With 5 years of experience as a reporter, two awards in photography and reporting and a very impressive portfolio and resume I was given $38,000 a year at a large publishing firm in 2000.

In the magazine a man hired at the same time, with a portfolio of crossword puzzle editing, no awards and a work history of equal duration was paid $50,000.

Right across the street at a similarly-sized publishing firm my husband, with no work history at all, no awards or accolades and no portfolio at all was hired for $39,500. That $1,500 MORE than I was making with all my experience, credentials, accolades and portfolio.

Pay discrimination is alive and well. But, we can take action right now to put a stop to it.

Take two seconds and sign the petition to get Congress to pass the Fair Pay Restoration Act.

It is within our power to make this a non-issue for our daughters.

While my parents took charge of my kiddos and my husband went to a convention in Atlanta I had (gasp) time to myself in a (sigh) city.

We took the corporate jet so there was zero hassle.

I went on a quest to find my perfect pair of jeans, and I did. I rode the subway back from the mall, because I miss things like people watching on subways.

I got my breasts visually sized (ever since I saw the bra episode on Oprah I've wanted to know what size I should be wearing) at this store called Intimates and found out I'm a size larger than I thought.

I got a 90 minute massage! Seriously, the massuese spent 30 minutes on the knots in my shoulders and neck that results from carrying around a 30 pound baby.

I went dancing.

I ate indian food.

I ate whatever I wanted. I didn't have to make the food. I didn't have to clean up the dishes. I didn't have to pay for it. It's was a purely guilt-free 5 day food fest. I don't think that's ever happened to me before.

I worked uninterupted for hours.

I slept into the afternoon - twice.

I saw The Drifters and danced the night away.

I spent Martin Luther King Day at the Martin Luther King Memorial in Atlanta. I met a woman and talked her into going with me. It was awe inspiring.

I haggled with street vendors for souvenires on Auburn Ave.

So Mom, maybe you guys could watch the kids for a week once every six months?

Again, I would love some validation for what I do here on So Sioux Me.

The Eighth Annual Weblog Awards are accepting nominations through the end of today. Please go there and nominate So Sioux Me (and/or Quit Coping and Blog Fabulous) for some sort of award. Best Kept Secret or Best New Blog of 2007 or Best Writing or Best Topical Blog come to mind.

Winners receive $20.07, but it's not about the money. It's about the little button that says Bloggie I'll get to put on this site and the droves of traffic that will come and think about the girl-revolution.

More people should be thinking about how we're impacting girls, right?

Get your shoes on Zack, come to Home Depot with me, he said.

We were going to watch Jon and Kate plus Ei8ht, I said.

He'd rather go to the hardware store.

Zack loves the babies. It's his favorite show.

What do you want to do Zack? Pick the hardware store. Don't be a girl!

There is nothing wrong with being a girl!

Sometimes I think he forgets who he's married to.

by Tracee Sioux

I always thought I'd have four children growing up. But, then I had one and realized how incredibly hard it was and changed my ideal to two.

When I had Ainsley I thought I'd save my sir name Sioux for the second girl. For some reason I can't recall now I thought it would be odd to give both girls my name. I gave her my mother and great-grandmother's name Sarah as a middle name.

Now, with one boy and one girl and no other girls coming - well, I regret that Ainsley doesn't have my name.

Lately I've been wondering if the naming traditions should shift to passing down names from mother to daughter and father to son. Would that work?

I've been considering changing it, but she's six-years-old so it's not a thing I would do without her wanting it too.

Ainsley, I've been thinking about changing your name.

Okay I want to be Caroline.

What?

Caroline and you can call me Cara.

I meant adding my last name, Sioux, to your name.

Okay, I want to be Caroline Sioux.

What about daddy's name? His feelings will be hurt if you don't keep that. Don't you like the name Ainsley?

I like Caroline better.

What about Sarah?

Just call me Caroline from now on.

Okay, that's not exactly where I intended for this conversation to go.

I'm sorry. I just can not feel like Tracee Sioux with plain brown hair.

It's the single brown tone that's making me feel un-me when I look in the mirror. Drab. Dull. Boring. Not on you. Just on me.

None of those words describe me. I'm fun, happy and exciting. My hair should reflect that.

Last night I spent $9.99 for a box of Loreal Chunking Blond Highlights. I put about 10 blond streaks back around my face and feel like myself again. They're a little orangey - but I do not care.

Ainsley asked for some blond streaks in her dark blond/light brown hair and I couldn't think of a reason to tell her no.

I can think of lots of reasons other mothers might give their daughters,
You're too young. You're hair is perfect like it is. You don't need lighter blond to be pretty. What will people think if I let my 6-year-old color her hair?

I respect all those reasons as valid and legitimate. But, none of those ring true for me, as I've already allowed red streaks and pink streaks - depending on what I was doing to my own hair. Who is a little blond going to hurt? No one. It's fun. That's all it is. It's instantly gratifying to change the color of one's hair. It's a hobby. It's a harmless distraction.

I'm a feminist, but not the natural kind. I think the beauty industry has gotten too extreme and makes many women feel like crap about themselves, I abhor their marketing tactics. But, I am happy when they invent a product that really works.

I use beauty products. I shave my legs, pits and groom my vajayjay. I pluck my eyebrows into a high arch. I wear make-up, apply sun screen and foundation. I get excited about my mascara. I try to control my acne with prescription medication. I'm willing to pay a lot of money for a product that makes melasma vanish and never return. Mind you - I get this stuff on the cheap so I'm not hurting myself financially in this quest for beauty. I got this rotating scrub brush and a chemical peel at a retiring Avon Lady's garage sale for a quarter.

And I love blond highlights. I'm a feminist who feels her best self with blond-highlights.

In December's O Magazine I read this quote from Nancy Etkoff, PhD, author of Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty, If we say, "Get rid of the advertisement and tell companies to stop making products, and no one will care about beauty - this is all just a creation that we can wipe away," we are denying who we are. People do care about how they look. They have adorned themselves since Paleolithic times. This is not a vanity issue or a women's issue or a United States issue. It is human nature.

I hope your Christmas was as merry as ours:

Ainsley performed in her annual Christmas Pageant. This year they took the show on the road and sang and danced and played instruments at a nursing home.

This is her first dance solo.

We baked cookies for Santa. I don't know where she gets that attitude.

Barbie upstaged the guitar. Body image was balanced out by juxtaposing Hispanic dark-haired Gabriella of High School Musical with larger than life Tracy Turnblad of Hairspray.

Crush was accounted for with Zac Afron as Troy of High School Musical. Zac does pair with both of them in the respective movies.

Zack and Ainsley got a kitchen - previously owned by The Joneses.

We're keeping it in Zack's room because he has more available space.

They equally love it.

Sometimes I hear about a girl or three who, frankly, astounds me. They accomplish things I never thought to accomplish.

Girls cleaned house at the annual Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology this year.

According to an MSNBC article by Karen Matthews, Isha Jain, a senior at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pa., won the individual prize for her biology project on bone growth in zebrafish fins.

Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff, seniors at John F. Kennedy High School in Plainview, N.Y., won the top team prize for their research into tuberculosis treatments.

Jain's research has already been published in Developmental Dynamics and said her research should lead to understanding bone growth in other vertebrates along with bone disorders in humans.

Schlossberger and Marinoff said their research could lead to more effective treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis.

After synthesizing these drugs we need to then go back to modify them and optimize them to maximize their effectiveness, Marinoff was quoted as saying in the MSNBC article.

The scientists won $100,000 in scholarships.

You Go Girls!

Every parent can encourage their daughters to think ambitiously about technology and science by providing girls with traditionally "boy" toys. One of these winners flew off the stage into her father's arms after winning. Obviously, he encouraged her scientific ambitions.

Think Wii by Nintendo (whoever bought the Wii last week through So Sioux Me - I can't express how gratifying and validating that $20 was!), Melissa and Doug Solar System 48pc Floor , or Meade 70AZ-A Telescope and, CHEM C1000: Chemistry Experime.

by Tracee Sioux

More and more I'm coming into contact with teenage girls and young women who meet the beauty ideal - 100 lbs, blond highlights, blue eyed, clear skin, fantastic fashion sense - and discovering their self-esteem is as low as anyones.

Even those who meet the beauty ideal don't understand why I have a blank mystified stare when they tell me how they aren't pretty enough.

What I'm thinking is, If YOU don't measure up then no one does.

Which brings us to the core of the problem. No one does and no one can.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty "aims to widen the definition of beauty and inspire positive self-image among women – in short, to help more women feel beautiful every day."

Their newest venture in the cause to broaden beauty is the Reality Diaries.

The press release states, "The Reality Diaries Program is a 6 week program that revolves around the lives of four real girls who share their personal self-esteem stories online. They record their journey online through the use of blogs and videos, allowing girls across the country to go behind-the-scenes on their real lives and understand the factors that impact their self-esteem. Each girl deals with a different self-esteem issue and the Diaries will reflect how the media influences their self-esteem."

Each of the girls are 17 and seniors in high school. Each have different beauty pressures: Chelsea, the black pageant girl and becomes hyper-critical of every flaw to try to stamp it out before the other contestants single it out, Sydney; whose mother wants to fix her complex about her nose with a graduation gift of rhinoplasty, which only makes her feel worse; Jordan, who seems to meet the beauty standard but who picks herself apart because she fears the boys have unrealistically high standards she'll never meet; and Irene, the "pretty Asian girl" who overlooks racial slurs to gain social acceptance.

The Reality Diaries is moderated by Jess, Doves Global Ambassador of Self Esteem, who, like the rest of us, doesn't measure up to today's beauty standards, but has a self esteem anyway.

As a tool for girls the Reality Diaries will hopefully serve to make girls feel connected to other girls. Hopefully, they will realize how unrealistic the beauty ideal is and learn to have a positive self esteem regardless of cultural expectations.

For parents and educators the Reality Diaries are a great opportunity to observe what girls are really thinking and feeling about themselves today.

by Tracee Sioux

Mom, Austin kept hitting me and throwing the ball at me today. He pulled my hair and called me stupid a bunch of times!

Hmmm. Sounds like he likes you.

What? He's being so mean to me!

I know. That's what boys do when they like you.

Really?

Really.

Isn't he the one you have a crush on?

Yes.

So, then. I guess he likes you back.

Oh.

by Tracee Sioux

Discovery Girls is a magazine created for girls, by girls ages 8 and up. I reviewed a couple of issues with Ainsley, who is granted only 6, but precocious.

It's full of about fashion trends, beauty and style, crushes on boys, and teen movie stars. I don't know why I expected that girlhood today would be different than girlhood when I was growing up. I guess I thought there would be more evolution in girlness.

That said, I totally love it and can't stop reading. I am even taking the quizzes. I totally forgot how much fun magazine quizzes are.

All the talk about boys and crushes would seem premature and inappropriate, if Ainsley hadn't already informed me who she's crushing on (I'm so not telling) and if I didn't remember being completely and utterly in love with a boy myself at her age. I would be incensed about the focus on boys if she hadn't opened the magazine and said, Oh wow, Zac Efron is in this. I was comforted when the advice column told a girl that the 5th grade was way too young to have a boyfriend. Fwhew.

The articles about Frenimies and Mean Girls are particularly useful.

Discovery Girls also recently released a series of books which I thought were entertaining and gave relevant advice.

The Fab Girls Guide to Friendship Hardship seems like a gold mine for mothers - oh, right and daughters too. At the beginning of the book girls take a quiz about their friendships and see whether they rank as good or bad. If you're friends with Poisonous Patti, she's mean, untrustwrothy and may actually be trying to make you feel bad. . . Nope, it's not your imagination, this girl is not your friend -- she's a frenemy wearing your BFF necklace, girls are advised to find better friends.

The book lists 8 frenemy behaviors: The User, The Gossip, The Part-Time Bully, The Cling-On, The Snob, The Drama Queen, The Hidder, and The Backstabber. Ah, brings back memories - not the good kind. The book tells girls what they're getting out of being friends with her.

It doesn't stop there. It addresses what to do if the girl, herself, is the mean girl. Yeah, you!, it says.

The book defines what you should expect out of a true friend and outlines how you can be one. It gives great advice on how to find friends when you are in need of new ones.

The Fab Girls Guide to Sticky Situationsis both helpful and hilarious. The really funny part is that you'll relate to lots of these sticky situations.

What should you do if your friend's mom bursts into the room and starts screaming about her D - time to slip out of the room.

What should you do if you're at school and you get period on your pants? Make a temporary pad out of toilet paper or a sock, tie a sweater or jacket around your waste and see the school nurse. Don't worry, this has happened to every girl.

The sticky situations include relevant information about what to do if you're approached by online predators too.

Other books in the series are Fab Girls Guide to Getting Your Questions Answered and Fab Girls Guide to Getting Through Tough Times.

You can buy the whole set of Fab Girls books for $29.95 or separately for $9.95 at discoverygirls.com.

Or

You can win a set of the books right here by posting a comment. If you share a sticky situation you found yourself in, you will be entered to win. The winner will be the one who made me laugh hardest. I will post the results next Tuesday.

This contest is officially closed. For announcement of the winner please go to Discovery Girls Prize Goes To . . .

In a focus group carried out by toy manufacturer, Martin Yaffe, where children were invited to put this year’s top Christmas toys through their paces, seven out of 10 girls chose to play with toys designed for boys over the girls’ alternatives.

Around 70% of girls under six admit that boys’ toys are what they really want, according to a press release put out by the manufacturer of Bob the Builder toys.

Kristian Johnson, Marketing Manager at Martin Yaffe, said: It seems that stereotypes applied to toys in the past such as dolls for girls and cars for boys no longer apply – opening up a whole new element of choice for parents when shopping for their daughters this Christmas!

We wanted to hear directly from children exactly which toys will be at the top of their Christmas lists this year, and surprisingly found that the majority of girls preferred playing with the toys designed with boys in mind, from Bob the Builder to Fireman Sam.

The girls were given their choice between Bratz and Barbies and Bob and other toys marketed to boys. The study was done in the United Kingdom, but it stands to reason that American girls might feel similarly.

The top five picks were:
No.1 – Bob the Builder Snaptrax Garage & Car Wash set (picture of electronic sounds vehicle wash) – Girls loved working the working carwash and dryer.

No.2 – Oddbodz – The girls enjoyed playing with the colourful characters and vehicles that could be dismantled to create crazy new ones.
No 3 – Remote Control Scrambler – Girls particularly enjoyed mastering this easy to operate Scrambler, from hit pre-school TV show Bob the Builder.
No.4 – Bob the Builder Tool Bench – This was a surprising favourite with the girls who enjoyed emulating their hero Bob.
No.5 – Fireman Sam Remote Control Jupiter – This toy held its own, proving that kids still love traditional role models such as fire-fighters.

Read the whole press release. Keep in mind, this study was conducted by the manufacturer of Bob the Builder, so the boy toys were all made by Martin Yaffe.

I think we should test the theory though. Giving traditionally male toys to our daughters certainly can't hurt them.

Our daughters have a right to see women in the picture too. I think they deserve to have all opportunities open to them, including that of President of the United States. Women have yet to be represented.

To ignore the white maleness of power is to deny daughters the reality of their gender.

by Tracee Sioux

I'm reading this little book called Bergdorf Blonds by Plum Sykes where I'm seeing the word ana. As in you're looking totally ana, you must be deliriously happy. Ana is short for anorexia and is considered the best thing to be.

It's not just appearing in trashy hip-chick lit, it's appearing on social networking sites where the lines are being blurred between recovering from eating disorders and glamorizing being so thin they're near death.

Worlds Largest Pro Anorexia site is where girls go to support each other in keeping their anorexia or bulimia.

Comments samples on Pro-ana and Pro-mia sites:

after a two day fast, i f*ed up. and had six slices of bread and butter :'( plus a bowl of spaghetti. i tried to purge but i couldn't. then i spent ages crying. how sad can i get.

i love stepping on the scale and seeing the numbers go lower. i really do. it feels like a high-- but sometimes i actually get scared for my own healtha nd well being. my BMI is 15. im scared sometimes that i wont wake up. i tell myself i will eat healthy nad maintain my weight but then in contrast i get scared to eat TOO much. so i cycle on eating too much, maintaining weight, losing weight, freaking out, eating too much... over and over again.

Xanga, Facebook and Myspace all have pro-ana and pro-mia sites. Those who participate in these sites defend their "right to their lifestyle choice."

They exchange purging tips, ways to avoid eating when they are in social situations, how to hide weight loss from doctors and parents, and what pills and laxatives work best. These strategies are quaintly known as thinspiration.

According to a 2006 survey of eating disorder patients at Stanford Medical School 35.5% had visited pro-ana/pro-mia web sites; of those, 96% learned new weight loss or purging methods from such sites.

They post ultra-thin photos of themselves and long to be, not their own thin selves, but someone thinner and better.

This pro-ana and pro-mia and thinspiration trend is a cry for help from the girls who internalized all our self-loathing jokes and indulged in all the girl-hating media.

Oh mothers. What would we do to protect our daughters from this outcome?

Would we stop complaining about our own bodies and appearance?

It's a tangible and effective place to start. It's not meaningless and without consequence to joke about our own fatness, ugliness, lack of beauty perfection. It doesn't only lower our self-esteem, it lowers theirs too.

Would we take the time to write advertisers?

Is it worth monitoring their Internet use and television exposure?

It is to me.

The mother who radiates self-love and self-acceptance vaccinates her daughter against low self-esteem. Naomi Wolf

Self-Loathing Sin Bank

In response to a meme by Marjorie at 280 Main Street. A meme is what bloggers do if they like you - yea! It's like blogger approval. I'm digging that.

• I was on the front page of the newspaper in Lithuania. I was teaching English there. It was considered improper for women to smoke on the street. A photographer caught me smoking on the street during the International Smoke Out. Due to the language barrier, I didn't know about the smoke out. I would've done it anyway. It wasn't a good photo - I had burned my bangs while trying to light my smoke on a gas stove and they were mid-grow out. I quit smoking this year.


• I used to wimp-out when people would say, "It's too competitive." There are several moments in my life where I wish I hadn't chickened out of opportunities. I'm learning to say, "Well, maybe I'm that good."


• I'm actively testing Biblical promises and the Law of Attraction to get what I really want. It's working. Especially for garage sale where I found four already hemmed jeans with the exact right waste, leg, brand and sizes.


• I love being in my 30s - I feel so much more powerful and validated now. I'm starting to love cliches, because they are true like, "youth is wasted on the young."


• I feel freed from my biological clock now that I'm done having children. I'm feeling a sense of sanity that was never there before. Like all my thoughts and actions were somehow biologically skewed to make sure I got married and had children. Now that I'm done I feel free to be more authentically me, only censored.


• I'm resistant to organization and new technology. I get frustrated learning new things and avoid them until I can't avoid them anymore (just got a cell phone this year - actually three, since my kids destroyed my first two). I finally had to start keeping a weekly calendar and a password spreadsheet.


• I have hemochromatosis. It's a rare hereditary condition where my body doesn't process iron correctly. Iron is poisonous in high doses so they bleed me. About 8% of the population has it. I was extremely lucky to find out about it in my 20s, so it is unlikely to effect my health or life expectancy. However, it does make me uninsurable through private insurance. Thank Goodness my husband has a corporate job which is required to insure me. I've been denied life insurance too.

I'm going to tag Jlogged, Queen of Violets, Mrs. Blogoway, The Wardrobe Miser, Babylune, and Black Market Beauty (this chick is conjuring up her own make up recipes.) and Blue Milk.

Don't miss the 47th Carnival of Feminists (really? 47? Wow, that's a lot). Proud to be included. Thanks for hosting it Ornamenting Away.

Angry for a Reason is hosting Carnival of Radical Feminists. Again, very honored to be included.

by Tracee Sioux

When you write about issues effecting daughters, you put a lot of thought into personal action that might not have carried much meaning before.

For instance, having written that women should consider how their daughters will feel before reconstructing perceived flaws through surgery in My Face/Her Face I have to wonder how far I must take the you're beautiful the way God made you message.

Does that make it wrong for me to color my hair? Am I now restricted to only allow myself my natural color? Am I making Ainsley feel bad about her light brown hair (which is my natural color) by bleaching and coloring my hair? Am I harming her self esteem?

I was a natural blond as a child. I'm not over it. Okay? I'm just not. I want to be a blond. My hair got darker around the 5th or 6th grade and I wasn't thrilled when I saw myself in a picture. I've pretty much been bleaching it since the 7th grade. Blonds have more fun. Blonds are prettier. Blonds are younger. Blonds are more exciting. I think you look great as a brunette. But I, my inner self or my own internal picture of me, is a blond.

I don't feel as pretty if I don't have blond streaks. Sometimes I like to put red in it. Sometimes I really enjoy the contrast between the dark brown and the sun-streaked blond. Last Spring I loved my pink streaks amidst the blond. I like the feeling I get when I make a big change, but I like it most when there is blond involved.

I'll probably never develop a deep satisfaction in my natural color. For one thing, by now it's probably got some grey in it and I'd color it anyway. I may never get over it - and why should I? There is nothing permanent about hair.

However, after reading my friend Jennifer's blog A Free Haircut is Always a Super Cut arguing that professional hair color is an expensive luxury. I decided I could give up my blond - for a little while - to free up the $60 it costs me to have it done. We're buying a house and that 60 bucks, as well as the gym membership, can go to the mortgage.

I went for my natural Light Golden Brown first. Boring. Boring. Boring. I went back for the Dark Auburn last night - I can at least give myself a hint of drama.

And Ainsley, I've already colored her hair twice - once with pink streaks and once with red. She even had pink extensions glued in for a while. She asked for it and I couldn't think of a reason not to.

So, if Ainsley is going to get a message I hope it's this, You have the freedom to have whatever color of hair you want. You can reinvent yourself every season if you feel like it. But, keep it in perspective - if it's between buying a house or being a blond - the house should win every time.

Who knew I had this much to say about hair:

• Beauty & Reality
• Pink Hair Fiasco
• Pink Hair Fiasco Take 2
• Curl Maintenance
• The Meaning of Hair

A) Girls can't do well in math and science subjects.

B) Science and Tech Fields are misogynistic Good Old Boys Clubs.

C) All men hate women.

D) Women just don't care about math and science - they care about fashion and babies.

E) Teachers, professors and employers don't understand how they shut girls out and they need some education.

A recent National Academies report, Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering, found that women repeatedly face biases in academia in the science fields, and that these barriers to success discourage them from careers in these areas. In response to this report, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) recently introduced the Gender Bias Elimination Act (H.R. 3514).

Women are capable of contributing more to the nation's science and engineering research enterprise, but bias and outmoded practices governing academic success impede their progress almost every step of the way, said Donna E. Shalala, president of the University of Miami, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and chair of the committee that wrote the report. Fundamental changes in the culture and opportunities at America's research universities are urgently needed. The United States should enhance its talent pool by making the most of its entire population.

This important piece of legislation directly addresses concerns raised in the National Academies report by authorizing workshops that educate university department chairs, agency program officers, and others on reducing and eliminating gender bias for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Under this act, agencies that fund scientific research-like the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation-will also be directed to better enforce existing federal anti-discrimination laws (including Title IX), assess the workplace climate, publish demographic and funding data for grant applications, and extend grant support for researchers on leave for caregiving duties.

Declining interest in science and a shortage of American scientists is a threat to American competitiveness on a national scale, problems that are exacerbated by the low numbers of women and girls from STEM fields. The Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology's report Professional Women and Minorities states that women now comprise 25 percent of the labor force in STEM fields. If women and members of other traditionally underrepresented groups joined the STEM workforce in proportion to their representation in the overall labor force, the shortage of STEM professionals would disappear.

Join the American Association of University Women in supporting, promoting and strengthening STEM education, especially for women and other underrepresented populations in the fields. AAUW believes this legislation remove barriers to success and encourage more women to choose careers in STEM fields.

Be a Two-Minute Activist by following this link to write your legislatures to support this bill.

Our daughters deserve to have all choices open and available to them.

by Tracee Sioux

Mommy, Kinsey called me a bad word!

Oh no. What did she call you?

Tracee!

So this is what bad mother Karma feels like. I so wish I had been nicer to my mother. Where once my main goal in life was to not become my mother, I now realize there are WAY worse people to be. I'd be lucky to be as kind, generous and loving and together as my mother.

The other day someone said, That must have been hard for you.

We were discussing how my mother actually taught me real homemaking skills like sewing, cooking and cleaning that I thought were passe. I believed feminism would save me from that fate.

I guess, as a kid I didn't appreciate that some mothers leave. Some mothers beat their kids. Some mothers work three jobs and are never home. Some mothers involve a litany of different father-figures in their kids' lives. Some mothers don't care if you do your homework or graduate. Some mothers give you their cigarettes instead of punishing you for smoking.

I actually do sew. Sometimes for fun. My friends are jealous that I have this antiquated and exotic feminine skill. They bring me their favorite clothes and beg me to fix them. They ask me to teach them these nearly-dead feminine arts. They ask for my recipes.

My parents were right - I just didn't know how good I had it. I really thought every kid got it as good as me.

Now if only I could convince Ainsley - There are way worse names to be called than Tracee.

Have you been over to the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood? It's a non-profit activist organization on the side of NOT selling our kids out.

Which, until recently I thought was a given, but apparently that was naive. Now, I pretty much think that unless people get LOUD in the face of advertisers they'll sell every girl or boy child as long as they can pay their amortized mortgage and their fancy limited-edition, financed Tahoe.

I would love to attend the upcoming conference in Boston, Consuming Kids, The Sexualization of Children and other Commercial Calamities.

I'll invite any attendee of the conference to guest-post what they learned on So Sioux Me.

I love a site that lets me take real action in less than 5 minutes. While I was over there I got to write a letter to Scholastic to tell them to stop marketing The Bratz in my daughter's school.

You can also send a letter to McDonalds demanding they stop selling sex with a side of fries with their sexualized My Scene Barbies as a Happy Meal prize. More on these toys at Queen of Violets.

I understand that, as a parent, one of my jobs is to teach my children to decipher advertising and teach them to resist it.

Really, I don't think it would be reasonable to stop marketing to kids completely. But, do they have to be so deranged and disgusting about it? Could they perhaps apply an ethical boundary here and there? At a marketing meeting deciding to market toys that look more like hookers than business women is it insane to think the marketing professionals, presumably also parents, might ask "What kind of long-term effect might this have on kids?"

Is that really too much to ask?