(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title. 
Sec. 2. Findings. 
Sec. 3. Grants to promote media literacy and youth empowerment programs. 
Sec. 4. Research on the role and impact of girls and women in the media on 
youths’ development. 
Sec. 5. National Task Force on Girls and Women in the Media. 
Sec. 6. Limitation. 
Sec. 7. Definitions. 
Sec. 8. Authorization of appropriations. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Media has become an integral part of 
youths’ lives. According to the Kaiser Family Foun-
dation Study, Generation M2 Media in Lives of 8- 
to 18-Year-Olds (2010), most 8- to 18-year-olds 
spend about 10 hours a day using just recreational 
media. 
(2) Girls feel pressure from the mainstream 
media to have an ideal body type, and only 34 per-
cent of girls report being very satisfied with their 
bodies, according to the Girl Scout Research Insti-
tute’s, The New Normal? What Girls Say About 
Healthy Living (2006). 
(3) Sixty percent of teenage girls compare their 
bodies to fashion models and almost 90 percent of 
girls say the fashion industry places a lot of pressure 
on teenage girls to be thin, according to the Girl 
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Scout Research Institute survey, Girls and Body 
Image (2010). 
(4) This same research finds that body dis-
satisfaction leads to unhealthy eating and dieting 
habits. More than half of girls (55 percent) admit 
they diet to lose weight, 42 percent of girls know 
someone their age who forced themselves to throw 
up after eating, 37 percent know someone who has 
been diagnosed with an eating disorder, and 31 per-
cent admit to starving themselves or refusing to eat 
as a strategy to lose weight. 
(5) Even young girls, 3rd through 5th grade, 
worry about their appearance (54 percent), and spe-
cifically their weight (37 percent) according to the 
Girls Inc. survey, The Supergirl Dilemma: Girls 
Grapple with the Mounting Pressure of Expectations 
(2006). 
(6) The American Psychological Association’s 
Report on the Sexualization of Girls (2007) found 
that three of the most common mental health prob-
lems among girls, eating disorders, depression or de-
pressed mood, and low self-esteem, are linked to 
sexualization of girls and women in media. 
(7) According to the same report, frequent ex-
posure to sexualized media images of girls can have 
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negative consequences on their sexual health and 
avoidance of sexual risk including the dangerous, 
new phenomena known as sexting, which means 
sending an explicit message or photo over a cell 
phone. 
(8) The group AK Teens found that 30 percent 
of girls ages 9 to 15 have sent a sext. The Campaign 
to Prevent Teen Pregnancy found that 20 percent of 
youth ages 13 to 19 have texted partially or com-
pletely nude pictures of themselves or someone they 
knew. 
(9) Competition over narrow beauty standards 
and attention from boys also damages girls’ friend-
ships, according to the American Psychological Asso-
ciation report. Damaging girls’ friendships can have 
serious health consequences since their relationships 
are crucial to their social and emotional health, ac-
cording to The New Normal? What Girls Say About 
Healthy Living (2006). 
(10) Sexualized messages and images of girls 
and women also negatively impact boys. These nega-
tive effects include boys’ developing unrealistic and 
unhealthy expectations of girls’ and women’s phys-
ical appearance, and may impair their ability to de-
velop healthy relationships with girls and women, ac-
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cording to the American Psychological Association’s 
report. 
(11) Girls and women of color are dispropor-
tionately absent from mainstream media. The Girl 
Scout Research Institute survey, Girls and Body 
Image (2010), found that only 32 percent of Afri-
can-American girls think the fashion industry does a 
good job of representing people of all races and 
ethnicities. 
(12) Women and girls continue to be underrep-
resented in leadership roles in the media. Geena 
Davis Institute on Gender in the Media reports that 
less than one in three speaking characters in chil-
dren’s movies are female. One study found that only 
10 percent of Sports Illustrated photographs were of 
women during a 3-year period, according to the 
American Psychological Association’s Report on the 
Sexualization of Girls (2007). Fifty-seven percent of 
music videos feature a woman portrayed exclusively 
as a decorative, sexual object. 
(13) The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in 
the Media found that the majority of female char-
acters in children’s movies are praised for their ap-
pearance or physical beauty rather than their per-
sonality, intelligence, or other talents, and are often 
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short-sighted and narrowly fixated on romantic rela-
tionships that lack substantial connections or court-
ships. Girls and boys watching children’s program-
ming may vicariously learn that beauty is an essen-
tial part of being female and critical for gaining at-
tention and acceptance. 
(14) Girls’ aspirations are limited as they begin 
to associate power, acceptance, and success with 
physical appearance rather than academic or extra-
curricular achievements, according to the American 
Psychological Association. 
(15) Violence against women continues to be 
prevalent throughout media. The Parents Television 
Council reports that between 2004 and 2009, vio-
lence against women and teenage girls has increased 
on television programming at a rate of 120 percent 
compared to the 2 percent increase of overall vio-
lence in television content. 
(16) The Parents Television Council warns that 
by depicting violence against women with increasing 
frequency on television, or as a trivial, even humor-
ous matter, theses images may be contributing to an 
atmosphere in which young people view aggression 
and violence against women as normative, even ac-
ceptable. 
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(17) Due to the alarming side effects of youths’ 
exposure to negative messages about girls and 
women in media, Congress supports efforts to ensure 
youth improve their media literacy skills and con-
sume positive messages about girls and women in 
the media that promotes healthy and diverse body 
images, develops positive and active female role mod-
els, and portrays equal and healthy relationships be-
tween female and male characters. 
SEC. 3. GRANTS TO PROMOTE MEDIA LITERACY AND 
YOUTH EMPOWERMENT PROGRAMS. 
(a) MEDIA LITERACY.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall award 
grants to nonprofit organizations to provide for the 
establishment, operation, coordination, and evalua-
tion of programs to increase the media literacy of 
girls and boys, including by— 
(A) educating youth on how to apply their 
critical thinking skills when consuming media 
images and messages; 
(B) promoting healthy, balanced, and posi-
tive media depictions of girls and women among 
youth; and 
(C) countering the perpetuation and dam-
aging effects of narrow, restrictive gender roles, 
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stereotypes, and expectations, including the 
sexualization of female children, adolescents, 
and adults. 
(2) ACTIVITIES.—Programs funded under this 
subsection may include— 
(A) education on analytical skills that pro-
mote autonomy and critical understanding of 
how girls and women are depicted in the media; 
(B) age-appropriate education about nega-
tive effects of the sexualization of female chil-
dren, adolescents, and adults; 
(C) education about how traditional, re-
strictive gender roles can be perpetuated 
through media; 
(D) education about how depictions of girls 
and women in the media can negatively affect 
youths’ body image, their choice of role models, 
relationships among girls, and relationships and 
expectations between girls and boys; 
(E) education on how to use media to posi-
tively influence others and to affect healthier 
cultural norms and practices; 
(F) education of parents, educators, and 
other adults on how depictions of girls and 
women in the media impact youth; or 
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(G) support for public or private partner-
ships that encourage businesses, advertisers, 
the entertainment industry, and other media 
content providers to promote media content 
that— 
(i) encourages healthy body images; 
(ii) develops positive and active female 
role models; and 
(iii) portrays equal and healthy rela-
tionships between female and male char-
acters. 
(3) REPORT.—The Secretary shall require each 
grant recipient under this subsection to submit to 
the Secretary a report for each grant period that— 
(A) describes how grant funds were used; 
and 
(B) evaluates the effectiveness of the pro-
gram funded through the grant. 
(b) YOUTH EMPOWERMENT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall award 
grants to nonprofit organizations to provide for the 
establishment, operation, coordination, and evalua-
tion of programs to support the empowerment of 
girls or boys in a variety of ways, including by— 
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(A) 
encouraging 
youth 
empowerment 
through extracurricular activities and programs; 
and 
(B) supporting youth in a variety of ways 
that— 
(i) develop self-esteem, skills, and tal-
ents; and 
(ii) celebrate characteristics unrelated 
to sexual appeal or physical appearance. 
(2) ACTIVITIES.—Programs funds under this 
subsection may include— 
(A) assisting youth in critiquing and re-
jecting sexualizing and objectifying messages 
within society; 
(B) teaching youth how to create and use 
media that contribute to social change, espe-
cially in their communities; 
(C) building confidence and self-efficacy; 
(D) building leadership skills; or 
(E) facilitating connections between girls 
and women, and boys and men, as mentors. 
(3) TARGETED PROJECTS.—The Secretary shall 
ensure that funding under this subsection is tar-
geted towards (but need not be exclusively restricted 
to) projects that are— 
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(A) focused in urban, rural, and other un-
derserved areas; 
(B) gender-specific; 
(C) focused on a variety of populations, in-
cluding racial and ethnic minorities and rep-
resentatives of several socioeconomic status 
groups; 
(D) culturally and linguistically appro-
priate for the populations being served; and 
(E) developed in collaboration with the 
long-term stakeholders. 
(4) REPORT.—The Secretary shall require each 
grant recipient under this subsection to submit to 
the Secretary a report for each grant period that— 
(A) describes how grant funds were used; 
and 
(B) evaluates the effectiveness of the pro-
gram funded through the grant. 
(c) MATCHING FUNDS.—In awarding grants under 
subsections (a) and (b), the Secretary may give priority 
to applicants who agree to provide matching contributions 
from non-Federal sources. Such contributions may be in 
cash or in kind, fairly evaluated, including equipment, 
training, curricula, or a preexisting evaluation framework. 
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(d) CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS.—A grant may be 
made under subsection (a) or (b) only if the applicant in-
volved agrees to the following: 
(1) Not more than 20 percent of the grant 
funds will be used for administration, accounting, re-
porting, and program oversight functions. 
(2) The grant will be used to supplement and 
not supplant funds from other sources for increasing 
the media literacy of, and empowering, youth. 
(3) The applicant will abide by any limitations 
deemed appropriate by the Secretary on any charges 
to individuals receiving services pursuant to the 
grant. As deemed appropriate by the Secretary, such 
limitations on charges may vary based on the finan-
cial circumstances of the individual receiving serv-
ices. 
(e) REPORT.—Not later than 2 years after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the 
Secretary shall prepare and submit to the appropriate 
committees of the Congress a report on the grants award-
ed under subsections (a) and (b), including— 
(1) a description of how the grant funds were 
used; and 
(2) an evaluation of the effectiveness of such 
grants. 
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SEC. 4. RESEARCH ON THE ROLE AND IMPACT OF GIRLS 
AND WOMEN IN THE MEDIA ON YOUTHS’ DE-
VELOPMENT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting through the 
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-
tion and in coordination with the Director of the National 
Institutes of Health and the Director of the Eunice Ken-
nedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and 
Human Development, shall review, synthesize, and con-
duct or support research on the role and impact of depic-
tions of girls and women in the media on the psychological, 
sexual, physical, and interpersonal development of youth 
in the following areas: 
(1) How depictions of girls and women in the 
media affect youth in the following areas of child-
hood development: 
(A) Cognitive areas such as mental health, 
self-esteem, learning abilities, and problem solv-
ing skills. 
(B) Physical areas such as diet, nutrition, 
exercise, body image, substance abuse, and 
sleeping and eating routines. 
(C) Social behavioral areas such as rela-
tionships with peers, interactions with parents 
and family members, aggression, high-risk be-
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haviors, sexual behavior and development, and 
positive social behaviors. 
(2) How depictions of girls and women in the 
media affect girls’ and boys’ perceptions in the fol-
lowing areas: 
(A) Girls’ perceptions and attitudes about 
girls’ and boys’ abilities, equity, appearances, 
and leadership potential. 
(B) Boys’ perceptions and attitudes about 
girls’ and boys’ abilities, equity, appearances, 
and leadership potential. 
(3) How the sexualization and objectification of 
girls and women in the media affects girls and boys. 
(4) The impact of depictions of girls and 
women in the media on youths’ academic perform-
ance. 
(5) The impact that depictions of girls and 
women in the media has on girls and boys of diverse 
racial and ethnic backgrounds and developmentally 
across age. 
(6) How factors such as format, length of expo-
sure, age of youth, and nature of parental involve-
ment impact youth. 
(7) How food marketing and obesity campaigns 
affect girls’ and boys’ body image, nutrition, and ex-
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ercise, especially among eating-disordered youth pop-
ulations. 
(8) Additional areas as designated by the Sec-
retary. 
(b) NO DUPLICATION.—The Secretary shall ensure 
that research activities under this section do not duplicate 
other Federal research activities. 
(c) REPORTS.—Not later than 2 years after the date 
of the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the 
Secretary shall prepare and submit to the appropriate 
committees of the Congress a report that— 
(1) synthesizes the results of— 
(A) research under this section; and 
(B) other related research by the private 
or public sector, including the Federal Govern-
ment; 
(2) disaggregates such results by gender, race, 
and socioeconomic background; 
(3) includes a compendium of key existing re-
search on the role and impact of depictions of girls 
and women in the media; and 
(4) outlines gaps in research on the role and 
impact of depictions of girl and women in the media 
and identifies areas where future research is needed. 
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SEC. 5. NATIONAL TASK FORCE ON GIRLS AND WOMEN IN 
THE MEDIA. 
(a) PURPOSES.—The Federal Communications Com-
mission shall convene a task force, to be known as the 
National Task Force on Girls and Women in the Media, 
to develop voluntary steps and goals for promoting healthy 
and positive depictions of girls and women in the media 
for the benefit of all youth. 
(b) MEMBERSHIP.—The Task Force shall include 
representatives of the media industry, nonprofit and 
youth-serving organizations, academia and research enti-
ties, psychologists and other child health professionals, 
Federal agencies, and any other public or private entity 
designated by the Federal Communications Commission. 
(c) RESPONSIBILITIES.—The Task Force shall iden-
tify— 
(1) concerns with how the media regulated by 
the Federal Communications Commission portrays 
girls and women; 
(2) the impact of negative depictions of girls 
and women on the development of youth; and 
(3) voluntary steps and goals that the public 
and private sectors can take to promote healthy and 
positive media depictions of girls and women for the 
benefit of all youth. 
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(d) INITIAL MEETING.—The Federal Communica-
tions Commission shall ensure that the Task Force holds 
its first meeting not later than 90 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act. 
(e) REPORT.—Not later than 12 months after the 
date of the first meeting of the Task Force, the Federal 
Communications Commission shall submit a report to 
Congress that contains— 
(1) the findings of the Task Force under sub-
section (c); and 
(2) recommendations for areas of improvement 
regarding depictions of girls and women in the 
media. 
SEC. 6. LIMITATION. 
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the 
Secretary may not use amounts made available under this 
Act to conduct or support activities or programs that are 
duplicative of activities or programs already being carried 
out through the Department of Health and Human Serv-
ices or the Department of Education. 
SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘media’’ includes television pro-
grams, motion pictures, video games, music and 
music videos, the Internet, social media, digital video 
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recorders, cell phones, magazines, newspapers, ad-
vertisements, and other emerging technologies de-
signed for communication, entertainment, education, 
or information. 
(2) The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary 
of Health and Human Services. 
(3) The term ‘‘sexualization’’ refers to a cir-
cumstance when— 
(A) a person’s value comes only from his 
or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclu-
sion of other characteristics; 
(B) a person is held to a standard that 
equates physical attractiveness (narrowly de-
fined) and personal value with appearing, act-
ing, and being sexy; 
(C) a person is sexually objectified—that 
is, made into a thing for others’ sexual use, 
rather than seen as a person with the capacity 
for independent action and decisionmaking; or 
(D) sexuality is inappropriately imposed 
upon a person. 
(4) The term ‘‘Task Force’’ means the National 
Task Force on Girls and Women in the Media con-
vened under section 5. 
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SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
For the purpose of carrying out sections 3 and 4, 
there is authorized to be appropriated, in addition to any 
other amounts available for such purpose, $40,000,000 for 
each of fiscal years 2011 through 2015, of which— 
(1) $18,000,000 is for section 3(a); 
(2) $18,000,000 is for section 3(b); and 
(3) $4,000,000 is for section 4. 
Æ 
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