I am woman, hear me roar

I might be certifiably crazy.  I started P90X.  Go here if you don’t know what it is.  Why, you ask?  Because I want these kind of results in 90 days (1/60/90 days):

I got bored with the 30 Day Shred (go here if you don’t know what that is) and I’m on day 2 of P90X.  So far I love it, even though it’s tough.  Depending on how confident I feel at day 90, I may or may not post pictures of myself on this blog.

I don’t think I ever blogged about the Women’s Conference I went to.  Every year in southern California (and in other major cities across the nation) the governor’s wife plans a conference covering topics on women and families.  My company does a random drawing for the women to attend for free, which means I go every 2 years or so.

I really enjoy this conference and I highly suggest you look to see if your city hosts one.  I feel so inspired after attending.  A few things that I really got out of it:

Geena Davis did research on the ratio of female to male characters in shows that target ages 11 and younger.  What she found is that 3 out of every 4 characters are male and of the characters who are female, they are in a subservient/non-important roles, very traditional roles (wife, mother, teacher, nurse) and/or scantily clad/sexualized.  She said you probably won’t be able to find shows that do anything other than this, so no point in limiting anything for you children, but that it is a good idea to have dialogue with your kids (i.e. Why do you think they made that character a boy?).  She is working on changing the industry from within, starting with the content creators – the writers, producers and animators.  She said they had no idea they were even doing it—goes to show you that this has probably been done for many, many years and is in many of our subconscious as normal.

I did a quick survey of the shows we have the kids watch and she’s right.  Handy Manny is the closest it comes since the Mayor Rosa is female, Kelly a business owner is female, the mail person is female, and the recycle person is female.  On the flip side, out of the 8 tools, only 2 are female.  Manny is the main character and is male, and there is never any talk of his mother or grandmother, only his grandfather.

It’s a similar story for Blues Clues, Miss Sunny Patch Friends, and Imagination Movers.  I was so surprised, but glad I know now.  What about the shows your kids watch?

The other topic that was particularly moving was given by the speaker, Somaly Mam.  She is a survivor of childhood prostitution/sex trafficking.  She has gone on to raise money to help save other women and children from sex-trafficking.  This such a horrific subject that I tear up just thinking about it.  I have no idea how someone survives something so awful, but even more amazing to turn around and make it such a positive story.  I have already donated money, and it would be wonderful if others would too.

There were several other things I enjoyed about the conference, the free food, the free manicures, the free make-up, the business advice, the speakers, the company of 14,000 women, but mostly I loved seeing big Barbie (not sure how this is a positive image for young girls due to the whole controversy of her unnatural proportions, but she still brings back fond childhood memories for me):