Report Slams Sexualization Of Girls In Media

A new report, from the American Psychological Association (APA), says that the proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in the media is harmful to girls’ self-image and healthy development.

I’m not exactly sure why it takes an official report from the American Psychological Association to explain this to the world, but clearly, we do not make these connections ourselves.

Case in point: Department stores now sell padded bras and thongs for little girls. Not teenagers…little girls. Girls who still think hanging out with boys is a sure way to die a slow death-by-cooties.

Something has gone dreadfully awry.

Prepubescent girls by definition are not sexually developed in the mind or the body. It is not natural for them to want lacey bras and big tits and underpants that don’t cover their asses – things that are, in our culture, purely sexual symbols.

Yet here we are, paying sweatshops in Asia somewhere to churn out cheap “sexy” underwear for girls who, less than a generation ago, would dress the family dog in them if they dained to touch them at all.

But because they live in a world where their toy stores hawk kiddy stripper poles, grown women on t.v. dress like “naughty” little girls in lingerie, and the cartoon heroines they watch have more cleavage than clothes, they are slowly learning to want these things.

For what, they aren’t exactly sure… but they need them.

And that’s just the 6-to-10 crowd.

It’s worse for the tweens and teens, who have even more exposure to media. But then, it’s always been tough for them, trapped as they are on the nauseating rollercoaster known as puberty. And while we’re selling our girls all this sex, we are simultaneously vilifying as hos those young women who call our bluff. Holy mixed messages, Batman!

Our teens are cash cows for the free market economy that sells their sexuality back to them at the price of their self-esteem and sexual health. It’s sad that it has to work its way down to the youngest of us before we call bullshit.

Luckily, parents can call a lotta bullshit if they are willing to pull their heads out. They can not buy the bra, turn off the TV, put parental control on the computer. But most importantly, they can model what they want for their kids:

Women can value ourselves for who we are and what we do, not what we look like or who we are with. When she repeats a demeaning message, we can be there to teach her to think critically and consider alternative ideas. Guys – ditto.

And let’s not forget our sons, who need as much help wading through the muck as our daughters. We can counter the poison they absorb all day – we can teach them many positive things about women, but it boils down to girls and boys are different but equal.

At least, once they get past the cootie stage.

[tags]American Psychological Association, sexualization harmful to girls, children’s health[/tags]