Media and the Sexualization of Childhood

Barrie Gunter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138015197
• eBook ISBN: 9781317684015
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Media and the Sexualization of Childhood examines the on-going debates surrounding the prominence of sexual themes in children's lives, from clothes and accessories, toys and games, to music, entertainment media, advertising, and new media platforms.

Parents, educators and politicians around the developed world have raised concerns about the effects all these experiences can have on the socialisation and psychological development of children and the extent to which the premature introduction of sexuality into their lives can place them at risk of unwanted attention. This book explores these issues using an evidence based approach that draws on research findings from around the world, representing the most comprehensive single account of the field.

The book will be invaluable to students studying topics surrounding children and the media and childhood studies, as well as students of communication, media, cultural studies, sociology, psychology and health science.

1

IS CHILDHOOD BEING SEXUALIZED?

Concern about the premature introduction of children to sexual themes has attracted increasingly vociferous debate since the turn of the millennium. There is wide acceptance by governments and childhood activist, charity and lobbying groups in different parts of the world that consumer culture has become sexualized and that this phenomenon has infiltrated not just commodities and associated marketing targeted at adults, but also that aimed at children.¹ This phenomenon is, it has been argued, manifest in film and television entertainment, music videos, advertising, and commodities including accessories, clothing, cosmetics and toys. Wrapped up with sexualized content are messages that seek conformity to centralized standards of physical attractiveness and beauty that often create unrealistic or unattainable targets for young people.

There has been extensive public debate about the sexualization of childhood in many countries. This debate has been informed by diverse forms of research into the nature of sexualization in the media, marketing, fashion and commodities targeted at children. Public debate has been further fuelled by high-profile media coverage of sexualization issues that has focused increasingly on the role being played by the digital media that have become so widespread and popular among children. Criticisms have centred on the sexual content in magazines targeted at pre-teenage and teenage children, in music videos, films and television programmes to which children can gain access, and in electronic games that many children play offline and online, and on styles of clothing aimed at children, and especially at teenage and pre-teenage girls, that attempt to make them look sexually mature when they are not.²

More interactive communications systems such as online social media sites and mobile telephones have attracted much attention because of their use to convey sexual messages and images by children themselves. Sexual themes in media, marketing and children’s commodities and sexual interactions via digital communications media have been identified as placing children at risk of sexual abuse or creating a generation of young people with warped values and for whom sex has a casual social currency.³ There have been specific concerns about the effects mixed messages put out by sexualized material have on the self-images of girls as they are growing up. Clothing fashions and cosmetics products targeted at girls, even before they are sexually mature, encourage them to ‘look sexy’, while making themselves look sexy runs the risk of criticism for being promiscuous. Exposure to explicit sexual content in online pornography reinforces the view that women (and therefore girls) enjoy wild sex, even when it is mixed with violence, which leaves both boys and girls uncertain how to proceed as they become sexually active in their teens.⁴

These mediated public debates seldom provide a clear definition of ‘sexualization’ but often presume that we all intuitively know what it means. There is a further presumption that children are passive receptacles of messages about sex in different media and that exposure results in psychological changes that are manifest in the way in which children perceive themselves, how they interact socially and sexually with others, and the beliefs, attitudes and values they hold about sexual matters. ‘Sexualization’ formed part of the lexicon of early 20th-century psychoanalysis and was used to describe the feelings someone felt about an object of erotic desire. During the second half of that century, this sexual desire was not only seen as a source of pleasure but also as a force for the relief of anxiety.⁵ Sexualization also became conceived as an aspect of socialization that was linked to the adoption of cultural gender norms. There was also a sense in this context that sexualization could lead to behaviours that were not deemed normal in terms of usual cultural and social expectations. In part, this perspective on sexualization identified the parameters that should ensure that relations between parents and their children, while loving, should not adopt an erotic or sexual tone.⁶

There is also frequently an implicit proposition that ‘sexualization’ is not only a bad thing but a new contemporary issue about which something must be done. There was growing attention given in the late 20th century to the idea that con-temporary culture had become increasingly ‘sexualized’ and that this trend had, in particular, characterized the way in which women and girls were treated by the media and by consumer commodity markets. This emergent cultural phenomenon was acutely manifest in the distribution of toy cosmetics products for pre-teenage girls, which invited them to engage in grown-up behaviours and to adopt a more adult-like appearance that in the case of adult women generally signals greater sexual attractiveness. In this setting, therefore, ‘sexualization’ was labelled as a social problem.⁷

The proposition about a need for action, however, presumes that there is a healthy ideal that can be achieved in terms of being sexually aware and active and also in terms of the way in which sexual matters are covered by the media or used in relation to commodities aimed at non-adult (e.g. under-18s) markets. There has also been a political dimension to debates about sexualization. For some feminists, for example, the sexualization of young girls was regarded as a plot by male-dominated politics and industry to undermine the progress that had been made in gender equality and which had resulted in women becoming more independent, powerful and successful in their own right. The focus on the need to be sexually attractive to be socially successful was a distraction designed to challenge the newfound self-confidence of women.⁸

In fact, this type of debate conveniently ignores the diverse nature of sex in terms of the ways in which it is socially and culturally defined, the moral standards that construct parameters around its occurrence in different settings, and the way it emerges during children’s psychological and social development. This type of debate also fails to acknowledge that concerns about sex and children date back over many generations and predate not only the digital media but also the earlier analogue mass media.⁹

Observations were made about the use of sexualized images of children and adolescents in paintings and book illustrations in the 19th century.¹⁰ It was during this period that the age of sexual consent was only 12 and pre-teenage prostitutes were prevalent.¹¹ During the first half of the 20th century, arguments were made for closer attention by society to the protection of childhood, which came to be regarded as a stage of innocence. A conception of vulnerability emerged whereby society could source many potentially corrupting influences that could prey on children that resembled the contemporary accusations of ‘sexualization risks’ linked to media, marketing and children’s commodities in the 21st century.¹²

Sexualization is part of a wider suite of social concerns linked to the general psychological development of human beings, normative standards of appearance and body form, and more specifically the emergence of sexual identity. Sexuality is an integral part of human nature. Sexual relations are critical to the survival of the species. The definition of our personal identity is closely linked to our gender or our ‘sex’ and this, in turn, underpins how each of us relates socially to others. Social relations are influenced by the social judgements we make about ourselves and others with whom we interact. These social judgements can be shaped by both our own physical and psychological characteristics and those of others. Hence, physical appearance and personality are critical factors that underpin ‘self-identity’ and ‘other’ identity.¹³

In this wider span of social identity development, appearance and body shape play a key part in determining how we evaluate each other. The degree to which our appearance conforms to contemporary cultural standards of attractiveness or beauty can affect our popularity and success in life. Attractiveness in this context often means ‘sexual attractiveness’. Sexual attraction drives the development of close and intimate interpersonal relationships that form the foundation of partnerships, family life, and more extended social communities. We tend to develop social bonds more often than not with others in whom we perceive attractive qualities. These may not always be ‘sexual’ qualities; but at some point sexual attraction must be present as the glue that binds together social relationships.¹⁴

Our ideas about sex can therefore vary depending upon the ways in which we have been introduced to it, the ideas about sex that circulate within our families and among our peer groups, and sexual representations that we experience else-where, including the media, marketing and commodities with which we engage. It might be premature to presume that we internalize all of these impressions about sex as they were initially experienced and without any further process of internal negotiation in terms of the meanings or values we might attach to them.¹⁵

We use appearance to make all kinds of judgements about other people. Their body shape, hair style, facial attributes, skin tone and posture can all reveal something about the type of person we believe them to be. In addition, the clothes they wear and accessories they carry around with them can provide further insights into their personality, social status, and the kind of lifestyle they enjoy.

With the growth of consumerism in modern societies, branding has emerged as an increasingly important barometer signifying social status and taste and, in turn, attractiveness. The growth, too, of the mass media has created a global apparatus for the promotion of brands to mass consumer markets. The importance of associating brands with cultural and social values that have currency in specific markets is also well recognized by marketers.

Among the cultural standards that marketers seek to connect to their brands are norms concerning physical and, more specifically, sexual attractiveness. We are often told that ‘sex sells’. This means that if consumers believe that their use of a specific brand will enhance their personal attractiveness, that brand will accrue social capital and become more desirable.

It is against this background that advertisers utilize sexualized imagery and messages to promote brands. For some industries, such as fashion, the idea of attractiveness enhancement is an integral quality of the products they distribute. For other product ranges, such as motor vehicles that may be less immediately connected to a person’s physical appearance, sex...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Is Childhood Being Sexualized?
• 2 Fashion and Sexualization
• 3 Children’s Products and Sexualization
• 4 Magazines and Sexualization
• 5 Television and Sexualization
• 6 Music and Sexualization
• 7 Advertising and Sexualization
• 8 Pornography and Sexualization
• 9 Digital Social Media and Sexualization
• Index