Sexualizing Young Girls

Kanchan Sogy

Safia Ahmad

ENGL 108 OP95

Oct 23, 2015

The Disturbing Sexualization of Young Girls In her essay "Why Are We Dressing Our Daughters Like This?” Lianne George writes about how modern day young girls are being plagued by the meaning of beauty. She goes on to describe how she believes that the modern meaning of "beautiful" is befitting a gateway for girls to dress in sexually provocative ways. She states that almost all sources of media such as television, movies, radios, etc. are extensively promoting the beauty business in a careless manner by exposing the younger audiences to the realm of beauty products. George states that in today's world girls as young as 6 are starting to adopt the external cues of womanhood, adorning

As Susan Linn a psychiatry instructor at Harvard Medical School stated, “ There is a mistaken sense that kids don’t get the joke or the meaning so it’s okay for them to wear sexualized slogans” (426). Interestingly, according to an American Psychological Association report girls who are exposed to sexual messages and buy into sexualizing media messages are more likely to have low self-esteem and depression, and suffer from eating disorders (Lamb, 2007). The sexualisation of youth is often more of an issue among young girls as they are more often sensitive to the media, with the need to fit in and be just like the “pretty” girls in ads and magazines. Another study by Psychologists at Knox College in Galesburg, used paper dolls to assess self-sexualization in girls aged from 6-9 years old. Sixty girls were shown two dolls, one dressed in tight and revealing "sexy" clothes and the other wearing a trendy but covered-up, loose outfit. Across-the-board, girls chose the "sexy" doll most often. The results were significant in two categories: 68 percent of the girls said the doll looked how she wanted to look, and 72 percent said she was more popular than the non-sexy doll (Taylor,

They want to look just like their idols, from their favorite TV shows, movies, or magazines. Some other dangers to exposing youth to sexuality include them becoming sexually active at a younger age, when they are less informed, feel the peer pressure to get sexually involved and more likely get pregnant without precautions, or get involved in abusive relationships. Youth are more likely to, for example, send nude photos of them, which can potentially be passed around or published to social media sites, leading to self-esteem issues and social