So, my husband wants to know why I would advertise Amazon Groceries on this website. Well, for starters they are paying me $3 for everyone who clicks on the ads. That means you don't even have to order any groceries, you just have to click on the ad on the right to help me out. Second, I fantasize about a world where I would never go grocery shopping again. Woudn't be be lovely if you never, ever had to deal with the Walmart hassle again? Really, I think it would be bliss. Third, we often enjoy food we can't even get locally. We live in a rather small city (80,000 to 100,000 people) and people here love steak and potatoes. They don't eat very exotic foods. But, I enjoy making a coconut chicken curry now and then. We're trying to eat healthy, but I don't want to spend a lot of time cooking and it just seems like it would be super-easy to have the spice mix for coconut chicken curry delivered to my door.

By Tracee Sioux

So a friend asked me the other day where I stand on Barbie. I have included "no Bratz, Barbies or Princesses" on birthday invitations. But, I also have a hot pink Barbie VW Bug and a Barbie skate board in the house.

I used to be anti-Barbie because Barbie had unrealistic body proportions. Her breasts were gigantic, waist tiny and nothing was in proportion. Perhaps Barbie-lunacy lead to so many women feeling they had inadequate breasts? Maybe Barbie is responsible for the dramatic increase in boob jobs? But, I can't back that up scientifically.

Besides I'm not against boob jobs or plastic surgery on principle. I'm against women being perpetually dissatisfied with their bodies and passing that onto their daughters on principle. Barbie may have contributed to that feeling of dissatisfaction by making little girls feel like growing up to look like Barbie was the ideal.

"Estimates have put the doll's life-size bust between 38 and 40 inches, her waist at 18-24 inches, and her height between five and a half and an outlandish more than seven feet, with a weight of 110. Picture Anna Nicole Smith's breasts, suspended above Kate Moss' waist (after a fast) all resting comfortably on Cheryl Miller's frame (after a mid-life growth spurt). Reported a MotherJones article.

Then Barbie went and got a little-publicised maker-over. Her boobs shrunk and her waist got a little wider and her hips narrower.

"Our intention is for her to have more of a teenage physique," says Mattel spokesperson Lisa McKendall. "In order for hip-huggers [the new doll's debut outfit] to look right, Barbie needs to be more like a teen's body. The fashions teens wear now don't fit properly on our current sculpting."

Of course, they didn't take the average proportions of the average American teenage girl and mold Barbie to those. That would be way to healthy of Mattel.

Still I have conflicted feelings about Barbie. She's such a consumer and I don't like that. She gets the dream house and dream car, dream boat, dream everything. She doesn't appear to have a job or children, but she's guess she's not that dependent on Ken.

Maybe I'm just jealous of Barbie. How come Barbie got everything? Why does Barbie get to have such a freaking dream life? (It's kind of how I feel about Elisabeth Hasselhoff on The View, so easy to make judgements when you're sitting in a dream life.)

Then, a friend sent me an ebay auction Barbie for President, where Barbie was wearing a red powersuit and holding her own election sign. With Hillary running for President in 2008, I kind of wanted to buy that and give it to Ainsley. (Or keep it for myself.)

But, that's because I love the idea of a female president of the United States. Not because I think Barbie would make a good one.

So, I don't have a hard and fast rule about Barbie. The dream car is allowed because she was the only one selling a pink VW Bug at the time, the skate board got in because it was a garage sale find.

Ainsley used to have some Barbies and Barbie knock-offs, but I was thrilled when I found a Barbie graveyard on her bed one evening. It seemed to be a promising symbol of her emotional development. While, I can't back that up scientifically. I do remember being inexplicably proud that she had ripped the head and all the limbs from her little Barbie-like dolls.

There is hope for you yet, grasshopper.

By Tracee Sioux

I run a women's book club, Between the Covers, and this month (and probably August) we're doing Suze Orman's Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny.

I confess I was financially illiterate until I took Dave Ramsey's course Financial Peace University. It was a fantastic course that put a lot of financial issues into perspective for us.

I want to read Orman's book because I think there are issues that deal with money that are specific to women and girls. She looks at our emotional issues and how that translates into how we handle money and whether we use it to take care of ourselves.

She also tells women how to safe-guard themselves in cases where the prince does not show up, or perhaps the prince turned into a jerk and left or whatever. It's called reality, with a 50% divorce rate in this country. No one likes the reality, but it's rather silly not to acknowledge that it's there.

I'm inviting all my readers of So Sioux Me and BlogFabulous to participate in the book club selection. I think there are tons of issues to discuss. You can order the book right here and it helps me out, or get it from your local bookstore. Either way, I can't wait to hear what you have to say about women and money.

Let's face it it's terribly hard to feel empowered if you're broke or don't have enough information to make good financial decisions.

If you have kids and are concerned with Internet safety issues I found this great blog Internet Safety - For Our Children's Sake. There is lots of great advice and resources to deal with mean girl behavior that ends up online and predators who are surfing for their prey.

It's a techno world and it would be irresponsible parenting to give kids free access to the Internet and never monitor where they go, who they talk to or who is talking to them. There are some real safety issues involved.

There's even a great page about cyber bullying.

I highly recommend clicking on Internet Safety - For Our Children's Sake as soon as your kids are old enough to surf the net. What is that in today's world - about 8?

By Tracee Sioux

When is too early to "womanize" a girl?

On Jezabel.com there is a story, with some great editorial comments, about a new line of make-up being marketed to girls ages 6 to 9.

"Encouraged by sales of its makeup collaboration with MAC Cosmetics (left) Mattel is partnering with Bonne Bell to launch a Barbie-branded, "girl savvy" cosmetics line "aimed at girls 6 to 9""

Then in Business Week we have this story:

Little girls aren't just playing princess these days. Increasingly, they're being royally pampered at spas aimed at the 5-to-12 set. Sweet & Sassy in Southlake , Tex. , expects to add 16 shops to its current 15 by yearend, growing to 82 by 2010. Boise ( Idaho )-based Monkey Dooz plans to go from 6 locations to 21 this year. And Saks-owned Club Libby Lu, with 90 outlets, expects to add up to 15 annually over the next five years. In 2006, Saks reported Libby Lu sales of $53 million, up 13% from 2005.In pastel rooms lined with cartoon characters, Monkey Dooz offers a $35 Tutti Frutti Manicure and Chocolate Pedicure. At birthday parties--big in the tween spa business--guests at Sweet & Sassy can opt for a mini-facial or a "sassy up-do" hairstyle. In the age of Britney, Lindsay, and Paris, do the spas send girls the wrong signal? "A 9-year-old does not need makeup or a pedicure," says psychologist Irene Kassorla. "The message is, 'Lie back and do nothing, and we'll make you feel good.' It's just inappropriate." The spas say their services are harmless. "It's not about growing up too fast," says Sweet & Sassy CEO Dixie-Drake Davis. "We wouldn't do eyebrow waxing or highlights or anything that would keep a child from being a child." By Louise Lee
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_27/c4041003.htm?chan=search

There are so many things wrong with this picture. Not the least of which is that these companies believe our girls are for sale.

Do you let your daughter play dress-up and smear blue eyeshadow and red lipstick all over her face? Maybe you've even put a set of play make-up under the tree to keep her out of your good stuff? Do you paint her nails a bubble-gum pink or maybe some polish with stars and sparkles in it?

Sure, why wouldn't you? It's fun to play "grown-up pretty." Make-up is fun, going to the spa does feel really good? Is it terrible and awful to bond with your daughter over a simple manicure for a special mother-daughter day? I can see that in my future with Ainsley. And there wouldn't be anything hugely detrimental about it. I've even considered throwing a big "spa party" at this local place that has all the dress-up clothes and make-up and stuff for a "tea party."

But, that's fun and games. That's just playing. Play is healthy. Bonding with your daughter over make-up and nail polish is healthy, as long as it stays age-appropriate.

When does it cross the line? When the business model for marketing spa treatments to six-year-olds includes 268 outlets to market beauty services directly to them. When we're talking about mega-corporations putting $53 million in their fat pockets. When real companies like Mac Cosmetics starts rolling out real make-up lines with the intention of making 6 to 9 year olds believe they need make-up.

Girls in their target market (picture a bulls-eye) are children. They can't deconstruct advertising. While these companies think it's fair game to commando market to our little girls it comes at a cost. The cost isn't the $35 for the Tutti-Fruity mani-pedi, it's the self-image and self-esteem of America's little girls. The cost is in allowing companies like these to make millions of dollars by making our little girls feel not pretty enough. When our beautiful little girls feel like they need to wear make-up in elementary school it's enough already over the line. When the company spokesperson says they wouldn't give a little girl an eyebrow wax I think she's lying. I think, not only would they do it, they would make her believe she needed it.

There is a serious self-worth issue in little girl culture today. Already, 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner., and 81% of 10-year-olds are afraid of being fat, according to the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty White Paper. These negative feelings about appearance result in serious health issues for our little girls like eating disorders, unsafe sexual behavior to fill the hole in their souls, drugs, alcohol and suicides. Forget $35, the real cost is the feeling of being and looking "good enough" or "pretty."

In Mary Pipher's book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls she writes that girls maintain their confidence through elementary school. In part because they haven't been thoroughly genderized yet by having to "womanize" themselves. They participate in and can hold their own at math, science and athletics against the equally matched boys. She paints a picture of the years between 5-11 or so as being wonderfully free of being sexualized or "womanized."

We're selling that wonderful part of girlhood to Mac cosmetics and Saks' line of girl-spas? Yeah, if we let our girls get sucked in by their advertising and buy them the new line of make-up or take them to these spas - I think we are. I think millions of mothers, because let's not forget they will market aggressively to the mothers, will blindly buy the make-up gift set and put it under the tree or throw the big spa party for the 6th birthday and never realize just what they are buying. Or selling. The soul of their little girl. The child part of being a girl. The unsexualized, unwomanized part of being a girl. The pretty just as you are part.

When your daughter responds to the commando advertising, and she will, be kind enough to her to say, No. You are so beautiful exactly as you are, you don't need a bit of make-up.
More posts on Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty
Beauty & Reality
Self-Loathing Sin Bank
More posts on hair:
Pink Hair Fiasco
Pink Hair Fiasco Take 2
Curl Maintenance
The Meaning of Hair

Fit-Buff's new blog Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog Carnival is out, you know I love this one. I'm in it, three times due to a typo, not complaining. Maybe that will net me three times the readers? One can hope.

You know I love TherapyDoc, funny and thoughtful stuff about the therapists' "party-line" concerning drinking, drugs and seduction.

As far as your patients are concerned, You don't drink, and you don't use drugs, and you'll probably live longer for it (you hope).Now, seduction is something we can talk about. Like drinking, it's safest in moderation and at home with somebody you love, preferably a committed partner, not a blood relative. And talking in code is good, assuming both of you know the code, that is.

Brain Power
Anne-Marie presents An Interview with Nordine Zouareg, author of Mind Over Body: The Key to Lasting Weight Loss Is All in Your Head posted at A Mama's Rant.
Kendra presents Escaping ?Uterine Rupture? Fears posted at vbacadventure.com.
Caroline Latham presents Pattern Recognition Brain Teaser - The Empty Triangle posted at SharpBrains.
Meredith Mathews presents T spheres posted at Lemonade Stand.
Silicon Valley Blogger presents Cheap Ways To Learn And Feed Your Brain posted at The Digerati Life.
Exercise
therapydoc presents Alcohol and Your Therapy Doc posted at Everyone Needs Therapy.
Midnight Raider presents Weightlifting On Any Budget posted at Refrigerator Raid.
Lynda Lippin presents Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Blog: Supreme Pilates®–Be Very Afraid! posted at Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Blog.
baiguai presents Getting Off the Couch posted at Kung Fu Artistry.
Anmol Mehta presents Core Abdominal Power Yoga Exercises posted at Mastery of Meditation, Enlightenment & Kundalini Yoga.
Shane Magee presents Warming up before running or doing exercise. posted at Sri Chinmoy Races Blog.
April Kerr presents Improve your Immune System with Exercise posted at Natural Health Remedies.
Family
Tracee Sioux presents Second Generation Mean Girl posted at So Sioux Me.
Tracee Sioux presents Second Generation Mean Girl posted at So Sioux Me.
Grooming
Tracee Sioux presents Pur Perfection for Pregnancy Mask posted at Blog Fabulous.
Nutrition
Dean Carlson presents The 3 P's of a Healthy Diet posted at New Hampshire Fitness Personal Trainer NH.
Be sure to tune in every Monday for the next Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog Carnival, and if you want to submit your own article for inclusion, click here before midnight (eastern time) on Sunday.
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