The Lolita Effect, or, Yes, Virginia, little girls really are sexualized by the media
At least a thousand people found their way to Corporate Babysitter via a mention in Salon.com’s Little Girls Gone Wild, an interview with M. Gigi Durham who wrote The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It.
If you’re having trouble getting your head around the sexualization of girls, this article is a great place to start. The issues – the narrow definition of sexuality, the acceptance of only “perfect” bodies, the expection to be “hot” but not sexual (in the era of abstinence-only sex education and purity balls) — are clear and concise.
I’m anxious to read the book — especially the what we can do about it part.
Need some real-life examples from advertising/marketing? Check out the posts at Sociological Images (like this one) where we found this:
May 21st, 2008 at 8:39 am
I saw this commercial the other day and my jaw hit the floor. Where are the female ad execs (or even an enlightened male) who could step up during thei initial brainstorming of this commercial and say “this is a very inappropriate way to present a young girl to the public.” Is NO ONE paying attention or does no one give a damn?
Thanks for this, I will certainly be checking out Ms. Durham’s interview and book.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:54 am
Come on. They are NOT called “purity balls.”
May 21st, 2008 at 11:05 am
Wow - we got a complaint about that commercial at CCFC a few weeks ago but I hadn’t seen it. It’s completely outrageous.
One thing that concerned me about the interview with Durham is her emphasis on media literacy. I agree ML is very important, but it’s not a panacea. And from a developmental standpoint, talking to a two-year-old about this stuff makes no sense. Better to keep the keep your two-year-old away from commercials - and to advocate for policies that will make it easier for parents to keep the sleazy advertisers at bay.
And speaking of books on this topic, Keep an eye out for Jean Kilbourne and Diane Levin’s So Sexy, So Soon too - it will be out in August.
May 21st, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Yeah, Jeff, I couldn’t believe the ‘purity balls’ reference myself, and I agree with Josh & Mommy B that the two year old bit doesn’t land on me well, no matter how much ‘media literacy’ we try to toss at it…It’s just misguided and wrong, and shouldn’t be produced in the first place. Classic case of same.
Lisa, I was THRILLED to see your mention on Salon, and am glad you’re using media to make some impact!
Shaping Youth (yours truly) is still in that ’stealth’ mode of not wanting to ‘be interviewed’ just yet as the infrastructure has so many elements in play for our long term goals that we’re morphing constantly and not eager to show all our cards…That said, I can tell you that we’re making some exciting headway with embedding positive cues in virtual worlds to counter-act commercialism/consumption messages and will be going after some digital divas to carry this work forward! ttys, Amy
June 4th, 2008 at 3:51 am
[…] interview at Salon with the author of The Lolita Effect, who just absolutely gets it right. Thanks to Corporate Babysitter for this. I can’t sing the praises of Corporate Babysitter enough. You would all enjoy Lisa’s […]