Girl Ambition

I noted with interest the launch of a new social networking site aimed at girls aged 7-12, titled Girl Ambition. It was formed by three parents keen to provide a safe space for their children to engage in online activity and develop a site that challenges the traditional, stereotyped discourses about girlhood that circulate the internet. Whilst there is certainly a need for sites such as this that aim to develop girls’ self-esteem, I feel that it is unfortunate that the site looks so retro. It is hard to compete with the designs of commercial sites, given the marketing budgets they enjoy, but nonetheless a more up-to-date design would attract more users. I can’t help feeling that the site will appeal to a certain demographic and miss an opportunity to speak to a wide, diverse audience. I hope I am wrong and will be monitoring the site’s development. In the meantime, if anyone has had an opportunity to review the content of the site, do post your comments (or link to your review) here.

Pink technologies

This is Sakura, the first robot designed to appeal directly to girls. Drawing from anime (Sakura is also the name of a popular anime character) the robot has typical anime features, such as large eyes. She also has, as the adverts are keen to stress, the ability to do a number of alarmingly unadventurous things:

'She can give you compliments and knows exactly what to say. Sakura also loves to give you your fortune, answer yes or no questions and can tell you fun facts, jokes and even fashion tips...the Sakura Robot is a girl's best friend, will keep her secrets, talks, dances and plays music.'

Soon there may be a robot that will apply one's nail varnish, I guess. It would have to be pink nail varnish, of course.

More VIPs

The latest in the 'virtual worlds linked to offline artefacts' phenomenon aimed at girls is the Littlest Pet Shop VIPs, (Virtual Interactive Pets) by Hasbro, a clear copy of the Webkinz and MyePets forumla, which is:

a) A physical artefact, a 'cute' pet that has its own individual, 'secret' code.
b) A certificate of ownership or adoption.
c) Excessive use of pastel shades in the products themselves and related artefacts and texts.
d) The physical pet can be represented on screen in a related virtual world once the owner enters the code on the relevant website and becomes a member of the 'community' of owners. Websites incorporate aspects of social networking e.g. chat, collaborative games. For example, the 'Littlest Pet Shop VIPs' marketing blurb states:

'A virtual world wouldn’t be complete without knowing what’s going on in your community. The LITTLEST PET SHOP VIPs world will include fun and informative community features such as “Breaking News” and a “Community Calendar” alerting girls to the new and exciting activities that are unfolding, “Pet of the Day” a random spotlight on a pet based on photos submitted by VIPs owners; and “High Scores” to see how you and your pet stack up against others in overall rankings of the 16 mini-games.'

e) Discourses of care and nurturing permeate the sites - owners are encouraged to house, feed, play with and pamper their pets. For example, you can 'pamper and primp your e-Pet at the Spa'.
f) Owners are able to personalise their pets, both on- and off-line.
g) There is on- and off-line marketing of a range of related texts and artefacts e.g. cards, books. This includes an area on the websites which offers a 'store locator', or guidance about how to buy the pets and related goods.
h) Membership procedures involve the company having email addresses of customers.
i) Websites include areas for parents which reassure them about safety issues (but not economic ones).

Littlest Pet Shop VIPs will be launched in the US in October, followed by a global launch in spring 2008. My colleague at the University of Sheffield, Julia Davies, wrote about a similar phenomenon, that of the virtual baby site, 'Babyz'. In her paper, she talks about how some of these site users 'barbarise' their babyz. Maybe the same will happen to these nauseous virtual pets...

Mi (Pink) Digi World

The latest in the pink technologies phenomenon is the Mi Digi World.
The marketing blurb states that it is "built around modern girls’ interests like make-up, fashion, friends, parties, horoscopes and blogging". Well, at least blogging is up there, I guess. Interestingly, the gadget enables users to create an avatar that can then be uploaded and used on a PC, maybe in preparation for the much-hyped ability of 'Web 3.0' , which will, allegedly, enable us to navigate the web using a consistent avatar across programs and software. So, the technology moves on but not, unfortunately, the retrogressive discourses embedded in some of these gadgets. This one enables users to 'analyse whether a boy and girl are compatible' and 'dress them up for a romantic date'. Judith Butler's notion of the 'heterosexual matrix' writ large here.

Virtual genetics

If you think that the Barbie Girls world is rather saccharine, then you will no doubt think that the virtual community that is Pony Island is just as bad, filled as it is with My Little Pony creations, including newborn ponies...Participants can raise and train their ponies but if you think that it is just all play then the Pony Island creators claim on the parents' page that it 'uses a simplified version of real life genetics, our players will over time learn about dominant and recessive genes, how they work and are used'. Simplified genetics? Surely young girls deserve better than this as they begin to explore virtual worlds?

Digitally gendered

Digital texts offer spaces in which children can perform both transgressive and conformist gendered acts. The interaction between structure/agency here is obviously key, and what concerns me at the moment is the way in which popular texts for young children are attempting to shape particular readings and performances. I have written about the sexism embedded in the ‘Bob the Builder’ site in a paper available here on gender and early digital literacy, but another pre-school animation that is irritating me greatly at the moment is ‘Underground Ernie’. Why, in a programme commissioned by the BBC in the 21st century, we have the two female trains described respectively as ‘a motherly figure‘ and ‘a hippy chick’ and the male trains described as being mathematical wizards and loving technology is beyond belief. Not only that, but the way in which technology is often shaped for young female interests (pink technologies) is also frustrating. Yes, a postmodernist take recognises that young girls can adopt an ironic and reflexive stance in relation to some of these items whilst still finding pleasure in them but the fact remains that often these replicas of adult technologies are reductive in nature in that the functionality of artefacts aimed at girls is of a lesser quality than similar items targeted at boys. So what’s new? This has always been the case with toys, but I do worry that the transition from home to nursery technologies then becomes that much more of a challenge for young girls. Julia's work with older girls certainly points to full engagement by many in digital lifeworlds, so maybe these early experiences are not as potentially limiting as I think...