Sexualization In Australia

For young girls in Australia it has been said that ‘one barometer of the health of society is the measure of mental health of our children and young people’. This measure does not bring us good news. Evidence indicates that exposure to ideals of sexual attractiveness in the media is associated with greater body dissatisfaction among girls and young women, leaving girls feeling ‘ugly’ and ‘gross’. Body image is not the only side effect of sexualisation. The increase in sexual activity among adolescents is at an alarming rate, and the age of sexual activity is ever decreasing. For boys in Australia too often we believe that the sexualisation in the public sphere is only affecting girls and women. However, if we were to believe that, we would

Because sexualisation has become such a big ‘normal’ thing and we all see it everywhere, it is not only celebrities anymore its people in the community and friends sexualising themselves to get people to like them or to get more ‘likes’. Todays society revolves around how you look online and your popularity is based on how many ‘likes’ you get on your posts or photos. When you see a sexualised picture in todays society you instantly look at yourself and wished that you looked like that. It is psychologically hurting people and their mental health. People’s self-esteem is dropping from a young age as many younger children are exposed to all these images. I feel threatened by all the sexualised images I see, however when there is woman or a girl being sexualised in a movie I just feel embarrassed. The idea that people have full free will and are unaffected by the type of society we are now creating is not an argument that can be left unchallenged. We may be setting up our generation X and Y adults for the basis of unfulfilling adult lives and relationships without having understood the powerful combined effects of human sexuality on our brain, and how brain plasticity can make permanent changes to our perceptual and impulse driven realities. We may also be creating a generation of addictive adults due to the liberalism of pornography coupled with the new form of sexual liberation within society. Total freedom does not always bring happiness but it may bring partial or total suffering to