{"id":5276,"date":"2015-02-13T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T15:21:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T06:00:00","slug":"redefining-like-a-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2015\/02\/13\/redefining-like-a-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Redefining \u2018Like a girl\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Super Bowl Sunday has become an advertiser&#8217;s dreamland. Since the big game is the highest rated broadcast of the year, companies shell out millions of dollars to gain a commercial spot. Most commercials are funny, some are tear jerkers, but this year, one ad has gained a lot of attention for another reason.<\/p>\n<p>Always ran an ad entitled &#8220;Like a Girl&#8221; in which adults and children were told to complete actions such as running, throwing a ball and fighting &#8220;like a girl.&#8221; First, we see the adults demonstrating the actions by prancing around and fluffing their hair, meant to explain the negative association with the phrase &#8220;like a girl.&#8221; Then, we see the children demonstrate the same things. What they did was eye opening.<\/p>\n<p>When asked to demonstrate what it means to run like a girl, they just ran. When asked how a girl would throw, they pitched the ball back to the director like pros. And when they were asked to fight like a girl, they showed just how tough a little girl can be. It seems these girls haven&#8217;t yet encountered the phrase &#8220;like a girl.&#8221; They still have the confidence in themselves that many women have lost. The ad that Always ran was a reminder to all women: You know that spunky little girl you used to be that believed she could do anything? She&#8217;s still there, we promise.<\/p>\n<p>I remember sitting on the sidelines during elementary school recess and watching other kids play. Every time I saw a girl chase after the ball or score a goal, I would say, &#8220;What is she doing? Doesn&#8217;t she know she&#8217;s a girl?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Every girl will be told to quit doing something that they love because &#8220;girls don&#8217;t do that,&#8221; whether it be playing sports or climbing trees or rough housing with their brothers. They&#8217;re shown how a girl should be: pretty, quiet, clean, etc. When they realize that they don&#8217;t fit those qualifications, their self-esteem plummets. The girl that once believed she could do anything becomes the girl that is just trying to fit in. <\/p>\n<p>Junior high is when I can first remember thinking I had to change to be seen as &#8220;perfect.&#8221; I started to pay attention to the seemingly flawless women in the magazines that were the &#8220;normal&#8221; way for girls to look. I needed new hair, I needed more makeup, and I needed prettier clothes, and then people would like me. Yhe truth of the matter, is these insecurities are what end up defining most girls as they grow into adulthood.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The makers of the &#8220;Like a Girl&#8221; ad had the clear intention of speaking to the hearts of all the women out there who have lost their sense of self in their efforts to turn themselves into society&#8217;s idea of a perfect girl. Forget the cute puppies and the hilarious celebrity cameos, this was the best Super Bowl ad of 2015.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Super Bowl Sunday has become an advertiser&#8217;s dreamland. Since the big game is the highest rated broadcast of the year, companies shell out millions of dollars to gain a commercial&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14560,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[268],"class_list":["post-5276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-hurricane-florence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14560"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}