excerpt from "Sexualisation 'harms' young girls," BBC News
The media's portrayal of young women as sex objects harms girls' mental and physical health, US experts warn. Magazines, television, video games and music videos all have a detrimental effect, a task force from the American Psychological Association reported.
Sexualisation can lead to a lack of confidence with their bodies as well as depression and eating disorders.Such images also have a negative effect on healthy sexual development in girls, the researchers said.The task force was set up after mounting "public concern" about the sexualisation of young girls.
Research on the content and effects of television, music videos, music lyrics, magazines, films, video games and the internet was analysed. Recent advertising campaigns and merchandising of products aimed at girls was also scrutinised.
Sexualisation was defined as occurring when a person's value comes only from her or his sexual appeal or behaviour, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is portrayed purely as a sex object. They gave examples of a trainer advert that featured pop star Christina Aguilera dressed as a schoolgirl with her shirt unbuttoned, licking a lollipop. (more)
As if we did not know that hyper-materialism and hyper-sexualization are bad for young children. Did we really need a study to confirm this?
Also, the researchers steer clear of the real problem. Women sucking on lollipops while unbuttoning their school girl outfits for their boyfriends is hardly the same as increasingly more young women doing the same to seduce whoever they want, especially the married, acting like the worst of men. We are talking about the larger part of a generation of women incapable of monogamy, appreciating only their independence, causing trouble when they can and being too irresponsible to raise a family. Finding intelligent partners with good genes is now apparently too much to ask for, too - they only want whatever gives them a shot of excitement before they move on to find whatever thrilling fetish they think they want at that exact moment. Perhaps, as the article contends, Christina Aguilera's outfit has something to do with the new state of affairs, but I'm much more certain that shows like Sex and the City, where women are told that this is "fun" and never has to end, are the bigger problem.
Some might call this problem feminism. But blessed is the feminist who sees an inconsistency between the spirit of the early feminist movement (equal rights and representation) and what became of the movement after the 1960's - women getting the most selfish mileage out of the condition of being a woman, all the while dodging traditional female roles and shirking the responsibilities that men have.
