I am awash in a "Dark Angel," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" glow. I have seen women kick butt in "Charlie's Angels" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," and, in my heart of hearts, I know this much is true: It's good for the economy.
Fantasy programs like "Dark Angel" and "Buffy" are just the tip of the iceberg. From Nike to Gatorade, American advertisers are sold on the image of independent, resourceful, kick-butt girls. They are obsessed with pre-pubescent girls in long cascading tresses who sweat when kicking winning soccer goals; who look you straight in the eye when choosing running shoes; who rule in designer threads; and who guard their Pepsis with the ferocity of mother lionesses.
If the mass media see profit in girls that "just do it," can equality between the sexes be far behind? Feminism must be making progress if imaginary kids are trading in princess crowns for soccer balls and standing tall instead of serving supper, right?
Not if history teaches us anything.
During the 1910s, advertisers routinely pirated slogans from the women's suffrage movement. Women "voted" for toothpaste, soup, crackers and dubious medical elixirs long before they elected political candidates. The revival of feminism in the 1960s and '70s prompted a similar appropriation of feminist rhetoric. Remember the Virginia Slims "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" campaign that suggested smokes for women represented the height of advancement?
Advertisers' celebrations of independent womanhood did not ring in warm and fuzzy ages of gender parity. Celebrations of kick-butt girls do not guarantee your daughter will be one.
What the marketing of kick-butt girls does guarantee, and what advertisers' co-opting of feminist ideals has always guaranteed, is that when it comes to equal rights, it's the right to consumer desire that rules. Go for it, girls! Want the same sports equipment and soft drinks that boys hoard? Go ahead. With children between 2 and 14 responsible for $25 billion in spending each year, and with teenagers burning through $94 billion, you youngsters have earned it.
Still, selling Americans on kick-butt girls has got to be better than selling them on junior Betty Crockers, right? Not entirely.
