We all know that sex sells. Some of the earliest tobacco advertising featured stylised drawings of starlets inserted in cigarette packs.
Sexy images of women are used to sell everything, from cars to spring water to internet access.Many such ads are targeted at men, but ads for products aimed at women are often similar.
Not only are sexually provocative images of women used to advertise, but they are routinely featured on television, music video clips, movies and even toys. While adults are better equipped to deal with the bombardment of sexualised content, we need to stop to consider the impact it has on children.
I’m not talking simply of the obvious objectionable examples like lingerie for pre-teen girls or baby t-shirts with suggestive slogans on them.
Children are consuming sexualised images of women and girls on a daily basis. Parents are often alarmed when they see the sort of music video clips on TV every Saturday morning, screened in programs clearly aimed at children and teenagers.
These clips show scantily clad woman gyrating and being provocative while often the male singer is fully clothed – an example is David Guetta and Akon’s recent hit ‘Sexy Bitch’ which has been a YouTube sensation with its’ poolside bikini antics.
The popularity of web sites and the growth of mobiles and ipods for teenagers has markedly increased easy access to concerning content.
It is common sense that the age and developmental stage of a child will determine how they react to the stream of sexualised material they are exposed to. This has an effect on how both girls and boys develop their identity and view gender roles.
Studies suggest that girls and teenagers who have more exposure to mass media that sexually objectify girls and women are more likely to view themselves as sexual objects.
It is also not surprising those boys’ attitudes to how they see girls and women are effected by this content.
The report by the American Psychological Association suggested that exposure to this material affect girls’ physical and mental health, including an increase in low self esteem, body dissatisfaction, anxiety about their appearance and depression.
Research conduced by two Adelaide based researchers showed that it only takes 15 minutes of watching music video clips that objectify women for the participants to start feeling more conscious about their body and more depressed.
Of tremendous concern is the disturbing trend that younger and younger children are being targeted by advertisers who are convincing them they need to be sexy. Take the magazines that target pre-teens, which instruct girls on how to wear make-up or the Bratz dolls wearing fish nets and bras – marketed to four to eight year olds.
Only last week I was stunned to see in a celebrity magazine, the section “Who Wore It Better” compared photos of Suri Cruise (aged three) with Apple Martin (aged five). The public could vote on which of these two children wore their outfit better.
Surely this is an example of how we have gone too far where we now objectify even children.
How to tackle the sexualisation of women and girls, and associated negative effects, is complex and difficult but must be addressed.
Some advocates in this area have called on industry to become more responsible in where and when they show this content, while others have called for government regulation.
We also need to educate and help parents to counter the messages so persuasive throughout our mass media.
One thing we can’t do is push this issue under the carpet. We need to do our best to ensure that the next generation of women grow up confident, self assured, and not determine success or fulfilment by whether they qualify as a ‘sexy bitch’.
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