Comments on: What we can do about the media’s sexualization of young girls

By: Annabelle Garza

Annabelle Garza — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:11:00 +0000

I think, being a teenager who stumbled upon this, that while I agree wholly that, I am admitting this, girls my age are wayyyy to young to be getting into sexually marketed products. I see girls walking around in tiny skirts, the cheerleading uniforms have gotten SKIMPIER (I feat I would have thought impossible) and if you’re even the slightest bit at a HEALTHY weight, you’re fat. You’re not supposed to eat at lunch, you’re supposed to watch the boys play football or basketball and look pretty and sexy and run around bringing them water in low cut t-shirts and way too tiny little short shorts, and when you’re at home you’re supposed to work out until you pass out so that you’re body is always trim and pretty. In the locker rooms, girls are always changing in the open, wearing lacy thongs and bras and really, it’s just disturbing. We’re too young for this. I used to be very self conscious because I was never the thin girl or the girl with large breasts or the girl who only wanted sex, I was the girl who really didn’t care, she just wanted to wear a little eye liner because it made HER feel good about herself. But then I realized, why does it matter what every bbody else thinks? I’ll find someone who isn’t just using me for sex that likes me for me. So I guess I was able to look past the media. I wish other girls could, too.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 04:52:31 +0000

The July 2009 edition of the Harper’s Index (Harper’s Magazine) reports that 46% of six-to nine year old Americans girls wear lipstick or lip gloss.

By: Erika Price

Erika Price — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:41:50 +0000

Whether it’s a child’s pole dancing kit or a box of cereal featuring cartoon characters, it seems pretty clear that parents have to inoculate their children against shrewd marketing tactics beginning at a very young age. Children pick up on commercial messages and parrot them back, and learn to adopt the messages as their own ideals if they don’t quickly learn otherwise. While most parents probably just respond to this stripper pole business by reminding their children of how terrible sex is, a smarter response would be to teach children to question all advertising ploys. It sounds like Durham’s answer is exactly that.