Be Woke: End the Sexualization of Young Girls

A couple of years ago, Agatha Crispy and I led a presentation on the sexualization of young girls over the past few decades. This post may be a bit long, but I wanted to reach all the highlights of the presentation. Skip ahead to the sections that may be of interest to you.

Disclaimer: The views presented in this article are either completed by researchers in the field or from personal experience; they, in no way, are the only views on the subject. I provide many resources at the end of this article, some that present different views. Further, this article focuses on young girls, though the sexualization of young boys is also a topic that could be discussed at length.

The sexualization of girls occurs along a continuum, as many things in life do. On the less extreme end of this continuum is sexualized evaluation, such as looking or sexually judging another person. On the opposite end is sexual exploitation, such as sex trafficking or sexual abuse.

Examples of sexualization within the continuum:

Imagine a 5-year-old girl walking through a mall wearing a short T-shirt that says “Flirt.”
Consider the instructions given in magazines to preadolescent girls on how to look sexy and get a boyfriend by losing 10 pounds and straightening their hair.
Envision a soccer team of adolescent girls whose sex appeal is emphasized by their coach or a local journalist to attract fans.
Think of print advertisements that portray women as little girls, with pigtails and ruffles, in adult sexual poses

Media Research

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A substantial body of work has demonstrated that the media depict women and teenage girls in a sexualized manner. Turn in any direction and you may find ample evidence of this claim. Television, music videos, music lyrics, movies, magazines, sports media, video games, and advertising all have been criticized at one point or another for how they portray women and girls. Women more often than men are portrayed in a sexualized manner and are objectified as decorative.

In many media forms, men/boys are depicted as valuing girls only for their physical attractiveness. The classic “lose the glasses, let down your hair, wear a dress” making an individual more acceptable to date or even be friends with.

Another huge issue in media is that older girls or even adults act as individuals much younger in television and movies, which leads to unrealistic expectations for girls (especially teenagers).

Stacy Dash played a high school student in “Clueless” when she was 29 years old.
Winona Ryder was 28 when she played an 18-year-old in “Girl, Interrupted.”
Rachel McAdams’ portrayed high school junior Regina George in “Mean Girls” when she was 26.
Emilia Clarke was 25-years old when she portrayed Daenerys Stormborn of the Home Targaryen, who was 17 years of age.
Bianca Lawson was 31-years-old when cast to play a teenager on Pretty Little Liars.
Charisma Carpenter was 27 when she played a high school student on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

In the modern age, children can watch their favorite TV show not only on the family television, but tablets, phones, computers, and other devices can stream children’s shows in any location. On average, children 2-11 years old watch 32 hours of television a week, and those 12-17 years old watch 23 hours a week. This is solely on television and does not account for these other portable devices.

The research found sexualization in every episode that was coded in a random sample of 3 episodes from the 10 most popular children’s television shows (for ages 6-11). Female characters were significantly more likely to be sexualized than male characters. There was an average of 24 instances of sexualization per episode. The most common forms of sexualization included: self-sexualizing behaviors (wearing revealing clothing or heavy makeup), sexual harassment, and unwanted sexual touching.

Disney

Let’s talk about Disney, as well. I am a huge fan of everything Disney, but when you look into the implications of the brand you may be a bit concerned. When Agatha and I presented this topic, we listed the following headlines:

15-year-old absconds with known criminal
16-year-old in coma wakes after local man’s advances
14-year-old runaway seeks refuge with a group of older adult bachelors
Abused teenage orphan finds love after extreme makeover
16-year-old seeks extreme body alteration in hopes of meeting potential partner

These may be outlandish, slightly, but completely accurate depictions of the tales of the major Disney princesses. Disney’s female characters (especially princesses) are hyper-sexualized from their animation to their look-alike toy products; they exhibit tiny waists, big busts, and heavy make-up not typical of their supposed age group. Even more so they often are trying to find romance and marriage, sometimes through extreme efforts.

Toys

Then there are toys. We could talk for hours about the gendered norms of children’s toys, but that will be a topic for a different day. Who remembers Bratz dolls? Marketed for girls 7-10, they were always dressed in miniskirts, fishnet stockings, tight jeans, or skimpy crop tops. And of course, Barbie. Introduced in 1959, Barbie was the first “fashion doll” in existence. The way that children can dress and model Barbies are often in sexualized clothing, not as extreme as Bratz dolls. Did you know the real-life dimensions of Barbie? 35-22-32″ (89-56-81cm).

Now I’m not saying young girls are going to see a Barbie and strive for those body dimensions. However, a research study on girls ages 4-7 was completed to see the impact that Barbie has on young girls’ future expectations. These girls were randomly assigned to play with one of three dolls: a fashion Barbie, a career Barbie, or a Mrs. potato head.

After a few minutes of play, each child was asked if they could do any of 10 occupations and if boys could do those jobs as well (half of the careers were traditionally male and half female-led). Girls who played with Barbie thought they could do significantly fewer jobs than boys could, but girls who played with Mrs. potato head reported nearly the same number on average. What was the most interesting find of this study, it made no difference if the girls were playing with career or fashion Barbie; they both led to a decrease in future job expectancy.

Magazines and Social Media

We can also talk about magazine articles focused on young girls, in which a study found that girls who read articles about dieting were more likely to engage in extreme weight-loss practices five years later (middle school girls 1999-2004). There is also social media. Instagram and Snapchat are believed to be the biggest contributors. From influencers to mirror shots, pouting self-portraits to “perfect” filters. These social applications create a false reality of girls that can lead to the judgment of your own appearance. Especially when someone’s “perfect” picture has more likes than your own. Snapchat’s latest stats boast a hundred million active users per day and nine thousand snaps per second.

Clothing

I am a huge fan of clothes for babies and young children, they are just too cute not to love! When you see a little kid all dressed up, it’s super adorable. But there are also children’s clothes that don’t really seem appropriate for the age groups that they are made for. For example, Primark used to sell a padded bikini top for children as young as seven. They ceased selling these after campaigns were formed against them. A study was conducted among 15 different retailers (high end and low end) in which individuals were asked their opinion on whether girls’ clothing was sexualized or not. The study found that “Of all clothing items, 31 percent had sexualizing features.” An article by The Huffington Post shows some extremely sexualized little kids’ clothing, including this ‘Kid’s Nipple Tassel T-Shirt’.

Another study in 1998 found that girls were made body-conscious by wearing swimsuits to complete a math exam in an empty room. These girls did significantly worse than girls completing the same test while wearing sweaters and other traditional clothes. More importantly, there were no differences in test-taking performance for boys under the same conditions.

A study completed by Starr and Ferguson (2012) illustrated the difference in clothing choices in young girls. Sixty American 6-9-year-old girls were shown two different types of paper dolls, one dressed in sexualized clothing (short jean shorts and low cut top revealing midriff) and the other dressed in non-sexualized clothing (cargo pants and a sweater). Of these 60 children, 70% of them identified the sexualized doll as the one they would most like to look like.

There are a lot of people that are a fan of beauty pageants, to be honest, though I am not one of them. These types of events promote age-inappropriate behaviors and appearances from makeup, fake teeth, false eyelashes, provocative outfits, and even spray tans. There are pageants that can be confidence-building when children are still allowed to appear like children, however, there are those that advance the most “toy-like” appearing child. The negative implications of these events may outweigh the positives and yet the child pageant industry involves thousands of contestants and $5 billion a year in revenue.

Negative Impacts

Evidence that the proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandising and media is harmful to girls’ self-image and healthy development.

Cognitive and Emotional:
- Undermine a person’s confidence in and comfort with her own body, leading to emotional and self-image problems, such as shame and anxiety
- Self-objectification has been shown to detract from the ability to concentrate and focus one’s attention (impaired performance on mental actvities)
Mental and Physical Health:
- Research links sexualization with three of the most common mental health problems diagnosed in girls and women–eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression or depressed mood
Sexual Development:
- Research suggests that the sexualization of girls has negative consequences on girls’ ability to develop a healthy sexual self-image
- Self-objectification has been linked directly with diminished sexual health among adolescent girls (e.g., as measured by decreased condom use and diminished sexual assertiveness)
General Society:
- Increase in sexism
- Fewer girls pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
- Increased rates of sexual harassment and sexual violence
- Increased demand for child pornography

Possible Remedies

There are so many things that parents, therapists, teachers, and other adults can do to make a positive impact in young girls’ lives. One of which is reading information like this blog, catch up on research and literature on the subject. I’m going to provide a quick list and a bunch of resources to get everyone started:

Watch television/movies with your kids: Find out their favorite show, favorite character, what they like about the show/character, etc. Opening the line of communication on this will give you insight into what your child perceives as expectations for their appearance and behavior.
Have “uncomfortable” discussions: Talk about when you think sex is okay or when it may not be, ask why girls often may try hard to look “sexy”, discuss effective sex education, discuss influences on sexual behaviors/decisions (peers, media, culture), and what makes a healthy relationship.
Be a conscious consumer: Choose products with positive messages and boycott or limit the ones that reinforce sexualized images and messages. When you think about what you buy and watch, you can teach your sons and daughters to do so, too.
Pick positive role models: There are many amazing women in media- Alicia Keys, Taylor Swift, Ellen Degeneres, Johanna Wagstaffe, Christine Sinclair, etc. Encourage your kids to pay attention to women that portray more than stereotypical outward appearances.
Get help: When in doubt, ask and discuss. Talk to other parents who have similar-aged children or slightly older children to share ideas and support. Reach out to specialists when you are concerned. These are not things that you have to go through or figure out alone.

The Beguiled Child