The sexualization of women has been an issue that has existed for centuries. However, with today’s society drowning in a sea of media, the issue has grown to unfathomable proportions. In today’s rapidly expanding consumer culture and media’s enslavement of society, the influence television has on children is inescapable regardless of age, race, and gender. This presents troubling consequences for children who grow up watching programs that hypersexualize young women. The sexualization of girls in television media creates a toxic culture where; young men and women receive damaging messages related to sex, girls are more likely to encounter negative psychological effects and mental health issues, and the fetishizing of underage girls is normalized.
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This consumption of television media continues in today’s society and the messages regarding sex directed towards young audiences continue to intensify. The American Psychological Association’s 2007 “Report on the Sexualization of Girls” has multiple qualifications for when sexualization occurs, one of which states that, “a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics” (American Psychological Association, 2007, p. 1). Many television shows featured on prime time television broadcast content that sexually objectifies women. According to the American Psychological Association’s report, the most common examples of sexualization and objectification of girls in television were, “sexist comments … in which a wide variety of deprecating words were used to describe women (e.g., broad, bimbo, dumb ass chick, toots, fox, babe, blondie), ... comments typically focused on women’s bodies or body parts, especially breasts, … [and] body language … [that] involved men or adolescent boys leering at women or girls” (American Psychological Association, 2007, p. 5). When children watch the cast in these programs engage in behavior that degrades girls, they receive and interpret what they see …show more content…
Jessica Valenti notes that, “American pop culture, especially, has an interesting new trend of … fetishizing “pure” young women—whether they’re celebrities, beauty queens, or just everyday young women” (Valenti, 2012). An increasing number of television programs objectify children and adolescents more than older adults. Alarming findings in a special report published by the Parents Television Council show that, “The presence of an underage female was associated with higher amounts of sexualizing depictions compared to the onscreen appearance of an adult female”, “Out of all the sexualized scenes depicting underage or young adult female characters, 86% of those female characters were presented as only being of high school age,” and “instances of implied nudity and/or sexual gestures were in every onscreen scene that contained sexualized depictions of underage girls” (Parents Television Council Special Report, 2010). Examples of sexualization of underage girls can be found in countless television series. For example, the 2011 MTV television show “Skins” focuses on the sex lives of seventeen year old high school students with a plot containing implied sexual activity and instances of nudity. Furthermore, the TLC program “Toddlers & Tiaras” parades three year old girls wearing erotic form fitting clothing in front of adult audiences to perform acts and suggestive dances. The
This consumption of television media continues in today’s society and the messages regarding sex directed towards young audiences continue to intensify. The American Psychological Association’s 2007 “Report on the Sexualization of Girls” has multiple qualifications for when sexualization occurs, one of which states that, “a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics” (American Psychological Association, 2007, p. 1). Many television shows featured on prime time television broadcast content that sexually objectifies women. According to the American Psychological Association’s report, the most common examples of sexualization and objectification of girls in television were, “sexist comments … in which a wide variety of deprecating words were used to describe women (e.g., broad, bimbo, dumb ass chick, toots, fox, babe, blondie), ... comments typically focused on women’s bodies or body parts, especially breasts, … [and] body language … [that] involved men or adolescent boys leering at women or girls” (American Psychological Association, 2007, p. 5). When children watch the cast in these programs engage in behavior that degrades girls, they receive and interpret what they see …show more content…
Jessica Valenti notes that, “American pop culture, especially, has an interesting new trend of … fetishizing “pure” young women—whether they’re celebrities, beauty queens, or just everyday young women” (Valenti, 2012). An increasing number of television programs objectify children and adolescents more than older adults. Alarming findings in a special report published by the Parents Television Council show that, “The presence of an underage female was associated with higher amounts of sexualizing depictions compared to the onscreen appearance of an adult female”, “Out of all the sexualized scenes depicting underage or young adult female characters, 86% of those female characters were presented as only being of high school age,” and “instances of implied nudity and/or sexual gestures were in every onscreen scene that contained sexualized depictions of underage girls” (Parents Television Council Special Report, 2010). Examples of sexualization of underage girls can be found in countless television series. For example, the 2011 MTV television show “Skins” focuses on the sex lives of seventeen year old high school students with a plot containing implied sexual activity and instances of nudity. Furthermore, the TLC program “Toddlers & Tiaras” parades three year old girls wearing erotic form fitting clothing in front of adult audiences to perform acts and suggestive dances. The