The numerous anti-bullying programs in schools across the United States have done little to reduce the number of reported bullying instances. One reason for this is that little attention has been paid to the role of the media and popular culture in adolescents' bullying and mean-girl behavior. This book addresses media role models in television, film, picture books, and the Internet in the realm of bullying and relational aggression. It highlights portrayals with unproductive strategies that lead to poor resolutions or no resolution at all. Young viewers may learn ineffective, even dangerous, ways of handling aggressive situations. Victims may feel discouraged when they are unable to handle the situation as easily as in media portrayals. They may also feel their experiences are trivialized by comic portrayals. Entertainment programming, aimed particularly at adolescents, often portray adults as incompetent or uncaring and include mean-spirited teasing. In addition, overuse of the term "bully" and defining all bad behavior as "bullying" may dilute the term and trivialize the problem.

One of the New York Post's Top 10 Career Books of 2012 and a Booklist Top 10 Business Book DO YOU WORK WITH A MEAN GIRL? A woman’s field guide to the new frontier of professional development—working with other women Women-to-women relationships in the workplace are . . . complicated. When they’re good, they’re great. But when they’re bad, they can ruin your day, your week—even your year. Packed with proven advice from two of today’s leading experts in workplace relationships, this one-of-a-kind guide gives women the tools they need to navigate difficult situations unique to women-to-women relationships—whether with a boss, a colleague, a client, or an employee. Have you dealt with a woman in the workplace who: “Accidentally” excludes you from important meetings? Seems intent on taking you down professionally? Gossips about you with other coworkers? Makes you look bad by missing deadlines? Forms a “pack” of mean girls to make your life miserable? Mean Girls at Work isn’t just about surviving difficult situations. It’s about transforming a toxic relationship into one that benefits and supports both of you. This book is also for women who engage in mean behavior . . . but don’t know it. After all, who hasn’t gossiped about a female coworker? Who hasn’t rolled her eyes in the presence of a woman she doesn’t like? Who hasn’t scanned another woman head to toe—which is just a nonverbal way of saying, “You’ve just been judged”? The authors provide invaluable advice to the more subtle ways of being mean—even if they’re not intended. With a workforce composed of a higher percentage of women than ever, workplace dynamics have changed. Crowley and Elster cover every conceivable scenario, providing critical advice on how to rise above the fray and move forward professionally. Mean Girls at Work is your map to dodging the mines and moving forward in today’s transformed workplace. Praise for Mean Girls at Work “An invaluable suit of armor for surviving nine to five!” —Leil Lowndes, bestselling author of How to Talk to Anyone “If you think the emotional cruelty of comedies like Mean Girls and Heathers doesn’t exist in the real world workplace, think again. In Mean Girls at Work, Katherine Crowley and Kathi Elster valuably chronicle female vs. female predators and offer solid defensive strategies.” —Ann Kreamer, author of It’s Always Personal: Navigating Emotion in the New Workplace “Whether you are in your twenties and just starting your professional career, your midcareer forties, when you are supposed to have figured it out already, or a woman in her fifties or sixties who’s seen it all—this book is a must-read. . . . The authors have finally given women the tools and the sound advice necessary to deal with . . . conflicts that keep us all from succeeding. . . . Carry this book with you to work every day!” —Carolyn Cassin, President, Michigan Women’s Foundation “A must-read for women of all ages in today’s workforce. This book offers what we all need to develop the capacities to endure this ever-changing workplace. We know it is all about relationships and you need the skills outlined in this book to survive and thrive when the Mean Girls attack.” —Kim Harrington, Coordinator, Professional Development and Training, Office of Human Resources, California State University, Sacramento

Public awareness of bullying has increased tremendously in recent years, largely through its representation in film, television and novels. In popular media targeted towards young readers and viewers, depictions of bullying can present teachable moments and relatable situations. Written from a variety of perspectives, this collection of new essays offers a broad overview of bullying. The contributors discuss the changing face of bullying in popular media, bullying among females, parents who cyberbully, anti-bullying novels, the phenomenon of a Schadenfreude obsessed culture, and how reality television shapes youth perceptions of what is acceptable aggressiveness.

A comprehensive resource, this book reviews current and historical examples of violence in film, television, radio, music, music videos, video games, and novels. Despite decades of attention and various attempts to enact legislation that limits violence in American popular culture, it remains ubiquitous across films, television, radio, music, music videos, video games, and popular fiction. Studies have shown that programs marketed to children are often remarkably violent and that viewing or otherwise consuming such violence has numerous negative effects on children's psychological health. This book sheds light on the scholarship related to violence in popular culture and compares historical and current examples, analyzing popular shows such as Game of Thrones, video games such as Mortal Kombat, young adult fiction including the trilogy The Hunger Games, and more. Not only does Violence in American Popular Culture provide a comprehensive review of the research about the effects of violence in media, but it also offers detailed assessments of violent content in various expressions of popular culture. In addition, it invites readers to compare violence in American popular culture with that globally via entries on violence in popular culture outside the United States. An appendix of additional resources and primary sources gives readers further tools for deepening their understanding of this complex and controversial issue.

Achieve lasting health—without cutting calories or following dieting “rules”! Instead of obsessing about the quantity of food you eat, shift your focus to the quality, say Noelle Tarr and Stefani Ruper. The popular hosts of the Well-Fed Women podcast want you to make sure you’re getting enough food so that your body has the fuel and nourishment it needs to support a healthy, long, and energetic life. Noelle and Stefani know firsthand about the ups and downs of dieting. Like many people, they have struggled with confusing and frustrating health issues such as anxiety, infertility, and hormonal imbalance—but when they discovered that the secret to improving wellness was actually more food, they ditched the calorie counters and gave their bodies the nourishment they needed to heal. In the Coconuts and Kettlebells program, you’ll eat at least 2,000 calories a day—setting a minimum intake of fat, protein, and carbohydrates to ensure that your diet is full of nutrients. Noelle and Stefani identify the Big Four foods that cause the most health problems—grains, dairy, vegetable oils, and refined sugar. While many diets require you to eliminate these foods entirely, Coconuts and Kettlebells provides an easy-to-follow step-by-step system to test these foods and determine which you need to cut back on to feel better—and which you can eat without restrictions. To help you discover how your body responds to the Big Four, you’ll choose from two simple 4-week meal plans: one for Butter Lovers, people who tend to feel more satisfied eating higher ratios of fats, and one for Bread Lovers, people who tend to feel more satisfied eating higher ratios of carbs. Each meal plan comes with weekly shopping lists and instructions on how to batch cook, meal prep, and stock the pantry. In addition, you get more than 75 simple and delicious real food recipes, including: • Kale and Bacon Breakfast Skillet • Raspberry-Coconut Smoothie Bowl • Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp • Apple-Chicken Skillet • Moroccan Lamb Meatballs • Grilled Balsamic Flank Steak • Chocolate-Cherry Energy Bites • Lemon-Raspberry Mini Cheesecakes To go along with the meal plans, you’ll find three 4-week fitness plans tailored to beginner, intermediate, and advanced experience levels. Best of all, the workouts can be done anywhere—at your home or on the road—and take no more than 30 minutes each. A comprehensive whole-body program, Coconuts and Kettlebells provides the knowledge and tools you need to be healthy inside and out.

In this Queen Bees and Wannabes for the elementary and middle school set, child and adolescent psychotherapist Katie Hurley shows parents of young girls how to nip mean girl behavior in the bud. Once upon a time, mean girls primarily existed in high school, while elementary school-aged girls spent hours at play and enjoyed friendships without much drama. But in this fast-paced world in which young girls are exposed to negative behaviors on TV and social media from the moment they enter school, they are also becoming caught up in social hierarchies much earlier. No More Mean Girls is a guide for parents to help their young daughters navigate tricky territories such as friendship building, creating an authentic self, standing up for themselves and others, and expressing themselves in a healthy way. The need to be liked by others certainly isn't new, but this generation of girls is growing up in an age when the "like" button shows the world just how well-liked they are. When girls acknowledge that they possess positive traits that make them interesting, strong, and likeable, however, the focus shifts and their self-confidence soars; "likes" lose their importance. This book offers actionable steps to help parents empower young girls to be kind, confident leaders who work together and build each other up.

Written by an expert in media, popular culture, gender, and sexuality, this book surveys the common archetypes of Internet users—from geeks, nerds, and gamers to hackers, scammers, and predators—and assesses what these stereotypes reveal about our culture's attitudes regarding gender, technology, intimacy, and identity. The Internet has enabled an exponentially larger number of people—individuals who are members of numerous and vastly different subgroups—to be exposed to one other. As a result, instead of the simple "jocks versus geeks" paradigm of previous eras, our society now has more detailed stereotypes of the undesirable, the under-the-radar, and the ostracized: cyberpervs, neckbeards, goths, tech nerds, and anyone with a non-heterosexual identity. Each chapter of this book explores a different stereotype of the Internet user, with key themes—such as gender, technophobia, and sexuality—explored with regard to that specific characterization of online users. Author Lauren Rosewarne, PhD, supplies a highly interdisciplinary perspective that draws on research and theories from a range of fields—psychology, sociology, and communications studies as well as feminist theory, film theory, political science, and philosophy—to analyze what these stereotypes mean in the context of broader social and cultural issues. From cyberbullies to chronically masturbating porn addicts to desperate online-daters, readers will see the paradox in popular culture's message: that while Internet use is universal, actual Internet users are somehow subpar—less desirable, less cool, less friendly—than everybody else.