Seven things on Sunday (FtoF #181)

Things of note for the week ending Sunday June 19th, 2016.

Another week, another nudge from Friday to Sunday. Friday was an awful day. Awful. I didn’t want to do, or write, anything. Saturday I just needed to chill. And so here we are, on Sunday, and at last I’m writing to you.

You never know, this thing might become regular… Shh. Don’t give me ideas.

Shall we crack on?

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1. TOKEN GIRL

This excellent piece, via The Atlantic, highlights how the Princess of Power herself, She-Ra, was the first step on the long road towards eliminating the ‘token girl’ approach to [Saturday morning] kids’ shows.

“The 1980s were a golden era for TV cartoons. Animated shows including TheSmurfs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Real Ghostbusters featured vivid landscapes and a variety of strange heroes, from blue forest people to human-cat hybrids to sewer turtles. But they had one significant thing in common. As the writer Katha Pollitt noted in The New York Times in 1991, most cartoon series featured a legion of male characters but only a single female, a phenomenon that Pollitt called the “Smurfette Principle.” Because the animation industry and the children’s toy market were so closely linked at the time, the trope of a token girl amid a troupe of boys dominated not only television, but also the shelves of toy stores.”

Covering off everything from Thundercats to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (and everything in-between) it’s clear that ‘Token Girl’ is still an issue when it comes to kids’ entertainment. But the efforts are out there (hello Powerpuff Girls!) – you just have to look for them.

Small point of note (that I picked up from reading this): I haven’t watched them for a while but it wouldn’t surprise me if 100% of all She-Ra episodes passed the Bechdel Test.

And that’s amazing.

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2. QUESTIONS

‘Who did you first fall in love with?’

‘What makes you laugh more than anything else in the world?’

‘What is something you’ve never told anyone else before?’

‘Where do you find peace?’

‘When have you felt most vulnerable?’

— all of these questions, and more, I found at this incredibly moving posts ‘Things to ask your parents before they die‘

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3. DEAR MOMMY BLOGGER

This isn’t new but, if you haven’t read it yet, then you should. It’s very good. Hell, even if you have read it, it’s worth a revisit.

Josi Denise on why the ‘mommy blogger’ is over. It’s a brilliant piece of writing and so unbelievably on point I actually can’t find any one single paragraph that I’d want to pull out as a quote. Instead, I’d prefer you to go and read the whole thing in its entirety.

You will not be disappointed.

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On a tangential note, back when I was working at 1000heads, we came up with a theory that ‘there was no such thing as a mommy blogger’ – instead it proposed the idea that in fact – heaven forbid – women (or moms) had passions that they enjoyed and instead talked about those passions through the lens of being a mom. It was fairly academic and didn’t really go anywhere. But still, interesting.

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4. DID YOU KNOW?
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Earth has a new moon.

It’s name? 2016 HO3.

And it’s kinda cool (there’s a video and everything).

Via NASA.

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5. THE MYTHICAL MILLENNIAL

Excuse while I lol into my cornflakes.

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6. THIS WEEK, IN ‘PR PUFF PIECE’ CORNER

OK, so this is from MASHABLE of all places.

But seriously. This is just utter drivel. Within the above named article you will find SEVEN HUNDRED WORDS on ‘a new social dawn of traditional marketing’ (their words, not mine) on how SONY is using online influencers to create content for launch of its next big movie launch.

Seven. Hundred. Words.

Online. Influencers.

A NEW SOCIAL DAWN OF TRADITIONAL MARKETING.

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Honestly.

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7. WWDC & E3

If you’re interested in either of these events, my friend Stefan and I did a podcast specifically to cover both of them. You can download it from the website or subscribe via iTunes.

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Bonuses this week are:

• Mr Matt Muir and I did our radio show on Ogilvy Blaze. I’ll probably have the audio link in next week’s edition. In the meantime however, here’s a search string that’ll show you all interesting links that we fired out into the ether during recording. Worth a browse.
• Tim Peake landed. Hero. Here’s 15 of his best photos from his time in the ISS.
• There’s a Spanish town that runs on Twitter. That’s kinda awesome.

And with that, FTOF/STOS comes to a close.

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Well, kinda.

At this point I would normally publish a comedy gif and say something cool and catchy like ‘Whatley out’ – but this week, things are a bit different.

For what it’s worth, this Thursday I’ll be voting for the UK to REMAIN part of the EU. I’ve had many discussions with many people (huge thanks to Robbie for keeping my/his/our confirmation bias in check) and, if you’re reading this and you’re still unsure, here are the three best people I’ve seen/read on the subject:

1. Professor of EU Law, Michael Dougan – this man knows the topic like no other and is a 25min watch and worth every second.
2. Professor Nicholas Barr, of the London School of Economics and Political Science – probably the most in-depth and fact-based piece that I’ve read. This really nails each issue for me.
3. Founder and Editor of Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis, giving his brilliantly objective piece on the topic. If expert professors don’t work for you, then maybe this authoritative voice will.

The country is split in two on this referendum. Whichever way it goes, I sincerely hope that the same amount of passion and effort that went into the campaigning gets poured into how much work it’s going to take to patch us back together again afterwards.

We are, after all, stronger together.

Until next time.

JW.

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Last updated by James Whatley at June 20, 2016.