Sexualistation of Young People

Foreword
When I was approached by the Home
Secretary to conduct an independent
review on the impact of the sexualisation
of young girls on violence against women,
I genuinely welcomed the opportunity to
take a critical look at this area. As both
a psychologist and as a mother, I was
very aware that this was a topic that was
gaining increasing amounts of attention
both in academic literature and the
popular press.
Although the original intention of the
review was to focus on how sexualisation
is affecting girls, it quickly became evident
that we could not talk about girls without
acknowledging the concomitant impact
on boys and the hyper-masculinised
images and messages that surround them.
The scope of the review was therefore
widened to encompass the sexualisation
of all young people and to look at how
hyper-sexualisation and objectification
of girls on the one hand, and hypermasculinisation
of boys on the other,
perpetuate and reinforce each other.
Throughout the course of the review,
what has become very apparent is that
sexualisation is a multi-factorial issue
and therefore needs to be approached
from a range of perspectives, taking into
account not only the emotional and
cognitive development of children but also
the influence of family, culture and society
as a whole.
Over the past months, my team and I have
reviewed hundreds of articles from the
fields of psychology, sociology, education,
politics and media. We have interviewed
people working on the front-line with
abused children and abusers. We have
spoken to young people, parents, teachers,
clinicians, academics, policy-makers and
lobbyists. What came across loud and clear
is that this is a very emotive issue – and so,
I wanted to ensure that the evidence
was presented as objectively as possible
so that a public debate could ensue and
informed decisions about how to address
these issues could be made. This is not an
opinion piece, the evidence and arguments
presented within this document are not
based on conjecture but on empirical data
from peer reviewed journals, and evidence
from professionals and clinicians. Behind
the social commentary and the headlines
about inappropriate clothing and games
for children, there are the real statistics, on
teenage partner violence, sexual bullying
and abuse that need to be acknowledged
and addressed.
Sexualisation of Young People Review
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