Advocates and leaders in the movement for positive media images and Central Md. Girl Scouts have been busy this week in Washington D.C.

Girl Scouts of the USA, Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC), Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D- WI) and Academy Award Winner Geena Davis campaigned in support of the Healthy Media for Youth Act. The group outlined the bill which would improve media literacy for youth and encourage the promotion of healthier media messages about girls and women.

A Central Md. Girl Scout also participated in a meeting of Healthy MEdia: Commission for Positive Media Images of Women and Girls with media leaders and subject related experts to talk about steps for promoting gender balance and positive portrayals of women and girls in the media.

Healthy MEdia aims to host the National Discussion on best practices to promote positive and balanced images of girls and women and secure Industry-wide, public commitments to take steps toward positive change.

Some facts about media and women from the GSUSA blog:

• A survey by Girl Scouts of the USA’s (GSUSA) Research Institute, Girls and Body Image, found that 89% of girls say the fashion industry places a lot of pressure on teenage girls to be thin.
• The American Psychological Association’s (APA) Report on the Sexualization of Girls (2007) found that three of the most common mental health problems among girls—eating disorders, depression or depressed mood, and low self-esteem—are linked to the sexualization of girls and women in media.
• According to the Geena Davis Institute of Gender in Media, despite being 50 percent of the U.S. population, in family films and television, male characters outweigh female characters nearly three to one and five to one in background or group scenes, a statistic that has remained the same since 1946. Only 27 percent of the speaking characters are female. (GDIGM)