G-WAVE

Horrific Hollister

2008-11-26T09:36:00.002-05:00

by MacKenzie Riley

On Saturday I went to the mall with my Mom and we decided to go into a shop called Hollister. I personally know a lot of people who wear Hollister and thought that their stuff was cute but I’d never bought anything there myself. My Mom walked in first and one of their employees greeted her with a loud and obnoxious, "WHAT’S UP?" so she could be heard over the blaring, High School Musical music. My Mom was shocked and had to bite her lip from saying anything.
It was true that the clothes were really cute but the girls that worked there all looked the same. They were all really "pretty", skinny, had their boobs hanging out and straight blond hair. I thought that was ridiculous! This store was defiantly showing you the way that they want you to look and defiantly not what other people normally look like. You can be different from everybody else and this store was not showing that.
The dressing rooms were really weird too; they were really dark and had like spot lights in them that only showed like the lower half of your body. I don’t know if that’s supposed to make you look thinner or something but I decided not to buy anything. Why would I buy something from a store that I didn’t believe in?
I don’t know what Hollister is thinking but I know that it definitely lost my and my mom’s business just because of how they acted and their "have to be perfect" look. I was just unhappy at my Horrific Hollister experience.

Women in Print: Alive Magazine's Mission

2008-11-09T23:08:00.000-05:00

The media today is full of garbage, to be perfectly frank. Commercials and advertisements fill the minds of people world wide on a regular basis, whether those people are aware of it or not. Images mold perceptions and create stereotypes that harm the confidence and courage that young women must work to harvest. A group of conscientious women, however, are very aware of the dangers of the consistent media, and they are working to remedy it. The women at Alive Arts Media want to start fixing the media problem by asking women everywhere, "What makes you come alive?"
Alive Arts Media produces an online publication once every other month called "Alive Magazine". It is titled to be "By Young Women, For Young Women", and that’s the truth of the matter. The staff of the magazine consists entirely of women under the age of 25 and female students who all share the same goal: replacing media stereotypes with the image of a real woman. Students send in artwork, stories, and other writings, and the interns heading up the project assist these students in priming and perfecting their works so that other women can hear their voices.
The October/November issue contains articles from every walk of life. There are short stories, personal narratives about what it truly means to be a woman, discussions of diverse and interesting lifestyles, and poetry and artwork from the hearts and minds of creative women. Alive Magazine also has a few specialized issues coming up, so it would be a good idea to keep your eyes open for what Alive Arts Media has to offer!
Every girl has a voice. It’s in there somewhere, even if she feels too shy to let it come screeching out every once in a while. Sometimes, however, the media deludes that voice. It masks it with images of "perfect body size" and "ideal looks". Alive Magazine wants the women of the world to put their voices out there for everyone to hear, not to judge and change. Without organizations like Alive Arts Media, it is possible that young women everywhere can be lost in the roar of the crowd. Alive Magazine wants to hear your voice. They want to know what makes you come Alive. Because that is what makes women who they are, and that is all that matters.
There are publications like this one all over the place. Girls have created zines for girls to come out of their shells and let the world know that they are here and that they have something to say. Hardy Girls Healthy Women, for example, has a continual zine out where girls can submit how they feel about the media, stereotypes, and even things going on in their own in their own lives. This publication, GWAVE, is open to girls of all ages who have something to say, and they want to say it now!
If you’re interested in Alive Magazine, whether for some light reading, some heart-warming stories, or some ground shaking insight from other women, check out the website. You’ll find everything you could expect and more. And, if you have something to say, I would think that this would be the place to say it. Come on. What makes you come alive?
http://www.alivemagazine.org/

Are Tweens Treats? GAB's Eye on the Media

2008-10-31T17:21:00.004-04:00

During Halloween when girls go to pick out a costume the message seems to be that girls are supposed to leave the scary costumes to the boys, and take on the sexy divas or pop-stars. You can even dress up like your favorite Bratz doll! Sure, there is a Frankenstein costume in the ad below, but it’s a shear dress with fish net stockings and a fake tattoo. The page is also called “tween treats” and I guess “tweens” are girls from ages 8-12. This page has a costume they call being Pumpkin Spice. The costume consists of an orange strapless mini-dress and orange wig, and a pair of white go-go boots. What’s pumpkin about that? I went as a pumpkin for Halloween when I was eight years old. My costume was this big, round body suit and a hat that looked like a stump. I really did look like a big, fat, round pumpkin. But these days, heaven forbid a costume for “tweens” that makes you look big, fat, or round. Check out the “pink mummy fairy.” What do you think marketers are saying if the only option for a girl to be a mummy is to be a pink mummy who is also a fairy?

Halloween Tips
“On a day when she can be anyone or anything, princesses and Divas should not be her only Halloween choices! It’s not that pink and pretty is bad, but it squeezes out other possibilities. Girls love it, yes, but they also love double fudge-frosted brownies, and you wouldn’t want them eating a steady diet of that stuff. “ - Dr. Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D., author and co-creator of Hardy Girls Healthy Women
For more tips email info@hghw.org
Ads are from Costume Express - you can contact their corporate office by phone at (425) 250-1064 or by mail: Celebrate Express 11232 120th Ave NE, Ste 204 Kirkland, WA 98033

Teens Strip For Charity

2008-09-16T09:53:00.004-04:00

Virgin Mobile and the National Network for Youth (NN4Y), have created a new campaign for homeless teenagers. Their idea is to ask their subscribers to make videos of themselves stripping. They’ve called it Strip2Clothe with the slogan "You take off yours, we donate ours." The idea was that those watching the videos would be want to donate money to the cause. Virgin Mobile also announced that clothing would be donated to charities based on the number of viewers these videos garnered. You can see where this is going. This is CRAZY!!! It makes me so angry to know that Virgin Mobile is teaching teenagers (both boys and girls) that the only way to raise money for a charity or to do some social action is to is to expose themselves to total strangers. Girls already have enough media telling them that the only thing they have of value is their body – now the same message is being disguised as community service! Teens need to learn that there are other ways to get attention for a cause that they believe in! Luckily other organizations have protested and so Virgin Mobile has altered the name of the campaign to Blank2Clothe, but the message is still there. I don't agree with Virgin Mobiles' new campaign and I think that they should discontinue this. This is ridiculous!!! What do you think about it?

Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

2008-06-19T10:59:00.016-04:00

Thumbs UP to… Dove’s Campaign For Real Beauty.

In case you haven’t heard about Dove’s new project, it focuses on how the beauty industry is harming girls today by telling them to be skinny, taller, have bigger boobs, no wrinkles, tan skin, and blonde hair, among other things. Dove gets a thumbs up for finally doing something about this subject that so many people are avoiding. Way to go Dove!

Thumbs Down To…Unilever’s Axe VIXEN creation

You know that great smelling cologne that some guys wear, Axe? Well, it turns out the company isn’t so great. They’ve designed a new computer program based around something called V.I.X.E.N.S., which stands for Very Interactive Xtremely Entertaining Naughty Supermodels. By downloading this you are able to use your own voice to command them and watch them follow your commands.

I give this program a thumbs down for inappropriate way of entertaining. This is also discriminating against women, saying that all women are good for is to look at. That’s not the case, but this program suggests that it is.

-By Mackenzie, 14

Eye on the Media

2008-06-19T10:32:00.010-04:00

The first article that GAB chose to display in our magazine is an advertisement for Vogue Eyewear. The picture shows a supermodel posing almost completely naked. In this picture she is supposed to be selling Vogue sunglasses and instead the reader is more likely to be starring at other places on her body than her eyes. Every day millions and millions of these kinds of ads are put in magazines, with no regard to the millions of female readers. It just goes to show you what people will do to make an ad more appealing to the narrow minded crowd. I personally do not enjoy looking at ads such as these. It degrades women, and makes us seem like this is all we can amount to.

The second article that we chose is an advertisement for the South Pole clothing company. This advertisement shows a woman dressed in high heel shoes, Capri’s, and tights as she gears up to go skiing. When we discussed this ad at our GAB meeting, we all had many things to say about it. My comment was that she must be very talented. I have never met a woman who could actually ski in high heels! This image also makes you think she would rather look “cute” and freeze her butt off, then wear appropriate clothing for the snow.

-By Thalia, 18

Rocks to Her Own Groove

2008-06-19T09:45:00.005-04:00

You may be asking yourselves, why G-WAVE? Why create a magazine and blog for girls, by girls? We here at the Girls Advisory Board want to let you know that as girls, we know girls. We know what you want and what’s important to you.We know you want someone to listen to your opinions and your thoughts on things like what real beauty is, and talk about girls like you and us, who are just girls – not movie stars or singers, because right now, no one talks about these things. Most mainstream magazines talk about outer beauty and not inner beauty. We wrote G-WAVE to encourage girls like you to speak up and share those thoughts and opinions. We wrote G-WAVE to give girls like you topics you can relate to, both inside and out. Enjoy!

-Hardy Girls Healthy Women's Girls Advisory Board (GAB)