Sexualistation of Young People

Sexualisation of Young People Review
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clubs – along with sex shops, topless bars
and other similar businesses – are located
alongside mainstream entertainment
venues, raising their profile and increasing
their visibility. 342
Sexualisation is tied to economic markets
in the forms of beauty and sex industries,
that both opens and restricts the breadth
and variety of identities and ambitions
open to young women. Growing numbers
of girls are aspiring to careers that
demand a ‘sexy’ image. Surveys have found
for instance that a high proportion of
young women in the UK aspire to work as
‘glamour models’ or lap-dancers. A recent
online survey that asked 1,000 15–19 year
olds to indicate what their ideal profession
would be from a list containing careers
including doctor and teacher, found that
63 per cent of 15–19 year olds considered
glamour modelling their ideal profession
while a quarter of the all girls surveyed
cited lap dancer as their top choice. 343
A report released by the Department
for Work and Pensions 344 shows that
Jobcentres are routinely advertising for
vacancies at escort agencies, lap-dancing
clubs, massage parlours and TV sex
channels: we are seeing the normalisation
of these trades as viable career choices.
This is based on an economic and
cultural context that is giving rise to the
increasing uses of a woman’s body for
male satisfaction through, for example, the
international sex trades and hard and soft
core pornography industries.
342 Hubbard et al.(2008); Egan et al.(2006)
343 Deely (2008)
344 www.parliament.uk/deposits/
depositedpapers/2008/DEP2008-3155.doc
Several theorists have argued that the
‘aspirational’ connotations now associated
with glamour modelling and lap-dancing
are reflective of wider changes in our
culture; what Rosalind Gill refers to as ‘the
pornification of culture’. 345 This describes
the phenomenon whereby young people
are exposed to images and messages
derived from pornography in increasingly
diverse and disparate areas of society.
This exposure affects all young people,
regardless of their background and
education. While some might argue
that they are making a free choice,
commentators have noted that the
hyper-sexualisation of culture is beginning
to co-opt the language of freedom and
choice. 346 When girls are told over and
over again not only that their appearance
is all that matters, but that exploiting their
appearance is a route to success, it is
little wonder that many are choosing to
take this route. A monolithic view of the
‘ideal’ women combined with the biased
portrayal of such jobs in popular and
celebrity culture is limiting, rather than
increasing, the choices open to young girls.
345 Gill (2009)
346 Walter (2010)