The Emergence of 'Sexualization' as a Social Problem (original) (raw)
Related papers
What does 'Sexualisation' mean?
Draft only; Feminist Theory (2013) 14: 255-264.
‘Sexualisation’ has been dismissed by some as no more than yet another moral panic about youth and sex. However, it is striking that the term appears to have helped galvinise feminist activism, speaking in some way to the experiences of young people. Building from a history and analysis of the term, I propose that ‘sexualisation’ has served as an interpretive theory of contradictory gender norms, using the figure of the ‘girl’ to gesture towards an intensifying contradiction between the demand that young women display both desirability and innocence. In addressing sexist dimensions of gender norms through the figure of the ‘girl’, a minor, discourses on sexualisation can help circumvent liberal objections about free choice. However, I also express concern that the term has facilitated a focus in media and policy texts which attends less to gender inequity than on sexuality as a contaminant of young femininity.
Too much, too soon? Children, ‘sexualization’ and consumer culture
Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 2011
This article presents a critical analysis of how the issue of childhood ‘sexualization’ – and the role of consumer culture within it – has been defined and framed, both within the public debate and in the academic research literature. It counterposes this with some evidence taken from a study conducted in Scotland in 2009/10 about the availability and nature of ‘sexualized’ goods, and the perspectives of parents and children. The article suggests that parents' and children's perceptions of the issue are more complex than is typically assumed within the public debate; and that this in turn points to the need for more sophisticated responses at the level of public policy and of education.
Global Perspectives and Key Debates in Sex and Relationships Education Addressing Issues of Gender, Sexuality, Plurality and Power
This chapter explores how what I call a postfeminist media panic over child 'sexualisation' rests on repeating discursive truths around young feminine sexual risk, age-appropriate sexual experience, and normative accounts of ‘healthy hetero-sexuality’ (for girls in particular). The most pressing implication of the public, media-driven anxieties over girls’ premature sexualisation for sex education is that these converging discourses support and normalize a SRE curriculum and guidance in the UK that erases girls’ rights to sexual pleasure and is therefore incapable of addressing the gendered power dynamics and sexism that continue to shape the wider sexual politics of schooling.
Children,‘sexualization’and consumer culture
2012
In this chapter we reflect on a recent research project through which we contributed our own academic perspectives, and through our mediation also those of children and parents, to public debates about'sexualisation'. The research was funded by the Equal Opportunities Committee of the Scottish Parliament, and focused on 'sexualized goods'-clothing, cosmetics, toys and branded merchandise such as Playboy. It involved a retail survey and work with Scottish parents and young people.
Sexualised Sexism: Popular Culture, Sexualisation and Violence Against Women and Girls
As of July 2014, there have been a slew of campaigns, two Westminster government reviews1 and countless papers and books which have catapulted the issue of sexualisation into public, policy and academic arenas.2 The result is a range of perspectives which speak to differing priorities: much current policy concern is about 'contamination' of childhood; for some commentators, sexualised popular culture is evidence of progressive liberalisation of social attitudes; critical feminist analysis views the sexualisation of women and girls' bodies in public space as part of ongoing social inequalities between women and men. Women's organisations which are experts on violence against women and girls (VAWG) see similar patterns in sexualised popular culture as those that underpin the perpetration of VAWG: masculinity equated with sexual conquest, representations of women and girls as perpetually sexually available. This briefing makes a case for understanding and naming sexualisation as 'sexualised sexism' in order to make clear its gendered dynamics and role as a conducive context for violence against women and girls. A final section outlines how international human rights approaches support this analysis.
Sex and sexuality in British media
Increased visibility and the seemingly diverse nature of media representations of sex and sexuality in contemporary media might suggest that British society has become more liberal and tolerant of expressions of different sexual interests. However, the mediatization of sex (whether depictions of actual acts; talk about identities, practices or problems; humorous or serious references to sex) continues to provoke great anxiety and controversy. Indeed the media are often accused of harboring and promoting sexual, and therefore social, disorder. Representations across television, music video and magazines are increasingly 'pornographic' -encouraging 'oversexualized' behaviours in boys and young men and the over-enthusiastic embrace of 'sexiness' in girls and young women; fostering 'bad body-image', depression, promiscuity; contributing to marriage breakdown, divorce and general unhappiness; and trivializing art and storytelling. Yet at the same time, it seems clear that sexual content can make an important, albeit controversial, contribution to the vibrancy of media output, whether that is fictionalized drama, or educational, reality or documentary programing .