Title of article

Don't you just hate it when men ignore you? I know I do and if it were our boyfriends or husbands you'd be sure that they'd hear about it and we'd get the attention that we definitely deserve, but when it comes to the entertainment and video game industry the majority of women seem content to let their words fall on deaf ears. Why am I saying this? Well for the umpteen millionth time a game that I want and think lots of younger girls would like, has just been released in Japan and once again I'm sure it'll never be released here. And the reason I am so sure, is because the game is a "girls' game" aimed toward girls and for some strange reason the American entertainment industry just doesn't seem to think that women and girls buy anything but clothes, make up and small appliances.

For now, I'm going to speak about our young women, the 'tweens and teens that make up part of the American population that just happens to outnumber men according to the 2000 US Census. Now if you'd take a look at the standard afternoon and Saturday morning TV line up, you'd hardly guess that these young women are an economic factor worth bothering with. Of the many cartoons and live action shows aimed toward young adults, the majority of these are aimed at young boys and men rather than girls. Why is that? I wish someone would tell me because I am rather at a loss. From Yu-gi-oh to X-men, these shows are basically male-oriented if they aren't trying to be gender neutral which also somehow turns out to be male-oriented. During those wonderful 80s and during a short period in the 90s the networks did try to appeal to the young female audience with shows like Jem, My Little Pony and Beverly Hills Teens. And for a while things were very good. Then some mysterious thing happened. Well actually, it was probably shortly after the voice actors strike in the mid to late 80s, when cartoons became less of a priority and girls' shows got lost in the shuffle. The world of Girls' Entertainment never recovered.

Now with women steadily taking their rightful places in the entertainment and video game industries, you'd think that we'd start to see a little change, but we haven't. Why is that? Is it because we don't like girly things anymore? No I don't think it's that. I can look at my Hello Kitty telephone and answer that whole-heartedly. Is it that we aren't really an economic factor anymore? Well with all of the Barbies, Bratz and Divas on the market, I wouldn't say that either. I think it may be a little bit of us simply accepting what's become the norm and a lot of forcing our young women and girls to grow up too fast by not giving them much in the way of choice of entertainment. The message they're getting right now is that guys want sexy girls and you gotta get to work early on the sexy thing and leave being a girl to the 8 year olds. You know it's true. Tween and teen girls tend to steer away from things that are childish or "boys' stuff" which is basically the entire afternoon entertainment and video game world right now and push them toward caring so much about their looks with magazines and shows that put beauty on a sexy, rail thin pedestal. You see, there's a bit of an imbalance. So what should we do?

Girls need to be girls that grow into women who love being girls. And they can't do that or feel that it's ok to be a girl when there is nothing out there for them. I'd love to start a petition to send out to both the video game and television entertainment industries demanding that we be recognized for our numbers and sheer buying power with products and shows for our young women. Women outnumber men on the web and in the stores and we spend far more money than most men I'm sure. I think they owe it to us to give us our fair share of everything. I know if I have to, I'll just keep breaking myself to import stuff from outside of the US (anime, games, etc.) when I have a little girl, just so that she can be well rounded. YOU HEAR THAT US ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY! I'M SENDING MY MONEY OVERSEAS! And don't think I'll let a little language barrier stop me. After all, men and women don't speak the same language anyway! ^_^

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