I realize it must seem like this blog is going more and more to girl studies. It’s really not meant to become a girl studies blog, but I am a former girl who chose action figures, action cartoons, video games, and science fiction television shows. It helped shape me into the current woman who enjoys action cartoons, manga, video games, and webcomics. Being a girl who grew up with more guy friends than girl friends, I have my own ideas on what a girl is, and how we should inspire and motivate the next generations of girls. I have huge diatribes in my private journal on how being a girl and a feminist should inspire and shape my work. And I have huge diatribes on what effect I think gender really should have on my work.

So from time to time, you’re going to see these posts on my own girl studies thoughts. And today would be one of those times.

Let’s start with yet another article on trying to pin down what girls want once you’ve accepted that not every girl is looking to channel her inner Disney Princess. Amazingly, when girls who chose to read comic books and graphic novels in their youth were surveyed, they were drawn to superheroes.

They were also wishing for a wish-fulfillment superhero, one who kicks butt, takes names, and has human failings…without it being attributed to her womanhood or without being relegated to a token status. Girls want someone they can relate to. That someone isn’t always a small plastic figurine  with impossible looks. That someone doesn’t always want to give up her identity to be what someone else wants her to be. That someone isn’t always willing to just sit back and let others handle what she could easily do.

It’s nice to see more and more articles about this, because it gives hope that maybe girls can finally get a real say in what they do, what they play with, and not feel guilty for wanting to build a rocketship over making pretend scrambled eggs. (Even better will be the day when the girl can pick making pretend scrambled eggs over building a rocketship because she genuinely enjoys the idea of cooking without being attacked by girls who find that too traditional and soul-sucking.)

While I was reading over the article I wanted to share this morning, Girls,Inc. sent out a tweet about a rather cool project: The Seventeen Magazine Project. High school senior Jamie Keils is in the process of trying to apply tips from the current issue of Seventeen to her life every single day. She’s just a week in, but her write-ups of her experiments are written with a sincerity, a sensitivity to the needs and issues of the magazine’s target audience, and a sense of humor that make it interesting and enjoyable.

I can already see you trying to figure out how this fits in with the girl who wants a comic book hero she can either live out fantasies through or identify with. As I was reading over her posts this morning, the message that really struck me as she tried to analyze how different articles and tips fit in with Seventeen’s readership was pretty much the same one I picked up from the post on what comics girls like: Girls want to define themselves. They don’t mind the help, but they’d really like it if they were just encouraged to be the person they want to be.

There’s something powerful in that, and I think it’s something too quickly overlooked as companies try to figure out how to reach girls. There’s a cultural stereotype for what a girl should be, and there’s a reality of who girls are. Quite simply, girls are really a diverse group of people with their own sense of what a girl should be. And that’s just as it should be.

For the record, as a teen I was the girl who kept Seventeen Magazine and the Star Trek: the Next Generation magazine on her tiny desk, and gave herself weekly manicures and pedicures while watching X-Men or Darkwing Duck.

Pigtail Pals – Redefine Girly Pigtail Pals is a t-shirt company for girls created by a mom who did not accept nor understand the gender division & stereotypes being sold to our children. Our motto, “Redefine Girly” means that girls are smart, daring, and adventurous. We want girls to define FOR THEMSELVES who they will be in this world.

I saw the first sentence of this retweeted while I was still half-asleep this morning, and it was enough to wake me up. Maybe it’s because it’s already on my mind, but it made me think, If you don’t accept gender division and stereotype, why are you promoting them by creating products only for girls? When I finally saw the entire message, it made a little more sense. Looking at their product line (and I would have wanted that astronaut shirt as a kid) helps clarify things a little bit, too.

Except it really doesn’t.

I’ve long had this problem with the belief/practice that giving more recognition or privileges to an under-represented group means giving them equality. Shining a spotlight and creating privileges for these groups rarely leads to equal treatment. Instead, it leads to a reverse discrimination. (For a really strong example of this in a contained environment, please see “A Class Divided”)

When women gained their right to vote (which they never should have lost to begin with), that’s what they gained. A right to vote, to participate in government in the same ways men did (even if we’ve gone about it slowly in some aspects). We didn’t gain more rights in an attempt to be more equal. We gained the same rights. For some reason, this mindset isn’t translating to other areas where women are trying to gain a better foothold.

Watching how that mindset fails to translate is a lot of what’s informing decisions about my own planned projects. There was a time just a year ago when I was considering taking my role at work as a smart woman who enjoys math into my projects and focusing Dead Bunny’s work strictly on girls. But the more I watch the women whose idea of “equal” is more rights than the men in that field, the more I’ve really thought about what I’m trying to say in my own work in that regard.

For me, the real statement against gender division and stereotyping isn’t further division and the potential for reverse discrimination. It’s focusing on treating everyone like they’re capable of the same things, encouraging them to reach their potential, and not making it about their gender (or any other differentiating physical trait).