearance. I feel it is my job to help my wife feel comfortable when dealing with getting older. If there are any guys reading this, take long walks together, enjoy an afternoon at the peer, take a lot of mini vacations together. This will all help her appreciate who she is.

Sparkly, I find it interesting that the one thing that you didn't teach your "good looking" young men is tolerance of others, all others, not just heavset people. Great example you're setting. It's obvious by your references in your post that your very much enamoured of your own self and feel it necessary to make deragatory comments about the "cat group" that you work with that you're as shallow as a baking pan! You're advice to your nieces should have been more to the point that it doesn't matter what others think of you, finish school, go to college and try to be a decent human being, something that is missing in yourself. It's actually attitudes and prejudices like yours that promotes a poor self image amoung women rather than all the magazine.

That women still want to wear makeup reflects a failure of the feminist movement in particular and the immaturity of our culture in general. Makeup is a mask that allows women to tap into corporate power. I don't mean corporate as in business, but rather corporate as in the power of the group versus the individual.

Men achieve this power by actually belonging to corporations - whether they are lodge brothers or corporate raiders. Women counter by painting their faces. Hiding physical imperfections or accentuating certain features makes sense only if the result is more power for the individual, whether sexual, social, or corporate.

Why makeup? The French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss once asked a native informant why his people tattooed their bodies. "Because we are not animals," was the reply. That women still use makeup is a reflection of their continuing status as not-quite-human. To put it in a more Lévi-Straussian mode, women without makeup are still seen as "natural," while men without makeup are seen as "cultural."

By acceding to cosmetic industry standards of beauty, women who wear makeup promote a status quo that says women are not equal to men. Men can be "cultural" just by showing up. Women, to participate in the culture, must put on a corporate mask. While a woman who uses makeup is considered "cultural," a man who uses makeup is considered absurd. Mass media meditations on masculine makeup -- like Some Like It Hot, Tootsie, and Mrs. Doubtfire -- are always comedies.

Madison Avenue-driven cosmetic companies have made some inroads into the use of body fragrance by men, but they have not yet found the right inducement for men to paint their faces, highlight their eyes, and gloss their lips. My suggestion is that advertisers market tattoos as acceptable body paint for men. Invent a tattoo "makeup" that needs regular renewal but involves some pain to apply, and your fortune is made.

This is one of the dumest things I have ever read....I am just hoping to avoid developing diabetes, my dad and all of his bothers and sisters have it....it is in my family's genes....The moron who wrote this article should stop writing if this is the best topic you can come up with.

Also, if you have a child who is interested in makeup it is not a sin to wear it on occasions....somedays I do some days I don't, but it does not define me. My focus is on better health and if you are healthy you naturaly look better.
As far at the person who state she was 5'9" and 135#'s you a little nuts and go see a phycologist I believe you could use the help....because your statements toward your co-workers seem very hateful and mean....Translation you don't like yourself.

I think it is time we as a nation turn off the idiot box and start doing our own thing...who care what jennifer or anglian is doing or who....if you are this interested in their lives you ovbiously don't have one of your own. Most of the time my husband knows more about who and who is what in holly wood than I do.

This article is irresponsible hyperbole --- seeking to make a statement the author makes it seem like EVERY kid and parent is like this. Well, they're not.

What Jessica Bennett describes is a freak show to catch first an editor's attention, then readers' attention. It's a form of "disease of the week" journalism and typical for this publication. But by no means is this anything approaching normal.

Are kids more image conscious in general these days? Sure, but the image Jessica Bennett creates is pure sideshow, not the main stage. But then normal kids just don't attract readers, do they?

I totally disagree with this being a huge worry. In the grand scheme of things, this is a very small population of kids who get facials and obsess about wieght. Yes, I'm sure there are a lot of kids...but let's look at the total population of unhealthy kids and worry about that. Kids eat, eat, eat and the parents are not stopping them. THAT is indulging your child. If you're at the mall and they ask for a Cinnabon, you give it to them...if you're at the gas station and they ask for a candy bar, you give it to them. If they're bored on a Friday and they ask for a pizza, you give it to them. You put a pop machine in a school, they'll drink it. They aren't learning anything about nutrition and health! They think, hey, an adult is giving this to me, so it must be ok. There are FAR more kids and teens out there who are overweight and being fed so many processed foods that they are developing allergies and heartburn at age 9. Look at the rapid increase in ADD and diabetes in children. So many kids that never exercise or step away from the video games. So many kids who whine and cry because there isn't a video to watch in the car (what happened to "I Spy" people!). At least these "divas" are learning to take care of themselves and learning some discipline. I'd rather have this kid who grows up to be a health-conscious 20 yr old, than a kid who grows up with depression and a host of health problems.

This is not the new normal, it's a media-created abberation. Everything looks normal to you when you're standing right in the middle of it, as the author is. Exceedingly few people are entering their preteens into pagents. I don't see these *** spas, I don't see preteens getting made up as if they are much older. I don't doubt it exists in some places, but it's not even close to normal. It's just a media creation to convince people that the abnormal is normal to sell more stuff.

As far as fat vs. skinny, look at the "sex symbols" of the past like Marilyn Monroe and others of her day: today they would be considered too fat. But they are the ones who turn heads in real life.