Sexualistation of Young People

6. The impact of
sexualisation
“…pre-adolescents and adolescents are
like actors as they experiment with different
features of their newly forming identities and
try on different social ‘masks’. This plasticity
may make them especially susceptible to the
messages society conveys...” 268
268
Introduction
As is the case with body image
disturbance, sexualisation occurs on a
continuum. You don’t have to experience
sexual abuse to experience sexualisation,
in the same way that you don’t have
to have Body Dysmorphic Disorder to
experience body dissatisfaction.
A sexist song lyric, a doll in full make up
and fishnet tights, a pre-teen who wears
a push-up bra to get the attention of
boys – these examples of sexualisation
in action seem benign and, taken in
isolation, perhaps they are. But the point
is that these things aren’t happening in
isolation. They’re happening together,
they’re happening to younger and
younger children, and in many cases
they are not being counterbalanced
by guidance from a responsible wellinformed
adult. And because what is
relevant is the interaction of these
different social cues or behaviours, taking
any one in isolation is usually dismissed
as moral panic, with the suggestion that
people need to be more relaxed, to
268 Strasburger and Wilson (2002), paraphrased in Zurbriggen et al. (2007)
have a greater sense of humour.
Unfortunately, it’s under the guise of
having humour and being open-minded
that the all important debates we need
to be having are being avoided.
Attitudes change and evolve over
time. We are now so desensitised to
the objectification of women there
is research to show that many young
women joke about and regulate each
others’ behaviour by using demeaning
sexist terms. In fact, so normalised has
this objectification become that pairing
up young babies with sexual innuendo is
seemingly commonplace. A cursory web
search of cute or funny baby clothes,
brings up a host of examples – one
of which is a baby outfit with words
‘My mommy is a M.I.L.F’ with the caption
‘Baby wants to let everyone know that
his/her mom is a hottie! A cute and funny
Creeper or T-Shirt for your baby, infant,
or toddler.’ Funny or not, this is indicative
of how attitudes shape social behaviour.
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