Clothes and Sexualization in Young Girls--BBC Article

[SomethingElse]

As a society, we need to empower each other.

I absolutely agree with you, Perfect. And WhiteLinen - I also agree that it is the fault (therefore the responsibility) of society that our modern media presents an exceptionally superficial image of female sexuality. Society is NOT ALL ABOUT COMMERCE!

Society is nothing more than the people who comprise it - and it is our obligation as free thinkers to talk, argue, present ideas and comfort one another, to create community to expand our choices, and to offer current and future generations with an deeper understanding of female empowerment.

This very issue of 'where have we been and where are we going' is just one of the many valuable aspects of tFS that has won my attention. We share beauty, nature, art, fashion, architecture, intimate thoughts, interesting ideas and a strong desire to communicate with one another in a meaningful manner. I learn a great deal on these threads, and I enjoy the global participation by people from all over the world most of all!

 

[Whitelinen]

While I am in no way in support of the sexualization of little girls, I don't think marketing firms and music video producers are to blame. Least of all the fashion industry. Imagine ad campaigns and music videos and movies and magazines with no sexual influences. How drab and sterile. Dolce and Gabbana, Gucci, heck even, Jergens body lotion ads wouldn't exist. A lot of these things are not marketed towards little girls in the first place. When I was a little girl I read American Girl magazine, not Cosmo. I didn't start reading teen magazines until I was 13/14 and then it was TEEN and SEVENTEEN which are pretty innocent and focused on trends and teen fashion and silly quizzes (I loved those quizzes!) . I didn't move on to VOGUE or Cosmo or Elle until later in High School. I wasn't sexually active until I turned 17. Of course now I focus more on fashion mags but that's not what we're talking about. My point is just that you can live in society as a little girl and be a little girl. I wasn't overly sheltered or overly independent. I think if the little girls have good friendships and supportive parents and is valued for her individuality and unique talents that is much more influential than whatever she might see in the media.

Well, I am happy you had a sheltered, non-sexualised childhood. I am from younger generation than you, and from personal experience I can say I have had to grow amongst sexual influences. I am the only child of parents who were very, very protective of me. Still, I bought my first Cosmopolitan when I was ten, and got my first whistles and rude comments from men when I was nine. I knew, technically, what sex was by then. Of course I had no understanding for the whole package, and that has somewhat distorted my idea of sex and sexuality. If you grow up being bombarded with images of p*rnstars (oh, sorry, MTV's music videos) and people having sex without any feeling attached to it, you learn that sex is an act. It's a way to dominate, a way to show you are powerful. No one ever talked about sex being a way to show love to someone you love. It was just... a way to show how good looking you are I guess. Or how sporty. I am very angry and disappointed for our society taking this turn of making sex and sexuality seem cheap and recyclable. I really am bitter for the marketing men and adults for allowing this to happen. I think we all have shorter childhoods because of this. No wonder we are all so sick and sad.

If there are labels that simply exist because they suggest sex, then why do they need to exist? Sure real sex has nothing to do with labels. If Dolce&Gabbana does make good clothes, I am sure they don't need the advertising campaign with the oiled p*rn stars to prove it, do they? If someone makes clothes that make you feel sexy, then good. But I hope an ad does not make you feel like clothes you wear are sexy... I hope that comes from when you wear the clothes, not the image that's been marketed to you.

 

[spierce]

I think clothing is a part of it naturally, usually people tend to try and send a message with their clothing. But I think what fashion doesn't convey as much as magazines and tv do is the attitude. I personally feel attracted to people who are really just nice, kind and considerate but I don't have the feeling a lot of people except me care for these values and I think sexy fashion for young kids is just another symptom of this early sexualisation, not a cause for an unhealthy sexual image.
From my experience there are a lot of young girls dress sl*tty but don't behave like sluts then there are girls who dress and act totally like the town mattress, girls who look like nice girls and are nice girls and girls who look like butter wouldn't melt in their mouth but are total hos.
And they're all more or less exposed to the same amount of sexualisation. So I don't really think fashion has that much to do with it.
Another thing that I've noticed is how a lot of girls are comfortable doing guys without a thought while others feel ashamed afterwards even if they've only behaved "sexily"

 

[dreamecho]

Great thoughts, everyone.

I am also dismayed at the oversexualized images in today's society.

Fashion is a business like any other; it uses images to sell its products. Fashion in the mainstream doesn't convey anything about the meaning behind the product. Young girls grow up seeing the images without knowing the history behind and implications of what they wear. And unfortunately, a lot of times the community around--parents, friends, siblings, teachers--are no more educated on the subject. Even 35 year old women (and older) are still susceptible to these images. Lots of women wear media-dicated sexy clothes in order to feel sexy and get men's attention. It's not just young girls who are affected by this, but the entire society as well.

However, when we consider fashion as art and apparel as a means of expressing our style, beliefs and interests, then fashion & style become healthy tools for learning and communicating. The problem is that young girls are being taught to dress in a sexual way before they have begun to really understand sex and have begun to embrace their own sexualities. By dressing in a sexual way, they can't possibly fully realize what the heck they are communicating to the rest of the world! There is a huge divide between the sexual images in fashion and media in general and the fact that sex is very much internal and emotional. Like many of you have said, sex is an expression and act of love. It's not just an external thing. But when the media, which includes mainstream fashion, only gives us one thing (the superficial images) without the other (the meaning & emotions), then we end up with young girls who often grow into confused women, dissociated from their bodies and appearance. What is missing is a connectedness within ourselves...so often these days we act as if our body is separate from our clothes is separate from our mind is separate from our spirit is separate from our actions is separate from the rest of the world. What we should be striving for (among so many things ) is a harmony between these seemingly disparate things. One thing should flow into another...

 

[dreamecho]

I think clothing is a part of it naturally, usually people tend to try and send a message with their clothing. But I think what fashion doesn't convey as much as magazines and tv do is the attitude. I personally feel attracted to people who are really just nice, kind and considerate but I don't have the feeling a lot of people except me care for these values and I think sexy fashion for young kids is just another symptom of this early sexualisation, not a cause for an unhealthy sexual image.
From my experience there are a lot of young girls dress sl*tty but don't behave like sluts then there are girls who dress and act totally like the town mattress, girls who look like nice girls and are nice girls and girls who look like butter wouldn't melt in their mouth but are total hos.
And they're all more or less exposed to the same amount of sexualisation. So I don't really think fashion has that much to do with it.
Another thing that I've noticed is how a lot of girls are comfortable doing guys without a thought while others feel ashamed afterwards even if they've only behaved "sexily"

Sexy fashion images in the media are most definitely a cause of unhealthy self-images for girls and women. It's not the only cause, but it definitely is a cause. Your examples are very much real; we all know people who can fit into each of these categories. What's not mentioned is other factors--specifically, community. When young girls/teenagers lack loving, healthy, strong role models or rebel against overly-strict authority figures, the hypersexualized images in the media definitely become a more significant factor in one's emotional maturation, sexuality and appearance.

 

[Whitelinen]

^ Exactly, Dreamecho

 

[spierce]

^^Yeah, I didn't express myself very well, that's pretty much what I meant - to me an unhealthy image of sex in general is the belief and use of sex as a way to establish yourself (popularity, career, most importantly sense of self worth). What I was trying to say was, most young girls are exposed to that image of sex (with revealing clothing in the package) and while some buy into it others don't and the reason why some do can't be fashion.

The phenomen of girls advertising themselves through playing at sex is nothing new. Society has changed dramatically, so revealing clothing etc. is of course different than even fifty years ago but if you read Anne of Green Gables, an old children's book series Anne feels like she's grown apart from her old school chum Ruby Gillis because the latter "always plays at love and love-making". I just think that fashion and all the over-sexed media have made it soooo much worse.

 

[dreamecho]

^ You brought up some interesting points and tidbits, purdles. Relying on sexiness as the primary means of establishing one's identity can be very dangerous for the development of a young woman. I see how you are trying to reason out why fashion doesn't play a role in buying into the image of sex, but at the end of your second paragraph, it sounds like you admitted that fashion does contribute to the issue:

I just think that fashion and all the over-sexed media have made it soooo much worse.

If you don't think fashion is a reason for such behavior, what do you think are the reasons?

Take one of the examples from the BBC article, "Young pop stars dressed as sex objects". Girls are incredibly influenced by their sexed-up pop star idols; little girls want to sing like them, look like them, dress like them, BE like them. This most certainly is fashion influencing young girls to dress and act sexy.

 

[spierce]

Oh of course fashion contributes to the issue! I just think the problem of an unhealthy sexual image starts out with something different and fashion is the way the problem expresses itself. I've often wondered how one can have such a f*cked up view of sex when they have loving, caring parents and an healthy enviroment - that's what I blame. The media, the fashion, the image they project of young girls are potentially dangerous if children aren't protected from it - and this protection isn't just keeping children away from it but providing emotional support and understanding for the needs of children in general. If this protection isn't given I think an unhealthy sexual image is a symptom of that problem. Not everyone reacts the same of course so while some turn to sex others will simply establish themselves by becoming the class first or school's pothead or anything really it all depends on their general socialization and life situation.
Okay is this getting too Psych 101 or something? I don't know but that's how I see part of it. Maybe I'm completely wrong, maybe it's just so different for everyone, also to me there are those two categories; the girls who really see themselves as sex objects and those who look it but aren't really aware of the message that is behind their clothes.
Either way, thanks for sharing your views, dreamecho, it's helped me a lot to see how intertwined both issues are.
It might well be that I'm simply extremely biased through my own experience so I don't want to offend anyone who's come to different conclusions

 

[Bel]

Society has changed dramatically, so revealing clothing etc. is of course different than even fifty years ago but if you read Anne of Green Gables, an old children's book series Anne feels like she's grown apart from her old school chum Ruby Gillis because the latter "always plays at love and love-making".

What's funny is "making love" used to mean flirting.

 

[cheepmunk]

and those who look it but aren't really aware of the message that is behind their clothes.

I think this is the biggest problem. If you dress a certain way, even if you aren't aware of the message behind your clothes (especially if you aren't aware of the message behind your clothes), people will react to you in a certain way. Those reactions then lead to further action on a girl's part that may not be in her best interest. For example, I had a friend in grade school (6th or 7th grade, I think) who started dressing provocatively for the time because it was the cool thing to do. She then started getting comments from boys, and that led to her thinking it was okay to act a certain way to get attention. It was all just very bad. She wasn't the only one either.

I'm very short, so I occasionally go browsing in the children's section for clothes that might fit. I rarely buy anything, though, because most of the clothes are so trashy. I just don't understand what purpose is served by selling clothes to little girls that would make most adults look like a streetwalker. I guess, for me, the bottom line is that telling young girls they need to dress provocatively when they don't even understand what the consequences of their actions are is asking for trouble. The fact is, as loving as one's parents may be, they can only be with a child for a few hours every day. Most children spend the majority of their day in school or with a babysitter, and that's a reality our society needs to deal with by taking a little more responsibility.

 

[dreamecho]

purdles, you made an excellent distinction between the girls who are aware of the sexy image they give off and the girls (often younger) who are not yet aware of the message behind their clothes. cheepmunk seemed to pick up on this difference as well.

purdles, I think we are more in agreement than disagreement. At least for me, this isn't getting too "Psych 101". Emotional support and encouragement to pursue other activities is severely lacking, especially when our parents are out there all day working just to keep us alive, like cheepmunk said. It is true that without that support, we find many ways to rebel and/or create our identities, not just through sex/sexiness. Sadly, though, with the daily saturation and dominance of sexy images in a bombardment of media--tv, internet, magazines, movies, music, public advertisements, etc.--fashion, i.e. what we wear, is indeed inextricably intertwined.