I was helping my mom out with some errands this weekend, and was annoyed by how much marketing there was for the new movie High School Musical 3. Nearly everywhere I went, there were posters for the movie, as well as hundreds of t-shirts, socks, jewelry, belts, pj's, and many other articles of clothing which had one of the actors from High School Musical imprinted on it. I even saw cell phones and ipods decorated with images of Troy Balton or Gabriella. And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I entered the toy section... where there was an entire isle packed with Barbie versions of different High School Musical characters. Wherever I'd turn my head, I'd see something else.

I found it rather amusing, but then again, it's also pathetic.

The fact is that the stores wouldn't be selling all of these products if people didn't want them. This reveals that there is some kind of unnatural obsession with this movie amongst the middle-schoolers of this country. From what I've seen, they strongly admire and look up to the characters in the movie. Can't ten-year-old kids find better role models? Anything would be better, in my opinion, due to the fact that High School Musical is just about as superficial as it gets...and when your obsessed with something, it shapes the way you think.

Here's my sources so far for my research paper:

"Kim Gandy Quotes." 2006. http://thinkexist.com/quotes/kim_gandy/




Tuana, Nancy. "Approaches to Feminism." Oct 31, 2004. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-approaches/





Stanford, Stella. "Feminism Against ‘the Feminine.'" 25/10/2008. http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/default.asp?channel_id=9957.





DeMoss, Nancy Leigh. Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free. Chicago: Moody Press, 2001.





Hooks, Bell. Feminism is for Everybody, Passionate Politics. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2000.





McCulley, Carolyn. Radical Womanhood. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008.





Friedman, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: N W Norton & Company, 1997.





Elliot, Elizabeth. Let Me Be A Woman. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1976.