Op-ed Rough Draft

This opinion editorial is about how Bratz doll's commercials increase the sexualization of little girls. This is only a first rough draft and it is not finished yet. 
Anyways, feel free to read what I got until now and please comment for any suggestion or improvement I should make. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The average American will spend 3 years of their life watching TV commercials. Yes, only commercials. We know that every type of media sexualizes little girls, including TV, music videos, lyrics, movies, magazines, video games, the Internet and ads. We know that everyday girls are bombarded with sexualized images of all types and that the pressure to look sexy is starting earlier and lasting longer.

Now, sex is nothing new when it comes to selling a product—you have probably it seen years ago with the Brooke Shields commercial for Calvin Klein or any other advertisement—but it is definitely new when the women used to sell the products are 5-year-olds.

 As a parent, you probably try to avoid your child being exposed to these inappropriate content. Advertisements are everywhere and it is hard to prevent your kids from watching those. The Internet is full of sexualization of young girls, but normally, little kids are not very interested in the computer; and if they are, you can just avoid installing the Internet on the computer or put some filter to it. However, when trying to avoid*** your kid from watching any sex content in the TV, you might put on Disney Channel or Discovery Kids. You might think that when watching those channels your child is safe from all the sexualization of children. But you are wrong.

Even though the shows played on kids’ channels might seem harmful and educational, the commercials run in them are damaging and detrimental for your kids’ health.

Repeatedly, in channels such as Nickelodeon and Discovery Kids, commercials for the Bratz dolls are run. These commercials portray doe-eyed, waist baring dolls dressed in miniskirts, fishnet stockings, and feather boas. This does not only encourage young girls to focus only in looks and sexuality but also creates erroneous expectations for young boys about how girls show dress and behave.**

Little 4-year-olds want to wear make-up, and this is because the overly played Bratz dolls commercials are putting the stupid idea that make-up and sexy clothes are essential to be accepted in to the girls’ minds. 

According to market research firm Experian, 43 percent of 6 to 9-year-old girls are already using lip-gloss; 38 percent use hairstyling products, and 12 percent use other cosmetics. These girls fill their faces with color chemicals until they look like drag queens, just as the girls in the Bratz doll’s commercials do.

I am almost seventeen and do not wear make-up unless I go out. If I could survive society without wearing make-up for fifteen years, I’m sure a 6-year-old can have friends and still look pretty without filling her face with rainbow-like crap. (MAYBE DELETE THIS)

(Now, it is true that) The Bratz dolls commercials do not present much sexuality when compared to some MTV shows or adult movies. However, these commercials are worrisome because they are targeted to 4-year-old girls, while MTV shows are targeted to 15-year-olds and above.

Since kids under 7-years-old cannot tell the difference between entertainment and a commercial trying to sell them something, they might view the muggy-eyed trollop’s commercials as part of Dora the Explorer or some other pointless ‘educational’ kids’ show. They might view their cheap red-and-black lingerie as appropriate clothes and think that dancing around a pole and kissing guys is something enlightening.

The Bratz Dolls commercials have been running since 2001, when the dolls were first invented, until today. However, each day, the commercials are being more sexualized. No wonder that the teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. has also increases among the years! And, amazingly not surprising, the U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the developed world. 

….

Toy Advertisement and the Sexualization of Girls

So I have decided...
I am going to write my op-ed on how toy advertisement increases the sexualization of little girls.
Just look at this TV Ads for Bratz (they are in Spanish btw because they are run in Peru--the country where I live).

and a most recent commercial...

and lastly, this is a commercial--in English-- advertising the new Bratz release. This commercial has not arrived to Peru yet; however, I predict that it will be translated soon and placed on the screens of our TVs.

Op-Ed Outline

Structure	Outline
Main Argument It is best to identify and highlight your main argument in the first or second paragraph of the op-ed	Hook- The average American is exposed to over 3000 ads every day. Thesis- ·       Everyday, girls are bombarded with sexualized images from every media platform. ·       the pressure to look sexy is starting earlier and lasting longer Argument: ·       people are influenced by all media, especially advertisements ·       We know that sex has been used for selling, but now a days we are targeting the smaller audience. ·       Physical characteristics are considered to be the only indicator of sexiness ·       Sex is nothing new when it comes to selling a product- it is only new when the women used to sell the products are girls-5 year old girls
First Supporting Statement Statement supports the main argument	Advertisement of clothes girls at increasingly younger ages are invited to try on and wear teen clothes designed to highlight female sexuality. Wearing such clothing may make it more difficult for girls to see their own worth and value in any  way other than sexually. ·       Halloween ·       Look like hookers ·       pathetic ·       Beyonce’s clothing line ·       Tacky ·       High heels ·       Push up bras for little girls ·       Thongs for 5 year olds ·      imagine a 5-year-old girl walking through a mall wearing a short T-shirt that says “Flirt.” Imagine it is your daughter
Second Supporting Statement Statement supports the main argument	Advertisement in Toys sexualized dolls are marketed to girls. ·       advertisements of toys “hooker-chic” Bratz ·       Bratz targeted for 4-year-olds ·       Advertising- age compression- dolls were targeted for girls 9-12, now they sell breastfeeding dolls for 5 year old girls ·       Mi Bebe Gloton ·       The breastfeeding doll ·       doll that cries to suck on the nipples of little girls ·       Bratz dolls come dressed in sexualized clothing such as miniskirts, fishnet stockings, and feather boas ·       Bratz girls are marketed in bikinis, sitting in a hot tub, mixing drinks, and standing around ·       Children’s dolls are made-up to look like prostitutes
Third Supporting Statement Statement supports the main argument	Advertisement in Magazines ·       girls often appear with sexualized adult women and are posed in matching clothing or seductive poses. ·       Vogue ·       10 year old model ·       heels and a dress with a cleavage cut to the waist ·       This isn’t what you see when you watch real kids playing dress-up. The body language and facial expressions are adult-staged and adult-choreographed. ·       Do they make people associate young girls with adult sexuality? ·       Do they make it easier for people to believe that young girls want to be involved in adult sexual relationships?
Specific Recommendations/Solutions	we need to replace all of these sexualized images with ones showing girls in positive settings - ones that show the uniqueness and competence of girls When I will be a mother will girls be wearing push up bras and panties at the age of two? Will my daughter want to wear sexualizing clothes at the age of 5? If the media keeps doing this, probably yes. But I will have to say: “Hey, your only 5. There is no way in hell that you are going to wear that”, and mothers should start saying that to their daughters right now.
Strong Ending It is best to have the ending, to the extent possible, wrap up the beginning or reference some theme introduced at the beginning of the op-ed.	Girls get this message repeatedly: What matters is how “hot” they look. The insistent and ubiquitious presentation of this unbalanced view of the world is nothing less than a form of child abuse. children’s imaginations are dying. Little girls aren’t women. They aren’t even adolescents. They are children, and we need to respect that.

French Vogue Ad Increases the Sexualization of Girls

As a fashion lover, I always read the main fashion magazines. These include Marie Claire, Elle, Glamour and Vogue; in particular, Italian, French and American Vogue. 
Last winter (or summer in Peru), I was in Italy--as always--and since I take the flight from  Lima to Paris with Air France, I stayed some days in France. Here, I was able to buy one of my favorite magazines, French Vogue, but this time there was something that didn't click. 
In the January issue of French Vogue, highly-sexualized images of 10-year-old Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau  caused some controversy in the fashion world.

"We have grave concerns about the modelling agency who represent Miss Blondeau, which clearly does not know if it represents a child or an adult. Photo shoots requiring her, a ten-year-old-girl, to dress in full make-up, teetering heels and a dress with a cleavage cut to the waist across her prepubescent body deny Miss Blondeau the right to be the child she is" (Daily Mail).
With this ad in Vogue, girls are taught that being sexy is good; yet, Vogue is not a magazine for little girls. So who is Vogue addressing this issue to? Little girls' parents? So, is Vogue trying to teach girls' parents that they need to make their kids look sexy in order to be successful? Indeed, the pressure to look sexy is starting earlier and lasting longer; but because of media, the pressure goes also for the parents, which tells them that if they do not make their little girls look sexy, they will be losers.

This is the cover of the January issue of French Vogue. Clearly, we can see the child model wearing high heels and an inappropriate dress for her age. I do not want to offend Vogue because it is my favorite magazine and I truly respect it (I read it every month and have a collection of its issues); nevertheless, I do no understand the point of publishing images of this 10-year-old girl. Was Vogue trying to generate publicity by portraying a provocative child?

Certainly, at the age of 5, 6 or even 10, girls should be playing and having fun; not worrying about their hair, make up, or whether if their push-up bra fits them perfectly or not. At the age of ten, I did not have high heels nor did I wear make-up. In fact, I am 16 years-old now and I only wear make-up when I go to a party or something.

Again, my point is that parents should be concerned of how ads increase the sexualization of their little girls. Media has many positive effects, but lets keep in mind that it is also destroying society and it is making kids grow up too fast. 

Mi Bebé Glotón Increases the Sexualization of Girls

The Breast Milk Baby Doll is simply pathetic! I saw this advertisement while researching on the impacts of media and I was simply shocked. How can someone create a breastfeeding toy for two-year-old kids?
Besides, this toy was named best doll for the year 2012. I cannot believe it! Society is making kids grow up too fast! When I was two, or three or four, I never thought about breastfeeding a doll; especially assuming it was my child. We are promoting the sexualization of girls all over the place, and I do not understand how parents don't notice this.
And really, what is the point of this doll? Is it teaching girls how to breastfeed at the age of 5?
This baby doll is just absurd. It is a doll that cries to suck on the nipples of little girls. Yeah, you read it well, it cries to suck on the NIPPLES of little girls, and it even makes noises such as "Yum Yum" after you are done breast-feeding it.
I am not trying to offend anyone I want to humiliate the Spanish firm who created this product. This is beyond distressing. It is useless, creepy and it is simply wrong. People need to realize that just the creation of this toy is damaging little girls because it tells them that to be successful they need to breastfeed their kids, or in this case, baby dolls. No wonder there are so many teen pregnancies in the US! (Even though this toy was invented in Spain, it is mostly sold in the US)
Some ads are classified wrong and sexualizing because they portray a girl dressed in sexy clothes or a girl using make up, but this advertisement goes beyond this. It takes a step further; better yet, 3--or 4-- steps further. One things is to teach girls that to be successful they need to look hot and be sexy (this is wrong), but it is even worse to teach young girls that in order to be accepted they need to be breastfeeding a child at an early age.
Really, I do not know what is happening to society. I often hear people say "Oh, look at today's youth! It is a lost generation!" But really, we are messing up the kids adults are messing up the kids.

Christina Aguilera Ad for Skechers Increases Sexualization of Girls

If you have read my blog below, you probably know that I am going to write an opinion editorial on how advertisements increase the sexualization of girls. Before writing my op-ed, I need to research more one this topic to have more support and evidence about it.

Today, I wanted to show you guys an advertisement that I saw a couple months ago. It is the Christina Aguilera Ad for Skechers.

In this ad, we can see Christina Aguilera dressed as a naughty little girl. She is showing a lot of cleavage, she is using a very short skirt and she looks very sexual, as is she were ready to DTF (people who watch Jersey Shore know what I mean). However, the worst part is that she is at school and that she is personifying a little girl. 

In other words, this ad is telling little girls that they need to act and look like her in order to be cool, pretty and successful. This ad is telling girls that being naughty and sexual is the correct behavior.

Besides, after seeing so many of these ads, little girls assume that this promiscuos behavior is normal and they start acting like that at school, at home, when they go out with friends, etc. 

C'ome on guys, this ad cannot be right; especially since Skechers is a shoe brand for kids. We know that the reason they do these type of ads is because sex sells, but by doing these type of things, we are teaching little girls how to sell themselves instead of selling our actual products. 

Duke University: How to Write and Op-Ed Article

How to Write an Op-Ed Article

If you're a faculty expert or other member of the Duke community who has an interesting opinion (and who at Duke doesn't?), you may have thought of writing an op-ed article for a newspaper or elsewhere. Such an article can reach millions of readers, swaying hearts and changing minds. It can help reshape a public debate and affect policy. It also can bring you considerable recognition for less effort than it takes to write a professional monograph or journal article. Moreover, effective op-ed articles reflect well on both the author and the university, which is why Duke encourages faculty members and others to reach out to this important market.

Duke's Office of News and Communications runs an op-ed program with a strong record of placing articles in many of the nation’s leading newspapers. It is ready to help you craft and submit an article, and has prepared these guidelines to help you get started:

Track the news and jump at opportunities. Timing is essential. When an issue is dominating the news – whether it’s a war, a stock market panic or just the latest controversy on a reality television show – that’s what readers want to read and op-ed editors want to publish. Whenever possible, therefore, link your issue explicitly to something happening in the news. If you’re a researcher studying cancer, for instance, start off by discussing the celebrity who died yesterday. Or, look ahead to a holiday or anniversary a week from now that will provide a fresh news peg (and enable editors to plan the story in advance).

Limit the article to 750 words. Shorter is even better. Some academic authors insist they need more room to explain their argument. Unfortunately, newspapers have limited space to offer, and editors generally won't take the time to cut a long article down to size.

Make a single point - well. You cannot solve all of the world's problems in 750 words. Be satisfied with making a single point clearly and persuasively. If you cannot explain your message in a sentence or two, you're trying to cover too much.

Put your main point on top. You're not writing for Science or The Quarterly Journal of Economics. You have no more than 10 seconds to hook a busy reader, which means you shouldn't "clear your throat" with a witticism or historical aside. Just get to the point and convince the reader that it's worth his or her valuable time to continue.

Tell readers why they should care. Put yourself in the place of the busy person looking at your article. At the end of every few paragraphs, ask out loud: "So what? Who cares?" You need to answer these questions. Will your suggestions help reduce readers' taxes? Protect them from disease? Make their children happier? Explain why. Appeals to self-interest usually are more effective than abstract punditry.

Offer specific recommendations. An op-ed is not a news story that simply describes a situation; it is your opinion about how to improve matters. Don't be satisfied, as you might in a classroom, with mere analysis. In an op-ed article you need to offer recommendations. How exactly should North Carolina safeguard its environment, or the White House change its foreign policy? You'll need to do more than call for "more research!" or suggest that opposing parties work out their differences.

Showing is better than discussing. You may remember the Pentagon's overpriced toilet seat that became a symbol of profligate federal spending. You probably don't recall the total Pentagon budget for that year (or for that matter, for the current year). That's because we humans remember colorful details better than dry facts. When writing an op-ed article, therefore, look for great examples that will bring your argument to life.

Use short sentences and paragraphs. Look at some op-ed articles and count the number of words per sentence. You'll probably find the sentences to be quite short. You should use the same style, relying mainly on simple declarative sentences. Cut long paragraphs into two or more shorter ones.

Don't be afraid of the personal voice. Academics often avoid first-person exposition in professional journals, which rarely begin with phrases like "You won't believe what I found when I was working in my lab on Research Drive last month." When it comes to op-eds, however, it's good to use the personal voice whenever possible. If you are a physician, describe the plight of one of your patients. If you've worked with poor families in the Triangle, tell their stories to help argue your point.

Avoid jargon. If a technical detail is not essential to your argument, don't use it. When in doubt, leave it out. Simple language doesn't mean simple thinking; it means you are being considerate of readers who lack your expertise and are sitting half-awake at their breakfast table or computer screen.

Use the active voice. Don't write: "It is hoped that [or: One would hope that} the government will . . ." Instead, say "I hope the government will . . ." Active voice is nearly always better than passive voice. It's easier to read, and it leaves no doubt about who is doing the hoping, recommending or other action.

Avoid tedious rebuttals. If you've written your article in response to an earlier piece that made your blood boil, avoid the temptation to prepare a point-by-point rebuttal. It makes you look petty. It's likely that readers didn't see the earlier article and, if they did, they've probably forgotten it. So, just take a deep breath, mention the earlier article once and argue your own case.

Acknowledge the other side. People writing op-ed articles sometimes make the mistake of piling on one reason after another why they’re right and their opponents are wrong, if not idiots. They’d probably appear more credible, and almost certainly more humble and appealing, if they took a moment to acknowledge the ways in which their opponents are right. When you see experienced op-ed authors saying “to be sure,” that’s what they’re doing.

Make your ending a winner. You're probably familiar with the importance of a strong opening paragraph, or "lead," that hooks readers. But when writing for the op-ed page, it's also important to summarize your argument in a strong final paragraph. That's because many casual readers scan the headline, skim the opening column and then read only the final paragraph and byline. In fact, one trick many columnists use is to conclude with a phrase or thought that they used in the opening, thereby closing the circle.

Relax and have fun. Many authors, particularly academics, approach an op-ed article as an exercise in solemnity. Frankly, they'd improve their chances if they'd lighten up, have some fun and entertain the reader a bit. Newspaper editors despair of weighty articles - known in the trade as "thumb suckers" - and delight in an academic writer who chooses examples from "Entertainment Tonight" as well as from Kierkegaard.

http://newsoffice.duke.edu/duke_resources/oped