The Pornification of Girlhood: We haven't Come a Long Way Baby (Pt.1)

I have just finished reading the introduction to "Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls", written by Melinda Tankard Reist. I would like to share some interesting points from this:

Publicly Sexual

• Kellie Crawford, former Hi-5 member, posed for a lingerie photo shoot for Ralph magazine. The photo is subtitled, 'Busting out some bedtime stories.' Kellie said that she posed for the photograph because she 'just forgot I was a woman.' She also went on to say that she wanted to 'find the woman in me' (p. 5). It is interesting that posing semi-naked for the whole world to lust after you is now considered womanly. This is what being a woman is all about, apparently. When Tankard Reist challenged this situation, she was bombarded with emails saying such things as, 'That I was sad, old and dog-ugly', 'that I needed liposuction', and 'that I was a bitter ugly woman' (p. 5-6)
  
• A 10 year old girl responded to this saying, 'I think it is very silly how she feels she has to do it. It sets a horrible example for younger kids like me. When I was little I used to love watching Hi-5 and it makes me disappointed [sic] that she has done something like that' (p. 6).
  

Bearing the Brunt

• In The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, Joan Jacobs Brumberg comments: 'More than any other group in the population, girls and their bodies have borne the brunt of twentieth-century social change, and we ignore that fact to our peril.' Tankard Reist adds, 'the proliferation and globalisation of sexual imagery, along with sexualised clothing, music, games and magazine content for girls, and the social imperative of a perfect body, are all part of this social change' (p.8).
  
• Often these sexualised images of girls and women make such images seem 'good and normal' (p.8).
  
• Interestingly, the 2007 report of the American Psychlogical Association (APA) Task Force on the Sexualisation of Girls found that 'sexualisation contributes to impaired cognitive performance in college-aged women, and related research suggests that viewing material that is sexually objectifying can contribute to body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, low self-esteem, depressive affect, and even physical health problems in high-school-ages girls and in young women' (p.8). The more girls are exposed to sexualisation and objectification, the more damage is being done to them. Girls can start to feel disgusted towards their own bodies.

Supersexualise Me

• The 'super-sexy' messages about women in advertising works 'to deny women's humanity, to present them not as whole people but as fetishised, dismembered "bits," as objects' (Gill, 2009) (p.9). Does this result in weakening women, making them feel like they 'are always at risk of failing' (p. 9)? If this is how women feel, what messages are our young girls getting?
• Tankard Reist provides an example of how young girls are being influenced by 'today's messages about what constitutes female beauty' (p. 10): Sasha...has a spray tan once a week and a new set of acrylic nails once a month. Her hair is bleached white-blonde and regularly boosted with a set of extensions. She plucks her eyebrows and carefully applies make-up every morning. Her favourite outfit is a white satin boob-tube dress and Stretson hat (p. 10). How old do you think Sasha is? She's only 10!! I would like to know what her parents are doing. How could her parents allow this to happen and think it's totally appropriate. Not only that, but think about all the money that is being spent on Sasha's constant beauty escapades.
  
• But, it gets worse...apparently Sasha is totally obsessed with Playboy (no, not Harry Potter or My Little Pony, or Strawberry Shortcake, but Playboy!). The Playboy image is plastered all over her bedroom, from curtains to a doona cover to her pyjamas. Apparently, he mother orders all this Playboy trash from the U.S. - yes, that's right, her mother.
• But, it gets even worse...In Sasha's mind 'the thought of not being pretty is just too awful to contemplate: 'My mum would just call me ugly. Everyone would call me ugly. I wouldn't like that at all'' (p. 10). This causes me to think about something my sister wrote on her blog, Mother and Daughter Time Together, where she talks about spending some quality time with her girls (aged 7 and 5). This totally contrasts Sasha's world and I wonder what 'quality' time Sasha experiences with her mother.
• Apparently, for those Playboy enthusiasts, you can buy Playboy make-up, such as, 'Tie me to the bedpost blush' (p. 10).
• But, it's not just Playboy who's creating such hyper-sexualised propaganda. You can purchase children's padded decorative bras and g-strings and babies' T-shirts with slogans like, 'Breast Fed Baby: Stick around for the Show', 'Hung like a five year old', 'I enjoy a good spanking' and 'I'm too sexy for my diaper' (p.10). What has the world come to?