Girl Scouts Selected for National Youth Advisory Council

Girl Scouts Chosen for Commission for Positive Images of Women and Girls

Background:

Recognizing the need for gender balance and positive portrayals of women and girls in the media, in 2010 the Girl Scouts of the USA along with the National Association of Broadcasters, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and The Creative Coalition hosted the Healthy Media for Youth Summit featuring Geena Davis, Founder, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. The summit recommended the formation of a Commission to spearhead an industry-wide commitment to promote positive images of girls and women in the media. Click here to view GSUSA's page with more information.

Healthy MEdia:  will bring together media leaders and subject related experts to create a blueprint of recommendations for promoting positive media images. The Commission brings together media leaders and subject related experts to create a blueprint of recommendations for promoting positive media images. Healthy MEdia is co-chaired by Geena Davis, Academy Award-winning Actor and Founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and Deborah Taylor Tate, former FCC Commissioner.

Kids' Media Landscape: 

• Most 8- to 18-year-olds spend upwards of 10 hours a day engaging with media. (Kaiser 2009), with children and adolescents spend more time with entertainment media than they do with any other activity except school and sleeping (D. Roberts, Foehr, & Rideout, 2005)
• Despite being 50 percent of the U.S. population, in family films and television, male characters outweigh female characters nearly 3:1 and 5:1 in background or group scenes, a statistic that has remained the same since 1946. Only 27 percent of the speaking characters are female. (GDIGM)
• Girls compare themselves to fashion models, with more than half of girls (55 percent) admit they diet to lose weight - 31 percent admit to starving themselves or refusing to eat as a strategy to lose weight. (GSRI)

Call to Action: To meet these challenges, Healthy MEdia aims to:

• Host the National Discussion on best practices to promote positive and balanced images of girls and women.
• Convene Industry Leaders, subject matter experts, youth representatives, media leadership, and the creative community to develop a blueprint on how to create a positive media environment for kids.
• Produce concrete recommendations to media and policy leaders.
• Champion media leaders who are promoting positive content and balanced images of girls and women.
• Secure Industry-wide, public commitments to take steps toward positive change.

Commission Member Requirements: To achieve these goals, Healthy MEdia Commission Member will:

• Utilize their leadership, expertise, and influence during the Commissions' deliberations and events.
• Participate in conference calls and in-person meetings held in D.C. and NYC.
• Promote, advance, and implement work of the Commission and its recommendations within the industry.

For more information, contact: GSUSA Public Policy and Advocacy Office at (202) 659-3780 or advocacy@girlscouts.org

Related Resources:

Posted: Jun 21, 2011