Pretty Face Vs Pretty Voice at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies

Hey New Moon Girls!

How many of you have been watching the Olympics!? Well if you watched the Opening Ceremony you may have noticed a cute Chinese girl in a red dress singing "Ode to the Motherland."

However, did you know that the girl, Lin Miaoke (pictured on right), was actually lipsynching?

As it turns out another young girl, Yang Peyi (pictured on left), was chosen for her voice and it was the voice used for the song. However, they picked Lin Miaoke to "sing" in the ceremony because she was the prettier of the two.

The musical director of the show, Chen Qigang, said that "After several tests, we decided to put Lin Miaoke on the live picture, while using Yang Peiyi's voice." "The reason for this is that we must put our country's interest first," he added.

He also said ,"the girl appearing on the picture must be flawless in terms of her facial expression and the great feeling she can give to people."

I don't know about you girls, but I find it very upsetting that China would do something like this. The girl with the best voice should have been the one to sing in the ceremony. I don't think it's fair for Yang Peiyi to have a supposedly "prettier" girl use her voice.

In the Olympics if you're the lead gymnast, volleyball player, or runner you're still going to be shown and be recognized for your talent no matter what you look like. Shouldn't the same rules apply to these Chinese girls? What are your thoughts on this? Should China have let Yang Peiyi sing instead?

Sony's New Video Game-"Fat Princess!?"

Hey New Moon Girls!

Do any of you like video games? I know I do once in a while, but I find this new one created by Sony too be very offensive.

The game sounds intriguing enough- you and your teammates battle another team in what’s meant to be a comic medieval battle. The goal is to rescue a princess from a dungeon and bring her back safely. Each of the two teams has a princess on either side that needs rescuing. However your enemy, has been stuffing her with pastries, so she gains weight and it’s harder for your army to carry her back across the battlefield. You can do this to your enemy’s princess as well. The princess can grow to be at least twice her usual size (pictured above), and this is why the game is called “Fat Princess.”

Being overweight is unhealthy and can lead to a number of health problems. I feel like Sony is making a joke out of overeating and obesity by creating a game where the object on one side of the team is to force a girl to gain weight and be “too fat” so your opponent will lose. It’s supposed to be “comical” how enlarged the princess can become, yet I don’t think overeating or weight problems is a laughing matter.

Many feminists are upset over the game claiming it “furthers inappropriate gender stereotypes” and continues a culture of ridicule that many obese people have to endure.

James Green, the lead art director for “Fat Princess” asks “Does it make it better or worse that the concept artist (who designed the look, characters, everything) is a girl?”

I feel like it shouldn’t matter whether or not the game was created by a man or a woman, it is still an offensive game either way. Just because a woman created it doesn’t undermine the feminist critiques of it.

What do you girls think about this game? Do you find it offensive? Would you still play it?

Celebrities Defend Their Body Types!

Hey Girl Bloggers!
Did you know that so many photos you see of celebrities and models have been digitally altered by their photographers? Men are shown with larger than life muscles, and women’s breasts are enhanced by a cup or more and thighs and stomachs are trimmed down. Most of the time models and celebrities accept this as the norm and even expect it.

That’s why I found this story very inspirational.

Actress Keira Knightley star of “Atonement” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” has refused to have her breasts digitally enhanced in publicity photos for her new film “Duchess.” She claims she doesn’t need the added cleavage to feel sexy.

In previous movies like 2004’s “King Arthur,” Knightley’s A-cup breasts were enhanced into C-cup breasts, and Knightley admitted the photos had been altered. She still went along with the campaign, but this time four years later she is stepping up! Courtney Martin author of “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters” thinks, “that's incredibly brave and could have a huge impact on young women."

Martin also claims that "Keira Knightly is essentially giving young women permission to stand up in their communities and their schools and their families and say, 'Look, this is the way I look and it is OK."

Actress Kate Winslet has also spoken out about photo alteration after she appeared on GQ looking much thinner than usual. She openly criticized the picture claiming the size of her thighs were cut down by a third.

Go Kate and Keira for stepping up and defending your bodies!

The Miss Universe Competition~It's easy to trip in heels!

Hey Girls!
I didn’t watch the 2008 Miss Universe pageant last week, but for those of you who did you most likely saw the infamous trip down the stairs of the U.S. entrant, Crystle Stewart from Texas. What I don’t understand is why there was and still is so much media coverage surrounding the incident. Is it really that terrible that she slipped? Who wouldn’t trip in a tight evening dress and ridiculously high heels? Why is it so important to the competition that women be able to walk in tight clothes and heels? What’s with all the obsessive media coverage?

What’s even more interesting is that nearly the exact same thing happened the previous year in 2007 to the U.S. candidate Rachel Smith. Doesn’t this prove that there is a problem with the type of “attire” which is required to be Miss Universe, Miss America, Miss World or pretty much any pageant winner? It’s dangerous to wear high heels and long tight dresses you could trip over because you could sprain your ankle or worse. Why should this be part of the competition? Also besides evening wear, why is there a swimsuit competition? Should candidates really be required to strut around half naked on stage in front of billions of viewers? Why is looking good in a bikini part of the contest?

What do you girls think about this? Should pageants be changed? Maybe the winner should be picked for their dedication to charities, or their volunteer work, or positive plans for the prize money rather than their ability to smile pretty and walk down stairs in ridiculous shoes. What do you think?

Classic Cartoon Characters Revamped!

Hey Girls!
Have you heard about how some old cartoon characters are being redesigned for the 21st century? The cartoon character Strawberry Shortcake from the 1980s now looks quite different with tighter clothes, longer hair, bigger eyes, and lipstick. She also appears to be older than her past self, and instead of carrying around a calico cat she sports a cell phone. The pictures above show how incredibly different she looks from her 1980s character!

The Care Bears are going to be changed too. American Greetings is going to be putting out a new line of bears this fall which have less belly fat and longer eyelashes. But aren’t teddy bears supposed to have big bellies? Why are they promoting "thinner" bears?

Probably most of you don’t know the character Angelina Ballerina, but if you check out the pictures on the right you’ll notice what a different look she has now then she did in the 1980s. It seems to me that she has slimmed down a lot!

Even the teenage mutant ninja turtles will be changed by their creators, 4Kids Entertainment, so next year they will have bigger muscles in video games.

Walt Disney Company is even planning on changing Mickey Mouse! According to Robert A. Iger, Disney's chief executive, Mikey "needs to evolve to be relevant to new generations of kids."

Corporate owners of these fictional stars seem to think that their characters will sell more if they have an updated look for children of today, but still remind parents of the characters they grew up with. They think it will appeal to parent’s nostalgia to see the characters from old shows they used to watch and lead them to buy the character's products for their children.

What do you think? Will this marketing plan be a success? Was it a good idea to change these classic characters or should corporations have kept them as they were? Are corporations putting too much emphasis on slimness and looks? Let's here your thoughts on this girls!

New Moon Editor Julia guest posting here...

I just got word from our friends at 5 Resolutions that Claire Mysko's book for girls is out this week!

Claire writes:
"You're Amazing! A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self is based on the Girls Inc. "Supergirl Dilemma" study, which shows that girls are feeling increasing pressures to be perfect and please everyone. Perfectionism is a major source of girls' stress (60% of girls in the study reported that they often feel stressed), low-self-esteem, and poor body image. That's the bad news. The good news is that with the right tools and support systems, girls can learn to give up the quest to be "super" and start celebrating what makes them amazing. My hope is that this book will help to kick-off that celebration.I would like to say a big, big thanks to you, dear readers! Your support and kind words have meant so much to me. Speaking of amazing...you all fit the bill."

To kick things off, Claire is doing a book giveaway on her blog! She says: "Everyone who posts a comment about what makes them amazing is entered to win an autographed copy of the book. The contest runs through July 7th and you can enter here."

Awesome! We'd love to hear what you think of the book and your "what makes me amazing" comments on the New Moon Girls blog too!! :)

The Body Project Study~ Promoting Positive Body Image!

Great news girls!
The Body Project Study which started in 2001 and is funded by the National Institute of Health has shown very promising results for young girls. In this project girls realized just how much the media has tried to promote the outrageous ideal that thinness equals happiness.

The girls critiqued this idea through writing and discussing with peers, and they realized that companies are benefiting by encouraging girls to be thin because they then profit from the sales of all the weight loss products out on the market. The girls in the study chose to counter this notion through their own small actions which they called “body activism.” Some of the girls slipped encouraging notes like, “Love your body the way it is” into diet books at bookstores, and some wrote letters to the maker of Barbie dolls, Mattel, and encouraged them to make their Barbie’s bodies more realistically proportioned. Other girls put up notes in their school’s bathrooms telling girls that they are beautiful and should be themselves.

According to the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology the participants in this Study reduced the risk of developing eating disorders by 61 percent! Also the girls continued to have a positive attitude about their body image even after three years of completion of the program. Because of the positive results of this study, sororities and other groups are launching similar programs.

Do you ever feel pressured by the media to be thin? What do you girl bloggers think about this Body Project? Do you think it was worthwhile? How would you feel if your school started a similar program?

Seventeen Magazine's Body Peace Vows Clash with Advertisments

Hey Girl Bloggers!
I just wanted your opinion on something I find very contradictory. Seventeen magazine recently started a “Body Peace Project” to encourage girls to accept their bodies for the way they are and sign a treaty online that lists various body vows such as:
“Know that I’m beautiful just the way I am,” and “Remind myself that what you see isn’t always what you get on TV and in ads-it takes a lot of airbrushing , dieting, money, and work to look like that.”
These are just a couple examples of the dozen vows listed by Seventeen. I think all the vows are great and represent important and positive messages for girls. It’s important to love your body and appreciate it for all the amazing things it does for you everyday! Already over 37,000 girls have signed the treaty!

However I can’t help but feel that Seventeen is sending a conflicting message when most of the other aspects of their magazine, especially their advertisements, feature extremely thin models and celebrities who are most likely on an intense diet or possibly suffering from an eating disorder and have been airbrushed to the extreme. While one of the vows stated by Seventeen says that you should respect your body “by feeding it well” then why don’t these models look like they feed themselves well? Why don’t these ads themselves reinforce the Body Peace vows Seventeen is trying to promote?

Also so many articles in Seventeen seem to focus on ways to change your exterior image through makeovers and shopping trips. The treaty encourages girls not to judge people based on how they look, yet they’re constantly promoting new products to improve your looks. I don’t know about you guys, but I feel frustrated that Seventeen isn’t doing more to endorse the vows they’re encouraging their readers to take. What do you think? Is Seventeen being hypocritical?

If you would like to have a look for yourself at the Body Peace Treaty, just visit this website.
Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear some of your thoughts on this conflicting subject!