From Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth

Jan.1, 2010 Happy New Year!

This joyous photo of youthful exuberance is Bryn Kressin, at left; one of our Shaping Youth winners of yesterday’s Packaging Boyhood book drawing where we pulled names from those who commented or tweeted about our weekly posts about boys, manhood and media messages impacting the males we love.

The other two winners were author/educator Dr. Liz J Myer (who writes about ending gender harassment/bullying in schools) and Suzette Valle (who writes about young Hollywood’s influence on kids and teens at Mamarazzi Knows Best) …

Meanwhile, thanks again, Bryn, for this slideshow of your life lessons abroad…and congratulations to all three winners of the Packaging Boyhood book; which is clearly one of my most important media literacy picks for 2009 along with Diane Levin & Jean Kilbourne’s So Sexy So Soon, Rachel Simmons’ Curse of the Good Girl and Liz Funk’s poignant  SuperGirls Speak Out on the gender studies/media front.  (more…)

From Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth
Dec. 29, 2009 Last night I watched ‘The Hangover’ rated R, which I’d heard described by several YOUNG teens (meaning unable to buy a ticket unless sneaking in via diff. multiplex theater) as ‘hilarious,’  and ‘over the top’ and wanted to see where the kid appeal was coming from and try [...]

     A boy running through the woods, a naked teen girl sits up in bed, alert, and pulls the sheet to her chest (much like the Vanity Fair Miley Cyrus photo shoot), scores of helmeted men ride through the woods, then emerge from the sea, and finally the thumping music changes and we hear a [...]

From Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth
Dec. 8, 2009 It’s Tuesday, time for our weekly “Packaging Boyhood” focus, so what better time than the holiday season to sound the ‘red’ siren on the ‘green’ brand that tween and teen boys are sucking up to…Monster energy drink.
With everything from motocross and macho madness to the thumping, screaming, ‘over [...]

From Jennifer Fink, Blogging ‘Bout Boys
Like it or not, the media has a massive effect on today’s boys. That’s why I was so excited to see Packaging Boyhood: Saving Our Sons from Superheroes, Slackers and Other Media Stereotypes, a new book by Lyn Mikel Brown, Sharon Lamb and Mark Tappan. Today, they share with us [...]

From Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth
Nov. 17, 2009 Missed my mark on the Tuesday Packaging Boyhood post last week where I wanted to springboard from the fabulous “author’s spotlight” on Ypulse where they asked readers to share a fictional male role model they admire and why.
Ypulse offered a copy of the Packaging Boyhood book for [...]

From Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth
Nov. 3, 2009 In diving into media messages targeting boys for my weekly Tuesday Packaging Boyhood posts, my mind snap went to ‘gaming’ pronto.
Is this a stereotype? Or did I just do a Malcolm Gladwell style “Blink” in rapid cognition? I flipped to the Packaging Boyhood chapter on “What Boys Do” [...]

From Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth
Oct. 27, 2009 It’s the Tuesday before Halloween, perfect timing to wrap up part two of our Packaging Boyhood post about gender clichés, costumes, and ‘Saving our Sons from Superheroes, Slackers & Stereotypes’ as the book’s title says.
Moreover, we have tips & tactics for those eager to hear how [...]

From Amy Jussel, Shaping Youth
October 19, 2009 Last week I promised an ongoing once a week focus on Packaging Boyhood through the remainder of the year regarding boys and how our sons are handling the media-marketing zeitgeist…
I realize I DO focus a considerable amount on girls, body image and so sexy so [...]

Parents are rightly concerned about “too sexy too soon” Halloween costumes for little girls, but does anyone ask, “What about the boys?”  The search for boys’ costumes can be treacherous, too, and just as filled with over-hyped and stereotyped “choices.”  These ten tips for choosing Halloween costumes for your son, from Drs. Lyn Mikel Brown, [...]