Next Great Thing

Fathers, hide your sons.

Girls are the new rebels, troublemakers, power-players, decision-makers…in short, the new guys. In the words of Cyndi Lauper “girls just want to have fun,” and this is possible now more than it ever was in 1983.

Witness last Sunday’s MTV Movie Awards with comedienne Sarah Silverman as host.

Her un-PC humor (see “Jesus is Magic”) is hardly lady-like—she made a crack about Paris Hilton breaking her teeth on jail bars painted to look like penises—but neither is Paris calling Lindsey Lohan “Firecrotch.” And speaking of Paris, heiresses would have been disowned if they faced jail time in previous decades. Now it’s just tabloid fodder that fuels their fame.

And who is reading those tabloids? According to a recent New York Times article, tween girls. They know all about Brangelina’s adoption kick, Britney’s commando outings, and Nicole Ritchie’s dramatic weight loss.

”The bad boys have been replaced by the bad girls,” said Ted Harbert, the president and chief executive of the Comcast Entertainment Group, which includes E! Entertainment Television, Style Network and G4. ”You just don’t hear as much of these guys who get in trouble as much as we used to in the ‘St. Elmo’s Fire’ generation.”

”The girls don’t want to just leave it to the boys to get in trouble,” he said. ”They want their fair share of time in the principal’s office.”

A new website from Gawker Media, Jezebel, caters to this audience. Gawker.com introduced it with this:

Are you a girl? Do you like girl things? If yes, then Gawker Media has the site for you: It’s called Jezebel, it’s new, it’s run by ladies who are paid by a woman-hating Englishman. Managing editor Anna Holmes says they will “cover celebrity, sex, and fashion for women — without airbrushing.” If those things interest you, go read Jezebel immediately.

And plenty will. Fact is, girls read blog more than boys do. A recent Label Networks study shows that 87.7% of 13-30 year old females read them compared to 75.8% of males. They are also more linked in on social networks. 70% of girls ages 15 – 17 have used online social networks, compared with 54% of boys that age. They are even playing more video games than ever as well—just look at the overwhelming popularity of sites like Stardoll (93% are female), Wee World (60% female) and Cartoon Doll Emporium (96% female). They also blog more than boys do. Just look at the rapid rise of Cory Kennedy–Internet “It” Girl at a mere 15 thanks to photoblog The Cobrasnake and her own Blogspot site.

Then there are lots of songs from female pop stars asserting their “I don’t need a man” independence. The message: girls can have fun on their own, thank you very much. Just listen to the lyrics of Pink’s “U + UR Hand”:

Wanna dance by myself
Guess you’re outta luck
Don’t touch
Back up
I’m not the one
….
Listen up it’s just not happening
You can say what you want to your boyfriends
Just let me have my fun tonight

and Ashlee Simpson’s “L.O.V.E.”:

My boyfriend he don’t answer on the telephone
I don’t even know where the hell he goes
But all my girls we’re in a circle and nobody’s gonna break through

The guys are playing along too. Remember when the lesbian kiss was the sexual exploitation of choice? Now it’s the gay kiss. Will Ferrell and Sasha Baron Cohen won for their smooch in Talledega Nights, then proceeded to have a steamy roll-around make-out session on stage during their acceptance speech.Not that many girls find that attractive, but it’s the power principle. Girls aren’t the only sex objects anymore.

This isn’t your mom’s feminism, this is the millenials’ version. Girls want to go to top-tier colleges and the principal’s office. While Gloria Steinem might not approve, girls are just doing their job–having fun. They are doing it authentically and without remorse. Can you blame them?