Not so 'Mighty Girl'

[Russettbella1000]

Hi ...Will probably get flamed for being so cynical etc and have posted in feminism too but I just wondered if anyone felt the same?

I remember someone once talking about how good 'A Mighty Girl' was for the promotion of female strong characters etc. I duly followed them on facebook/Twitter etc but became more and more disillusioned with the constant stream of marketing which to me just felt like yet more conditioning....Good points like the fact self-esteem in girls needs to be improved would be followed by promotions of this book or that book which in a way seemed to undermine the ability of anyone to actually do this for girls without some kind of 'material' support. To my mind, society needs to trust themselves more and just do things because they are morally right. The gender imbalance in our world is just plain wrong so why can't people act without the need to buy, buy, buy...To me that creates just more slaves in an unequal system.

What made me more suspicious was if anyone actually tries to challenge them on their twitter page or facebook, it simply doesn't get printed. I find that quite creepy tbh and made me wonder just how genuine the site is. Is it really interested in highlighting gender imbalance or does it simply interested in making a fast buck?? It wouldn't surprise me if some big 'Disney-like'corporate was behind it.

Anyway, I challenge anyone else to enter into a debate which even slightly questions the intentions of this company, I guarantee it will not be printed. All that appears are positive affirmations for the ideas promoted. This is all great of course when it's just ideas but when you can't have equality without being sucked into a marketing campaign I serious question its good.

I agree with you, I follow them on FB and was really pissed off recently, they recommended a book (funny enough), that dealt with the "bitchiness" of young girls in the school playground. There was just a blanket assumption that all girls from 9 or so were in bullying cliques. I found it very unsettling and at odds to what I assumed was the point of the site.

Did you try & challenge them at all ie post on Facebook? I found it so weird I couldn't and now it's made me think how much everything can be manipulated. Monitoring posts for offence etc I suppose ok but completely censoring any kind of debate is pretty sinister....

I hope more people just think a little more before they 'rave' about this site, I'm sure I did too when I first heard about it now I just think I've been complicit in some dodgy marketing-ARGGGHH! I wonder if woman's hour would be interested? Think someone needs to expose it at least to what it is - just another advert! It doesn't care about you but just needs to exploit insecurities to make itself a tidy profit!

The idea that the Mighty Girl company is providing some kind of alternative narrative about gender is absurd. Feminism isnt about buying more crap and nothing ever changes through logos on t-shirts. You can raise your children outside of gender steriotypes without paying through the nose for their awful merchandise. They are no different from any business and if you buy into their half baked philosophy youd simply be substituting one type of marketing nonsense for another. Also using your children to advertise your own ability to think independently would be pretty pathetic.

There is a lot of crap at the bottom of the posts, I tend to just click away at that point.