"Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers' Schemes" is a book written by Sharon Lamb, Ed.D., and Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D. that exsposes the stereotypes of young girls and the very limited choices presented to girls of who or what they can be. Sharon Lamb and Lyn Mikel Brown gives guidance on how to talk with daughters about these negative images and provide the reader with the tools and information to help girls make more positive choices about the way they define themselves in the real world.
Chapter One emphasizes the clothing choices that young girls are given within stores such as J.C.Penney, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Old Navy, or any similar department or clothing store. When the two authors walked in J.C Penney, there were shirts tucked between racks of gliterry fairies, rhinestone-emblazoned "Born to Shop" slogans, and pink "Angels Varsity Track Champs" shirts and only one plain red T-shirt stylishly fitted in its own plain way. A girl can choose her idenity, but the choices are frightfully limited: Professional Drama Queen, Paradise Princess, Pretty Princess Beauty Queen, 100% Angel, Princess Soccer Club, or Cheer Bunny. There used to be a distinction between little girl and preteen. Not any more. Pre teens and little girls are given a narrow range of choices of slogans that correlate to their personality type. One can either be the varisty track super star or the spoiled princess. I remember walking into Limited Too as a young girl being surrounded by a plethora of shirts that said, "Snow Bunny" or "Spoiled Rotten." This book directly relates to how others would perceive me depending on which shirt I decided to buy. I don't remember which one I opted for but I didn't have that many to choose from. The problem is not the single, silly T but the sheer quantity of products that offer so few options to girls and come with the marketing tentacles that seem to reach out, grab, create or remake everything into a narrow sexy image.
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