Sexualizing Young Girls

Media in all forms has become a very important aspect of North American society. It helps us connect with people ad discover new things with the click of a button or the tap of a finger, but is it causing any harm? Media as a whole is not harmful, but the inherent messages it sends to young people; specifically young girls is. The sexualisation portrayed in the media, creates a very negative impact on young women as it leads to harmful effects on their growth development, and negatively affects our society overall as it creates harmful ideologies. The ideas and harmful ways of thinking affect their physical and mental health, encourages the continuing sexualisation and the cognitive and emotional development.
The sexualizing of young girls
Strasburger and Wilson theorized that teens and pre-teens test out different identities and ‘social masks’ while trying to discover themselves. This emerging sense of self is fragile and malleable as teens ‘try on’ different appearances and behaviours…” “From who’s in which clique to where you sit in the cafeteria, every day can be a struggle to fit in”. In this fragile state of self discovery and cognitive development, girls may be more susceptible to marketing and sexualized messages. Because they feel pressured to fit in and by trying to become these idealized figures they will become accepted. The rise of the internet and social media has impacted the way teens explore and create their identity. One study found that in 2002, 50% of 9-18 year olds pretended to be somebody else online. Meaning that teens have so many more opportunities to explore and create an identity for themselves, but at the same time through the internet they are much more vulnerable to harmful messages and can be influenced by people of all ages throughout the world. The sexualisation has severe effects on cognition, though the long term effects have not been studied the short term results are shocking. While alone in a dressing room, college students were asked to try on either a one piece swimsuit or a sweater. After waiting for 10 minutes wearing the article of clothing, they completed a math test. The results showed that young women who were wearing swimsuits did significantly worse on the math test than those wearing sweaters. This demonstrates that “…thinking about the body and comparing it to sexualized cultural ideals disrupted mental capacity”. Furthermore, more research has been conducted with young women of other ethnicities including African American, Latina, and Asian American who all experienced the same disrupted mental capacity for math problems as well as for