Sexualization

Via Seed (link to Seed on main weeklyrob page), I read recently about a review of academic literature on the response of girls and women to “sexualization” (Link).

[Apparently, the link is gone from Seed, so here it is elsewhere.]

Sexualization is never actually defined in this article, because the writer can’t seem to follow a clear thought to its conclusion. I hate science writers who don’t bother getting the science right. Dig a little and explain what’s going on, for crying out loud.

In this case, we find that sexualization can lead to problems like eating disorders and depression, that sexualization is a broad and increasing problem, that it’s particularly prominent in advertising, that the murder of JonBenet brought a debate over it to the U.S., and most importantly, that it occurs due to a person believing that his or her “value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior.”

But what is it? No one bothers to say.

Then we move on to an experiment, which supposedly backs up the theory that all this sexualization is hurting women and girls:

“College-aged women were asked to try on and evaluate either a swim suit or a sweater. While they waited for 10 minutes while wearing the garment, they completed a math test.

‘The results revealed that young women in swimsuits performed significantly worse … than those wearing sweaters. No difference were found for young men.’”

Now, I can get past them forgetting to make the subject and verb agree in the last sentence.

But I’m not sure that I see how this study is evidence that the women are damaged in some way more than just living in a society where college guys hang out shirtless a lot more than college girls hang out in bathing suits.

Maybe it’s just less weird for guys.

Or maybe women worry more about being taken advantage of while sitting there in a bathing suit. Women have been more vulnerable to sexual abuse long before Madison Avenue or Hollywood started showing T & A.

In other words, they may be damaged in some way, but it’s not necessarily by ads and TV and music videos.

And finally, maybe women are more body-conscious than guys, and maybe it has nothing to do with anything but evolution and genetics. Just throwing it out there.

Of course, I haven’t read the study, so my problem is with the reporting. I don’t have a dog in the fight, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it turned out that some of this stuff really is hurting girls. Maybe the study explains it all very clearly, but the article just states the thing as if it’s self-evident.

Two incidentals:

1. I call college females, “girls.” I used to know one or two people who were offended by that. But let’s face it, there’s no non-quaint equivalent to a “guy.” Guys and girls. Besides, I betcha there aren’t 50 college girls in the country who call themselves women when speaking informally.

[No, I will not put my money where my mouth is. “Betcha” is a manner of speech.]

2. The thing about actual adult women playing young girls on the screen has often made me wonder about what it does to men. If I’m attracted to an an actress playing a high school girl, should I be worried? What if the actress is actually 27? Am I a pedophile?

Ok, I know I’m not a pedophile, but I do wonder if it’s bad for guys, and what a normal guy is supposed to feel about a hot adult actress playing a kid. I mean, not being a pedophile doesn’t stop me from feeling a little guilty. But I really shouldn’t feel guilty. It’s weird.

[Update: Here’s a link to the actual Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls.]