Our Role Model of the Month is of course the wonderful Kathryn Bigelow, who last night became the first woman to ever be awarded the Oscar for Best Director for her film, The Hurt Locker. What a fantastic role model she is.
Pinkstinks Approved proved a great success last month, send us your nomintaions to info@pinkstinks.co.uk and we'll publish them here. Click here for this month's 'approved'
Thank you to everyone who filled in our survey on 'pester power' and 'pinkification'. We are collating the results and will let you know what we discovered soon. There is still time if you would like to fill in the anonymous survey HERE.
This month saw the release of a much publicised study by Dr Linda Papadopoulis regarding the early sexualisation of children. The report found that ''drip drip' exposure was distorting young people's perceptions of themselves, encouraging boys to become fixated on being macho and dominant, while girls in turn presented themselves as sexually available and permissive...'.
Dr Linda Papadopoulis says: 'Both the images we consume and the way we consume them are lending credence to the idea that women are there to be used and that men are there to use them.'
This has always been on the Pinkstinks' agenda and we welcome the publicity that this and other news reports has brought to this important issue. Please send us any examples of horrors out there so that we can continue to pressure retailers and manufacturers.
Finally, this months amazing email from a trainee primary school teacher
'Hi, I just wanted to say thank you so much for the Pink Stinks campaign - it has inspired me so much. As a trainee Primary School teacher I travel from school to school meeting lots of new children each year - the one thing they all have in common, they have all been negatively affected by the 'pink epidemic'.
A scarily high percentage of the girls that I meet and teach often aspire to be one of three things... a 'WAG', Cheryl Cole or Katie Price. I must have missed the memo when these became careers? It always made me feel frustrated to be living in and to be part of a culture which has not only allowed, but pressured our children into this aspiration-less lifestyle. But after coming across the Pink Stinks campaign last year I decided to use the work of the website within my lessons in schools- I teach moral and societal issues (now including a considerable amount of work on role models, jobs and careers and the roles of people within our society and what each person contributes).
I do not teach that it is wrong to enjoy a ‘pink lifestyle’, as I do not believe that it my place, however what the campaign has inspired me to do is to reinstall the belief into children that there is more to life than this enforced culture, that each and every child is worth more and is capable of contributing more to society than their looks, material possessions and popularity.
I continue to find ways to make the pupils feel the satisfaction first hand, that being and achieving whatever you wish regardless or sex, age, race, religion or background can make you feel. I thank you so much for inspiring me to do so as this work is and will continue to be my proudest and most rewarding work in schools. I feel that it has shaped who I will become as a teacher and for that I am truly grateful.
March 2010
