Infant Industry: Revolution Girl Style Now
The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls turns the volume up to eleven.
by Ada Calhoun
May 1, 2007
I'm sure a lot of people make comparisons to School of Rock.
I thought that movie was really fun, but the girls were background singers! That was one of those details, but I thought it was really lame. And the real-life rock-school guy in Philly? From what I can tell, his goal was to get the kids to play really complicated Frank Zappa covers. From the documentary about him, it seems he made a lot of people feel like crap. We're all about saying yes to girls. And making them have the most fantastic week of their lives. We just say yes all week long.
What do the girls ask for?
Like, the band will have three drummers. We've anticipated, what do we do if there's a problem? But so far the kids have been really reasonable. Of course, it's kind of VH1 Behind the Music. Very regularly the bands will break up on Thursday and then get back together on Friday and have a group hug.
Is there queen-bee in-fighting?
We noticed last year one girl had been kind of tormented in a group of four or five. They're going 
My reaction to Imus is that the answer to problematic speech is more speech.to do their thing, but we try to stay on top of it. When we notice it, we get in there and do something. There's a team in the morning that does skits, and if something's been going on, they'll play out the rotten behavior. If we know crap is going down at rehearsal — queen of the band, that kind of thing — we'll send the team there to do something funny to get them to stop. Some of the mentors are more direct. One coach was like, "Shut up and play your instruments."
Are girls today more or less feminist-minded than our generation was at their age?
The corporate drive does seem heavier, but I think they put their own spin on those things. They draw princesses, but their princesses are smart and interesting. I was reading another response today in the Times to Don Imus and rap. My reaction to Imus is that the answer to problematic speech is more speech. I'm just concerned for girls to develop their voices. It's as direct as giving a girl a microphone and having people tell her not to be quiet.
The camp sounds so fun. I'm sad my son won't be able to go.
The other day my son, who's four-and-a-half, actually asked me, "Can boys rock?" So I think before long we're going to have to add a Wille Mae Rock Camp for Girls for Boys.
©2007 Ada Calhoun and Nerve Media
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Babble editor-in-chief
Ada Calhoun is also a blogger for AOL News, a consulting editor at Nerve.com, and a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review. Her writing has appeared in New York magazine, Marie Claire, Salon.com and the anthology One of the Guys. |
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