I Know What Boys Want. . .

The common wisdom, among guys anyway, is that the female of our species is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Like a lot of common wisdom, it may not be true. Just ask the folks at the Disney Corporation.

Back in February, the Disney Media Empire introduced Disney DX, a cable channel with a target audience of 6 - 14 year old boys. The problem is determining what kind of programming appeals to boys 6- 14 years old (that would be appropriate for a Disney channel). Solution: bring in anthropologists to examine their artifacts.

Kelly Peña, or “the kid whisperer,” as some Hollywood producers call her, was digging through a 12-year-old boy’s dresser drawer here on a recent afternoon. Her undercover mission: to unearth what makes him tick and use the findings to help the Walt Disney Company reassert itself as a cultural force among boys. Ms. Peña and her team of anthropologists have spent 18 months peering inside the heads of incommunicative boys in search of just that kind of psychological nugget. Disney is relying on her insights to create new entertainment for boys 6 to 14, a group that Disney used to own way back in the days of “Davy Crockett” but that has wandered in the age of more girl-friendly Disney fare like “Hannah Montana.”

How might that work?

Ms. Peña, a Disney researcher with a background in the casino industry, zeroed in on a ratty rock ’n’ roll T-shirt. Black Sabbath? “Wearing it makes me feel like I’m going to an R-rated movie,” said Dean, a shy redhead whose parents asked that he be identified only by first name. Jackpot.

Was Ms. Peña able to find any other nuggets?

Walking through Dean’s house in this leafy Los Angeles suburb on the back side of the Hollywood Hills, Ms. Peña looked for unspoken clues about his likes and dislikes. “What’s on the back of shelves that he hasn’t quite gotten rid of — that will be telling,” she said beforehand. “What’s on his walls? How does he interact with his siblings?” One big takeaway from the two-hour visit: although Dean was trying to sound grown-up and nonchalant in his answers, he still had a lot of little kid in him. He had dinosaur sheets and stuffed animals at the bottom of his bed. “I think he’s trying to push a lot of boundaries for the first time,” Ms. Peña said later.

Disney's had great success with marketing to young girls, with much more than just tv programming. There's apparently a whole "princess culture". (For an interesting article on that phenomenon -- one that I've used in the TALC program -- go here.) Girls are happy to tell you about what they like and don't like. Guys can be a little more reluctant to spill their innermost feelings.