To authorize grants to promote media literacy and youth empowerment programs, to authorize research on the role and impact of depictions of girls and women in the media, to provide for the establishment of a National Task Force on Girls and Women in the Media, and for other purposes.
Congress finds the following:
(1) According to the 2010 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation entitled ‘Generation M 2 Media in Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds’, most 8- to 18-year-olds spend about 10 hours a day using recreational media.
(2) Sixty percent of teenage girls compare their bodies to fashion models and almost 90 percent of girls say the media places a lot of pressure on teenage girls to be thin, according to the 2010 Girl Scout Research Institute report entitled ‘Beauty Redefined’.
(3) Only 34 percent of girls report being very satisfied with their bodies, according to the 2006 study by the Girl Scout Research Institute entitled ‘The New Normal? What Girls Say About Healthy Living’. Body dissatisfaction can lead to unhealthy eating and dieting habits. Fifty-five percent of girls admit that they diet to lose weight, 37 percent know someone who has been diagnosed with an eating disorder, and 31 percent admit to starving themselves or refusing to eat as a strategy to lose weight.
(4) Fifty-four percent of young girls in grades 3 through 5 worry about their appearance, and 37 percent of such girls worry specifically about their weight, according to the 2006 Girls Inc. report entitled ‘The Supergirl Dilemma: Girls Grapple with the Mounting Pressure of Expectations’.
(5) A 2007 report of the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls reported that 3 of the most common mental health problems among girls, eating disorders, depression or depressed mood, and low self-esteem, are linked to sexualization of girls and women in media.
(6) Sexualized messages and images of girls and women can also negatively impact boys. According to the 2007 report of the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, frequent exposure to sexualized media images of girls and women can create unrealistic and unhealthy expectations of girls’ and women’s physical appearance for boys, and may impair their ability to develop healthy relationships with girls and women.
(7) Girls and women of color are disproportionately absent from mainstream media. The Girl Scout Research Institute report, ‘Beauty Redefined’, states that only 32 percent of African-American girls think the fashion industry does a good job of representing people of all races and ethnicities.
(8) Women and girls continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles in children’s media. The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media reports that less than 1 in 3 speaking characters in children’s movies are female, and that the majority of female characters in children’s movies are praised for their appearance or physical beauty rather than their personality, intelligence, or other talents.
(9) Congress supports efforts to ensure that youth improve their media literacy skills, and to promote positive messages about girls and women that highlight healthy and diverse body images, positive and active female role models, and equal and healthy relationships between female and male characters.
Other Media Links
NOW's MEDIA HALL OF SHAME
http://www.now.org/issues/media/hall-of-shame/index.php
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BUST Magazine "With an attitude that is fierce, funny, and proud to be female, BUST provides an uncensored view on the female experience. BUST tells the truth about women's lives and presents a female perspective on pop culture. BUSTing stereotypes about women since 1993."
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