by: Katja Wulfers
There’s a new ad from Verizon making the rounds that tells us when a girl hears "you’re pretty" her brain translates this to "you can’t study science and math."
Because that’s what girl brains do.
Every day we’re told we can or cannot say you’re pretty, you’re smart, you can do this, you can’t do this, give compliments, don’t give too many compliments, boys are caring, boys are mean, girls are great, but wait… don’t tell them they’re too great. Everything is now a cause or an issue. I take issue with everything being turned into an issue. And in this case, I take issue with this ad.
Quality education available for all children, girls kidnapped because they’re being educated, oceans so badly polluted that their inhabitants are facing extinction; these are issues.
A little girl being told she's cute? Not an issue.
According to a study published in 2013 by Statistics Canada, women represented the majority of university graduates in 2011. Of all Canadian university graduates in 2011, 39% were women who graduated with a STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) degree, and 59% of all science and technology STEM graduates were women. The number is still significantly lower for engineering and math with women making up 23% and 30% of graduates.
Are the lower numbers in engineering and math a direct result of girls being told they are pretty? The study doesn’t say because the topic is complex and graduate numbers are a result of generations of social norms, current and past curriculum decisions by governing bodies, and many other factors that cannot be reduced to one simple answer that serves a single purpose. Sales. It’s likely that the female STEM graduates heard — at least once in their lives — you are SO cute and for gods sake keep that white shirt clean for more than five minutes. And chances are that the 61% of male STEM graduates have had their cheeks pinched once or twice by an enthusiastic great aunt twice removed.
My decision about which tampon or phone plan to buy won't be dictated by hive mentality or a marketing company's attempt to rally the sisters in solidarity emotion. Truthfully, I’ve become teary more than a few times during a Tim Horton’s hockey commercial, so I get that emotion works in advertisement. But don’t take me, and fellow Canadian and American women as dumb. Companies are sending social messages through advertisements, but are a) simplifying the subject by reducing it to a cute versus smart scenario and we’re more savvy than that, and b) if rallying a powerful consumer force using emotions didn’t work at increasing profits, advertisers wouldn’t do it.
A child's ability (desire) to pursue higher education and a specific career path is contingent on, among other factors, interest and understanding of the subject, a source of intellectual and emotional encouragement, and financial status. Words are powerful but, "You're stupid/can't do that/won't ever succeed," are likely more destructive to a child's belief that she can pursue science — or any — interest and make it a career than, "Don't get your dress dirty, you adorable little cutie."
I’d like to see our collective strength used for real issues. At this rate we’re likely to become battle weary and that won't help anyone when the real call to arms comes.
by: Kat Armstrong
I’m really digging the slow march forward for girls and women, and one of the biggest ways I’m seeing this is that we’re being represented in a different way than what our society has represented us in the past. Women are being portrayed as real people with more than just nice looks, more body types and ethnicities are being shown, and most importantly lights are being shone at a number of issues facing girls and women.
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the new Verizon ad that premiered in the states last month — Inspire Her Mind — which tells us about how most girls, regardless of what they are interested in, are often thwarted because of hearing phrases like, “You’ll get dirty,” or “Are you sure you want to do science?”
I’ve got to admit, I’m totally overjoyed by this, and here’s why: I grew up in a loving and warm home. I had a mother who filled traditional gender roles as well as being a single parent. For all the wonderful stuff my mum did for me and my brother, she also, inadvertently, did the exact same thing that this commercial shows. I was pulled out of an accelerated program at school, and was told it was because I was “too sensitive” to compete with the boys in the program. Yes, there were girls, but this argument stuck with me.
I’ve always wondered what I might have done with my life if I’d ended up in the program, and although I’m doing more than I could ever have imagined, I know that it’s taken me years of introspection to get past phrases like, “Why bother?” and “You don’t need to prove yourself, you’re so beautiful!”
I think that the combination of phrases like this and our current cultural state make it difficult for girls in what are still primarily a “man’s world.” Hell, even I’m guilty of saying stuff to little girls like, “Don’t you look pretty today!” and “I like your hair!” I’m working at breaking that cycle because I don’t want to add to the already overwhelming barrage of beauty-before-brains mentality that we have engrained in our culture.
Some women are very lucky to have been raised in progressive households that have given them true equality, and they, in turn, are passing on their experience and parenting down to their daughters. But for every woman who’s been lucky enough to have been raised that way, there are 10 of us who heard, “You’re so beautiful!” as praise over, “Great job in science!”
Which is why I love this commercial. If it only reaches 5 of every ten sets of parents to change the way we interact with girls, it’s done a better job than anything else out there.
And that’s progress.
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