The Secularization of Popular Culture and Young Girls

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Recommended: The role of media in influencing gender

From an early age girls are bombarded with graphic messages about sexiness in the media and from popular culture. American society is filled with obscene amounts of images encouraging sexual behavior. The secularization of popular culture is extremely detrimental to young girls.

In a study by the American Psychology Association, secularization is defined as “a person whose value comes from his or her sexual appeal or behavior” (Zurbiggen: pg1 para.3). One example of the various ways popular culture is targeting young girls is through social media sites. In this day and age, many young girls spend several hours on the computer on social media sites. In the documentary “Sexy Baby” the writers Bauer and Gradus tell the stories of three young women and how secularization has affected their lives. One of the main characters twelve year old Winifred, “changes from a gymnastics loving little girl to a moody young woman who post pictures of her cleavage on Facebook” (Wilmore: para.6).

Since young girls today spend more time surfing the web, they are exposed to more mainstream advertisements that boast sexual content, and as a result, many girls want to do the things they are seeing young girls just like Winifred do. In addition to exposure to sexual content on the internet, the music of popular culture leaves very little to the imagination. Women in these music videos are more often shown as provocative and wearing revealing clothing. Many girls look up to these women and want to emulate them because they are their favorite artist. For instance, Beyoncé’s album “Beyoncé” features the song “Partition”, where Beyoncé says “He Monica Lewinski all on my gown”. The sexual reference to Monica Lewinski is hypersexu...

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... themselves so that as they grow older they can make better decisions.

Works Cited

Morgan, Mandy. "Toddlers and Tears: The Secularization of Young Girls." DeseretNews.com.

17 Nov. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

Wilmore, Allison. "'Sexy Baby' Explores How Facebook, Labiaplasty and Pole Dancing Fit in

With Our Desire To Be Desirable." Indie wire. James Israel, 7 Dec. 2012. Web. 23 Apr.

2014.

Zurbriggen, Eileen L. Et Al., Ph.D.;' "APA Task Force on Secularization of Girls."

Http://www.apa.org. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.

"How TV Affects Your Child." Kids Health - the Web's Most Visited Site about Children's

Health. Ed. Steven Dowshen. The Nemours Foundation, 01 Oct. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

"Song Lyrics | Metro Lyrics." Song Lyrics | Metro Lyrics. Ed. Amanda Hutchison. CBS

Interactive, 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

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