Girlpower1 links us to this article about the budding ‘modesty movement’ in America, aimed at the same young girls who are being targeted and/or influenced by marketers and popular culture to participate in the ‘raunch culture’ instead of a more innocent, non-sexualized childhood. The author uses celebrities who are constantly in the media and in the tabloids, and the recent Paris Hilton-goes-to-jail debacle, as a starting-off point for her conversation–Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie, etc. She points to their ‘vulgarity’ and asks, are these the role models we want for our young girls?
The author, Colleen Carroll Campbell, gets so much right:
Today’s pop culture tells women that sexual power is the kind that counts most and they can achieve it by showing skin. That message has trickled down to girls, forcing them to trade carefree childhood pleasures for sexual competition.
You can see them in the mall, tugging nervously at their skimpy shorts and halter tops, straining to see how men react to their little bellies flouncing out of low-slung jeans. They look more exploited than empowered as they fuss and cringe, adjust and squirm. How odd that in an age when girls have more athletic and academic opportunities than ever, girlhood has become a high-pressure dress-rehearsal for adult mating games.
This is no doubt, disturbing. As are the following conclusions: (more…)
Categories: advertising · body image · capitalism · celebrities · child sexuality · childhood · choice · christian right · colleen carroll campbell · consumer culture · eating disorders · girlhood · lindsay lohan · marketing · modesty movement · nicole richie · paris hilton · preteens · raunch culture · sexuality · sexualization of children · teen pregnancy · teen sexuality · teen stars · teenage girls · tween
In class last week, we had a discussion about tweens and how young girls are being sexualized earlier and earlier, especially through marketing. One of the points that someone brought up was how as the perennial Disney stars grew up, so did their fan base. To qualify that: while the teen stars actually aged, their fan bases, while remaining the same age (not the same individual girls as before), have grown up with them.
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One thing I am reminded of is the ever-creepy countdown to the Olsen twins’ 18th birthday (them being finally ‘legal’), and bets on who would pose for Playboy, Maxim, etc., first. I found a website counting down to their 21st birthdays; it has a timer and everything, just like there was for their 18th birthdays. I have to wonder, if websites like this are so widely profilerated all over the Internet, and (more…)
Categories: body image · disney · drug abuse · eating disorders · jailbait · mary-kate and ashley · olsen twins · sexuality · tabloids · teen stars · tween
