Sexualisation Of Children

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The sexualisation of children and young people is an issue that effects both genders in different ways; with girls, we see hyper-sexualisation and objectification whilst boys, face the struggles of hypermasculinisation – both of which react with one another, perpetuating and reinforcing social standards such as beauty, femininity and masculinity. This essay aims to outline what is meant by the early sexualisation of children and young people and discuss the sociological impacts the phenomenon is having on society. Sexualisation is an ever-growing phenomenon with sexualised images overtly placed everywhere from magazines to television/film to tablets and mobile phones. Journalists, child advocacy organisations and psychologists argue that early …show more content…

It is important to analyse cultural representations of gender roles, relationships and sexuality in order to understand what specific values are being promoted and what effect they are having on the development of children (Newman, …show more content…

Sexualisation also does not apply to self-motivated sexual activity or to the distribution of age-appropriate material about sex and sexuality (Papadopoulos, 2010) but rather describes the imposition of ‘adult sexuality’ on to young people before they are mentally, physically or emotionally capable of dealing with it. Papadopoulos argues that researchers and activists must be careful not to comprehensively apply the concept of sexualisation as doing so could lead to ‘normal’ expression of sexuality by children as wrong or problematic. The notion that sexualisation is increasingly prevalent in modern day society has been ‘gaining momentum’ since the late twentieth century and is now regularly discussed by politicians, researchers and teachers. The consensus seems to be indicating that the most obvious manifestation of sexualisation is the distribution of sexual imagery; whilst this is important in its own right, it is part of the wider phenomenon emerging in the United Kingdom and the USA – a phenomenon researchers are calling ‘pornified’ culture’ (Paul 2005). This so called ‘pornified’ culture’ describes how pornography seems to be encroaching into many different areas of day to day life (McNair

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