A Study Conducted by the American Psychological Association Task Force concluded that sexualization occurs when a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics; a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy; 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 decision making; and/or sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person. The APA Task Force reported many example of the sexualization of girls, such as toy manufactures duce dolls wearing black leather miniskirts, feather boas, and thigh-high boots and market them to 8- to 12-year-old girls. Clothing stores sell thongs sized for 7– to 10-year-old girls, some printed with slogans such as “eye candy” or “wink wink”; other thongs sized for women and late adolescent girls are imprinted with characters from Dr. Seuss and the Muppets. In the world of child beauty pageants, 5-year-old girls wear fake teeth, hair extensions, and makeup and are encouraged to “flirt” onstage by batting their long, false eyelashes. Journalists, child advocacy organizations, parents, and psychologists have become alarmed according to the APA Task Force, arguing that the sexualization of girls is a broad and increasing problem and is harmful to girls, and I for one agree with their proposition. As seen on Toddlers and Tiaras the “Beautiful Dolls” episode, it is showed in adult women dressing as girls, wearing pig tails, sexy school girl outfits, and sucking a lollipop. Studies have found that 89% of women working in some form of prostitution started before the age of sixteen... ... middle of paper ... ...ceptable or tolerated. There are books out there such as “The Lolita Effect” that specifically address this issue and give parents questions to ask and different ways to approach these topics. Our textbook on “Our Sexuality” talks about Self-Concept, it is define as the feelings and beliefs we have about ourselves. I also think this chapter is very informative on the girls sexualization issues, as this is all about self-image, and this chapter would be very informative to parents, girls and women. We need to make sure when giving our girls compliments it’s not only about her looks or appearance, but also it is good to compliment our girls on their qualities as well. Qualities, like their intelligence, their kindness, their grades, or their strength, this will help them to not only focus on their looks but they it will help them to focus on their potential as well.
The way young girls dress today can be, so say, disturbing to most people and many parents. In Lianne George article, “Why Are We Dressing Our Daughters Like This?” She writes about “the marketing of the clothing and its potential impact of little girls.” She explains the impacts sexual clothing is having on young girls and their parents. She goes on to answer the questions: When did this start? Will it continue? Is there any way to stop it?
Are the little girl 's in America being cheated of their privilege of having a childhood? Stephanie Hanes, a freelance journalist, believes so and she decided to express her opinion in the article “ Little girls or Little women ? The Disney Princess Effect”. Hanes argues that today’s society is morally ambiguous because of the sexual messages being sent to young girls. In consequence of this , toddlers now aspire to attain the pre-teen goal to be sexy at such an early age. It all begins with the influence and example that The Disney princesses give to their young fans. For the reason that the article appeared in magazines and in the USA today , the targeted audience must be
In “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” Stephanie Hanes covers the sexualization of young girls and women in every aspect of the media that influences children and teens. She explains that girls see media figures, movies, and sports being sexualized, and how this is causing children to associate looking and acting a certain way to being ‘the perfect women’. Hanes believes the hypersexualized media is causing girls to obtain a negative body image and it’s killing their self-esteem. The author proposes what she believes society should do about overcoming this obstacle, and how people can crush the stereotypes about women; to her everyone is responsible and should aid in fixing these problems. She explains that the media
In reality, women have to live up to various standards. In Rosewarne’s writing, one standard that is brought to light is that whatever is portrayed on these advertisements promoting a precise body figure, hair color, skin color, etc. is what a women has to look like in order for men to find them pleasurable. Nonetheless, this mindset on young girls is truly damaging our youth into thinking that they have to look that way in order to feel admirable by society. A new report by the American Psychological Association says, “Advertising and media images that encourage girls to focus on looks and sexuality are harmful to their emotional and physical health” (Jayson). This is destructive to society because the media is molding social labels that can conclude in the development of unhealthy social and physical habits. Women and young girls intensify the representation of seeing their bodies as sexual objects from a young age. Rosewarne highlights this in her article when she says ”The basic idea of a pin-up is to provide an inexpensive, mass-produced image of a woman for a man 's viewing pleasure” (Rosewarne 317). Also stating that “women are ‘bodies’ rather than ‘somebodies” (Rosewarne 318). Furthermore, when she talks about the pinups in relation with the standards she says, “Pin-ups help define what men find attractive, in the
Deborah Tolman author of “Dilemmas of Desire” dwells on uncovering a wealth of feelings about sexuality from teenage girls who are faced with a lot of struggles in developing sexual identity and detached from their sexuality. One of her main argument is centered on the juxtaposition of media representations of girls as highly sexualized objects. For instance, “the urban girl is viewed as the overly sexual young jezebel. Latinas are often eroticized as exotic, sexually alluring and available.” (Tolman, pg.170). I agree with this statement due to simple fact that we are living in a highly sexualized cultural milieu and evidence of sexualization is seen through mainstream culture. Images such as Sarah Bartman depict African American/ urban portrayal of sexual imagery formed socio-historical
Female beauty ideals are an overwhelming force in teen media. Approximately 37% of articles in leading magazines for teen girls emphasize a focus on physical appearance. This is none to surprising considering two of the top contenders in this media genre are Seventeen and Teen Vogue. CosmoGIRL and Elle Girl were among the ranks of popular teen magazines, but in recent years have become exclusively online publications. Add in a dash of publications Tiger Beat and Bop, and it becomes glaringly obvious that girls are charged with the prime directive of looking good to get the guy. The story becomes more disturbing when the actual audience, which includes girls at least as young as eleven years old, is considered. In a stage when girls are trying for the first time to establish their identities, top selling publications are telling them that their exteriors should be their primary concern of focus. Of course, this trend doesn’t stop with magazines. A study conducted in 1996 found a direct correlation between the “amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos” a...
Traister, Rebecca. A. "Fathers Should Not Exploit Their Daughters' Sexuality." Is Childhood Becoming Too Sexualized? Olivia Ferguson and Hayley Mitchell Haugen. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010.
...emished that children are more commonly used for prostitution against that their adult counterparts and the average age at which boys first become victims of prostitution is 11 to 13 years’ old.
On Halloween night, one will inevitably see tween-aged girls adorned in sexed-up skeleton, vampire, and doctor ensembles. Costume companies design these provocative outfits specifically for children who want “a sexy look to give you the perfect butt” (Jones, 2014, p.7). The sexualization of girls’ clothing and, consequently, the girls wearing the clothing is not limited to one day per year, however. Popular retailers, such as Abercrombie Kids and Victoria’s Secret PINK, market children’s thong underwear adorned phrases such as “eye candy” and “call me”; push up bikini tops are commonplace in sections intended for young girls (Goldfarb, 2008). Even television shows such as My Little Pony are marketed to sexualize girlhood. The sexualization of girls is inescapable in today’s society, where it is pervasive on virtually all media platforms. This issue must be addressed immediately, as it damages not only the individual, but the well-being of society as a whole.
The sexualization of women in the 21st century has led many to wonder whether or not the feminist movement actually resulted in more harm than good. Although the progress and reform that came out of the feminist movement is indisputable, things such as equal rights under the law, equal status and equal pay, the reality is that the subjugation of female roles in society still exist, and the most surprising part about this is that now women are just as much as at fault for this as men are. Ariel Levy defines female chauvinist pigs as “women who make sex objects of other women and of ourselves” (Levy 11). This raunch culture is mistakenly assumed to be empowering and even liberating to women when it is in fact degrading and corrupting to the modern feminist movement and makes it more difficult for women to be taken seriously in society. The shift in the nature of the feminist movement is in Levy’s opinion attributed to by the massive industry now profiting off of the sexualization of women, the reverse mindset now adopted by post-feminists and women in power roles in our society, and ultimately the women who further their own objectification as sex objects and thus, so by association, deem themselves lesser than man.
In one episode of the now discontinued tv show that had 103 episodes (IMDb, 2013), Toddlers and Tiaras, a 3 year old girl dressed up in an outfit modeled after Julia Roberts’ character in Pretty Woman. This 3 year old, dressed as a prostitute flounced along the stage waving to the judges with hands on her hips. (Canning, 2011). Another example of celebrity mimicry for these pageants which sexualize these children that has been aired on Toddlers and Tiaras is when a 6 year old was stuffed into a padded bra in order to dress up as a busty Dolly Parton (Adams, 2012). These pageants then become a breeding ground for dangerous predators, Kidscape, an organization which attempts to prevent the bullying of children, CEO Claude Knights tells the Guardian Magazine ‘"We do know that predators or paedophiles continually tend to justify their interest in children by saying children are sexual beings. That children are now given a channel to become little Lolitas, to be portrayed as older, to almost become mini adults – these are all trends that give legitimacy to that kind of thinking."’ (Day, 2010). The phenomenon of sexual predators making child pageants unsafe has even infiltrated pop culture and has been spoken about in TV shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and in many documentaries such as America the Beautiful: Sexualizing our Youth. These young girls are put on stage and are given things like fake teeth, fake eyelashes and spray tans in order to look older, this is a thinly veiled opportunity to make children look sexy in the same way that 25 year olds looks sexy. Ignoring the looming threat of abuse, dressing and giving a child other beauty enhancements in order to make them look attractive in a way that America traditionally sees adults as attractive robs the children of childhood and will cause them to
Barbie, a doll manufactured by Mattel, Inc., encourages an unrealistic body image, racial insensitivity, and contradictive goals, and it is having a negative influence on young girls everywhere. Launched in March 1959 by Ruth Handler, an American business woman and president of Mattel, Inc., Barbie quickly became popular and has gone on to sell three dolls every second, in over one hundred and fifty countries. However, Barbie’s rise to success has not been wholly positive – there have been numerous controversies, parodies, and lawsuits, all addressing a number of issues. One such issue is how Barbie promotes an unrealistic and unobtainable body image. For example, to scale, Barbie is five feet, nine inches tall, has a thirty six inch chest, eighteen inch waist, and thirty three inch hips. Had Barbie been a real person, she would not be able to walk, much less hold her head up. Secondly, Barbie is racially insensitive and perpetuates stereotypes. “Mexico Barbie,” from Barbie’s “ethnic” line, comes with a passport and a Chihuahua, as well as stereotypical red lace ribbons in her hair. Lastly, Barbie portrays goals that are both unobtainable and contradictive. Barbie has had a variety of careers, such as being a doctor, astronaut, and President of the United States, but also engages in stereotypical domestic activities, such as cleaning and baking. These characteristics are affecting young girls in a time when they are most developmentally susceptible, and teaching them a number of negative lessons.
According to Oxford Dictionary, gender role is defined as “set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture”. Gender role created an expectation of how each individual should act, talk, dress etc., based on their biological sex. Over many years, the issue of gender equality has tried to be eradicated but till now this issue still exists. Women, specifically are looked down upon in our society, while men are seen more powerful. Some individuals will argue that women are better off taking the traditional role and being inferior towards men. In this society, there are few women who have proven and destroyed views and perception of all females
Since the early nineteenth century, when the entertainment industry started to progress rapidly, there have been many toys, video games, and television shows that have had many negative effects on young children. One example of this troubling trend is the Barbie Doll. Barbie Dolls, a seemingly innocent plastic figurine, have in fact had a negative effect on young girls’ perception of themselves, their self-image, and self esteem, causing many problems for them including immodesty, eating disorders and teenage pregnancy. Children spend so much of their time playing with these dolls and they negatively affect how they view themselves. These negative effects are not merely suspected, but have been proven through years of research.
Media has been filled with exaggerated scrutinies and trashed with unreasonable criticisms. It deserves a break. This is the generation of Information Technology. Danger is just around the corner, where a click from a mouse or a remote control and all sex-related garbage can pop out of the monitor. Truly, a vulnerable teenager can easily get lost to temptations. As an adolescent, I can empathize how these sweet girls feel about how horrible their body shapes are, how ugly their face is, and how brands in fashion seem to be worth more than anything in the world. Fashion labels, tiny bodies, and sexual activities are all characterized in Sex and the City. From th...