March news for girls

Dads & Daughters® Update
March 2007

THE PRICE OF SEXUALIZING GIRLS

Bad things happen when girls (from as early as toddlerhood) are surrounded by messages that the best thing they can be is “hot.” A new report from the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls says that sexualized images and pressures boost the risk of "three of the most common mental health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression." The report lists Dads & Daughters as a resource to parents and advocates.

You can fight back by drawing girls out about how they feel about the sexualization trend—and by offering them positive alternatives such as sports, alternative media (like New Moon magazine www.newmoon.org), community involvement, arts programs, and other things that tell her (and her brothers) that you value who she is more than how she looks.

Read the APA report at: www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html?imw=Y.

---

MARCH MADNESS SEIZES WOMEN!

The NCAA Division I Women’s National Basketball Tournament gets underway on March 17. Games will be played in Austin (TX), Minneapolis, Stanford (CA), Los Angeles, East Lansing, Hartford, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Fresno, Greensboro, Dallas, and Dayton—with the Final Four set for April 1 and 3 in Cleveland. Get information on Women’s March Madness (including Divisions II and III) at www.ncaasports.com/basketball/womens -- and take your daughter to a game!

Watch your inbox later this month for Dads & Daughters Tips for watching the Final Four with your daughter.

---

WOMEN'S PRO SOCCER LEAGUE IN 2008

Six investors and Major League Soccer are working to develop a new major professional women’s soccer league. The league will start in April 2008, building on the excitement of the 2007 Women’s World Cup in September. The league will have teams in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and one other city to be determined.

CALL TO ACTION ON UNDERAGE DRINKING

Although there has been a significant decline in tobacco and illicit drug use among teens, underage drinking has remained at consistently high levels. That’s why the U.S. Surgeon General's Office has just issued a Call to Action for Americans to do more to stop America's 11 million current underage drinkers from using alcohol, and to keep other young people from starting.

Acting Surgeon General Dr. Kenneth Moritsugu said "Too many Americans consider underage drinking a rite of passage to adulthood. Research shows that young people who start drinking before the age of 15 are five times more likely to have alcohol-related problems later in life. New research also indicates that alcohol may harm the developing adolescent brain.”

Moritsugu urged alcohol marketers to reduce outdoor ads, stop advertising in college newspapers, and end sponsorship of college sporting events.

Read more at www.hhs.gov/news/press/2007pres/20070306.html.