If you know anyone who has a little girl or two, they should watch this. I hope those in the US can view it. Very scary what is happening to little girls these days with targeted marketing of sexy clothes (for 6 year olds!), to even the toys younger girls play with.

http://www.canada.com/onlinetv/document ... .html?o=25

I can't see the clip Roseanne. It says the content is currently unavailable.

I think hyper-sexualization has always been happening to little girls. Woman have been judged more for looks than anything of substance. The Sarah Palin drool, which infuriated me to know end, demonstrated that even on a political level.

My 14 and 15 year old nieces were here this weekend. Their swimsuits are string bikinis. They say that is all that is available for them which I don't entirely believe because girls judge other girls by their looks. too.

We've always played with Barbie of the impossible to obtain body type.

We've got this generation's role models of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Lindsey Lohan whose claims to fame are sex tapes and dressing up to go to parties.

Let's not forget the teeny-boppers' "beauty pageants", which contribute HUGE $$$ to the problem ~

Sooz

I like grown up girls.

Sorry you can't view it kathy. It's really in-depth and goes far beyond Barbie or even the pagents.

It also talks about the access of porn that young boys are watching on their smart phones and how they are enticing young girls to send them nude photos.

It goes much deeper than body image and into sexuality. Miley Cyrus was used as an example with a clip by a college professor talking to her class of women about it. She said that in today's hypersexualized industry, "You're either fuckable or invisible".

Here is a YouTube version that has been edited (bleeped)lol and shortened some

Good, lol. Although that isn't what this is about. It's more about how girls view themselves and how they are being pressured to sexualize themselves by all sorts of things. Media, advertising,products, pagents and peers.

Ok, then.
I like SEXY, grown up girls.
Is that better?

Well, speaking from the experiences I have had with normal girls ( my daughter and friends) and abnormal experiences girls have had ( my profession) I have the following observations. Girls with normalized upbringings and involved adequate parents may want to wear the clothing that is advertised, use makeup at a younger than desirable age, use "sexy" words, but when you talk to them about sex and sexualization, they look at you like you have two heads and tune you out in seconds. It is the adults and predators in a girl's life that shape their experience toward an abnormal or too young sexualized interpretation of their clothing, language, and experience.

I won't argue any points, but I do encourage you to watch the video.

I am not sure I watched all of the video because it stopped at 9:17 but kept playing.

I worry for the young girls. This society is more sexualized at a younger age. More girls are agreeing to "hook up" which I think for the very young especially reeks some damage.

All the pop stars are sexualized. Doesn't matter if they can actually sing, we've got auto-tune. Britney preceded Miley from the Disney stable and she used exactly the same model.

Boys watching porn at early ages? I am sure that dehumanizes women, too. What a mess!!!

good video. disturbing, but good.

I sent this to both my daughters who have daughters. It is disturbing. That is the most in-depth report I've seen on this and mentions things I'd never think about like the "princess" stuff. Dang.

I think most of the princess stuff is harmless. In fact, most Disney has moved away from the passive princesses. Ariel, Mulan, Belle and the later princesses were pretty kick ass and saved the princes; not the other way around.

In social psychology there is a lot of material on the effects of advertising on objectifying women. I will try to think of the name of the film we watched and find a link.

I have been railing against this for quite a while. I guess it takes different forms, but women are not objet d'art or pieces of porcelain designed to please men or other women. We aren't just lumps to be kept pretty and skinny a la the Pat Robertson tape. God that was offensive. It's the old it's your fault men commit adultery because you weren't pretty enough.

The fuckable or invisible part is really on the nose and that is the scary part of this new hook up culture we've got out there.

I have one foot out the door for school, so I'll flesh [sorry, no pun intended] this out when I get back home later ~ but I don't think "this new hook up culture" is new ~ think back a few decades ~ "free love" etc ~ for many who didn't marry young, there was a LOT of sleeping around ~ not everyone is focused on life-time commitment ~

Sooz

True sooz, but not little girls. That is where the danger is and what this is talking about. 10 yr olds with smart phones sexting!

It's also a little different from free love and not wanting always and forever.

It has more to do with demonstrating the fuckability in very young girls.

Ditto what queen said.

I'm not sure I agree. Most of my Trans Math students, age 17, were angry with their mothers. All of them were sexually active and none of them seemed to value what their mothers told them. Their mother's, for the most part weren't evil, they were just more interested in their new boyfriends and put them ahead of their daughters. The moms were sexualized, too like the first mom in the film.

Sexualization is more than just wanting sex to please boys at a young age. It can become a lifelong pattern.

In my experience, women haven't been that weak... but then I know very few Tea Party or Southern Baptist Convention type women.

I live in New Jersey. These aren't Tea Party or Southern Baptist women.

I don't think the girls are particularly weak either. I think they some have inverted values, but they seem to be searching.

These aren't Tea Party or Southern Baptist women.

I'm referring to attitude rather than those specific groups.

Let's remember a few facts.

First;

puberty (pyōˈbərtē) [key], period during which the onset of sexual maturity occurs. It usually takes place between the ages of 10 and 15 in both sexes but sometimes occurs as early as 7 or 8 years of age in females. The pituitary gland secretes hormones that stimulate enlargement and development of the sex organs, which thus become capable of reproduction. The appearance of secondary sex characteristics also occurs during puberty. In females the reproductive cycle of ovulation and menstruation begins, pubic hair appears, and development of the breasts and other body contours takes place. Physical changes in males include production and discharge of semen, appearance of facial and body hair, and deepening of the voice. Skin difficulties, such as acne, may affect both sexes. Puberty, a transition period coinciding with adolescence, involves both physiological and psychological adjustments. It is often marked by emotional stress arising as the adolescent relinquishes childhood behavior patterns and adopts those of an adult.

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/puberty.html


I'm not presenting this as an argument that children should have sex, only that human biology allows for it and it is society that determines when it is wrong. And it has changed over time. Ages ago, a 14-year-old having sex wasn't viewed with the disdain it is today. We tend to see it that way because we think a 14-year-old isn't emotionally and psychologically mature enough to deal with sex.

The above deals with the physical act of sex. What this thread deals with is the using the 'promise' of sex.

Isn't that what dressing alluringly is about? Sometimes, but when talking about girls this young I have to wonder if they see it differently. Maybe many of them see it as a way of getting attention or approval. As Roseanne wrote;

It's more about how girls view themselves and how they are being pressured to sexualize themselves by all sorts of things. Media, advertising,products, pagents and peers.

Our society has placed such emphasis on sex - to some degree the act but even more just the 'desire' - that the behavior of young girls isn't surprising. I can imagine many thinking that if they are not desired they are worthless.

How many of them want to grow up to be the next Mother Teresa or Hillary Clinton? Don't they prefer to be like Angelina Jolie?

I am speaking to attitude also.

What John said- yes, it is true that at other times in our history girls were married at age 14 and having babies at that age was not unusual.
Isn't that what dressing alluringly is about? Sometimes, but when talking about girls this young I have to wonder if they see it differently. Maybe many of them see it as a way of getting attention or approval. Yes, but often more for being stylish than sexy. Many of today's young teen girls do not equate the clothing we are talking about with the promise of sex, or with sex, or even care about sex but want to wear what everyone else is wearing, what popular people are wearing. It is predatory adults who think of this stuff as sexy and of these girls as fuckable.

I think we go to too far to the extremes.

Sex is a normal, natural part of being human. We've created this almost schizophrenic situation of extremes when it comes to girls *and* boys and sexuality. We expect them to mature into confident sexual beings and then demonize all things sexual when we should be helping them figure out a HEALTHY sexual attitude. And to me, that doesn't start at 10, or 13...that starts at birth.

Nudity is not sexuality. It's just nudity. WE have decided that they are the same thing, but they aren't. One glimpse of a nipple at a super bowl halftime show is a scandal , but in other countries a boob or two on TV or going topless on the beach doesn't even register as anything other than natural. ("Naked News", anyone?) And in those cultures, being attracted to a boob or two is also seen as natural. There's a recognition of sexuality as NORMAL.

The porn industry, for all it's supposed drawbacks, at least recognizes sex as enjoyable and normal and fun, as it should be. But it's considered a dirty little secret.( Even though it's a billion dollar industry.) Why? We can imply sex in the media and hint at sex and allude to sex and simulate sex and dance all around it with flickering candles and curtains in breezes and that's acceptable...but actual sex that people are actually enjoying is a horrible and evil influence? I don't think so.

When adults idealize the asexual being as the ideal for humans in puberty, it's going to backfire. You can't make something so biologically natural into such a delicious forbidden fruit and then expect beings without fully formed sexual identities to not want a nibble. Given the choice of shame and feeling that sexual urges and curiosity is "dirty" and to be avoided at all costs, or the choice of open honesty and nurturing of sexuality...honesty will win.

It should win!