“I Am Not A Barbie Doll” (worded sign hoisted by a young girl in the 1970 women’s strike for Equality march) quoted from the book ‘introducing feminism’
How and why young females are sexualised within the contemporary media landscape?
Young females are being sexualised throughout the media landscape due to young girls wanting to copy celebrities. Cath Davis looks at ‘Star Fandom’ the way in which we are not just looking up to celebs but we are dedicating our lifestyles to them as fans. Audiences are influenced by what they see in the news, what they watch and hear in general. Some audiences such as the male audience tend to like seeing females in this negative light; however you can also argue that it is not negative as some females within the contemporary media landscape pursue their career through looks, furthermore this tends to come across as ‘sexualisation’ because they are made to look older and more mature than they necessarily are, and are ‘objectified as decorative objects or body parts rather than a whole person’ , females have a wielding power over their bodies however they are just choosing to sell their bodies as their own choice.
In the music video ‘The Fear’ by Lilly Allen the viewer sees a teddy bear, which is hung on a washing line, this suggests that she is being objectified as a sexual being. The teddy bear in this music video symbolises her childhood, which allows her to rewind backwards and return to the stage of being young again. As the teddy bear connotes her childhood the washing line could represent a time-line and a point in her life that she wants back or to change and make if different. The setting and the props within this scene have an impact on how the audience react to this moment within the music video, automatically the audience sympathise with her because the way in which the lighting is slightly dull this sets the mood in which the audience feel at that time. The use of toys and childhood objects in the music video connotes a sense of innocence allowing the audience to be engaged by these objects they can relate to this scene within the music video.
The beginning of the music video it shows her in a caravan on its own, this shows a sense of loneliness as she is in a field. The sense of loneliness makes the audience feel her emotion in which we then sympathise to. The sense of loneliness connotes her feeling alone at this point in her life where she wants more people to share it with her. However when the scene changes to her opening a door to a mansion, this could link to the theory ‘Schadenfreude’ the idea when someone takes pleasure in other peoples misfortunes, the way in which this links is by her being shown to be sad whilst being in a caravan then seeming to be happy in a big house. “Life’s about film stars and less about mothers” at this point in the song it shows a pushchair with a teddy in it. This connotes that the celebrity culture is taking over because they don’t want to live a normal life and want to be famous.
The programme Eastenders on BBC1 shows a character Whitney Dean . The BBC is a Public Service Broadcaster, they like to take risks in the sense they like to take risks with their programmes for example using certain storylines within their programmes before other programmes do on other channels. She played the role of a young prostitute, this seen negatively because she is a young girl that ends up falling for the wrong guy. She is seen to do things that she is forced to and that she doesn’t particularly like. This comes across as ‘sexualisation’ because she is being shown in this negative light as a ‘prostitute’. This links to ‘Angel/Whore Dichotomy’ the angel being women of a social middle class, the whore being a prostitute to any working class. This applies to women who were seen to have committed adultery, Uses and Gratifications theory applies to this due to Eastenders informing and educating the audience about problems that occur in audience’s lives regularly.
Young females are being sexualised throughout the contemporary media landscape because they are seen to be ‘pure/clean looking’. This appeals to the male audience because they are mainly attracted to young attractive women. An issue relating to this was an advert for Marc Jacob’s Perfume ‘Oh Lola’; Dakota Fanning appeared in this advert. The advert was banned by the ASA because she was posing in a sexual way. The perfume was seen to be in between her legs. There was an article on the Daily Mail website. The article states that she was used because she is a 17 year old girl that looks younger; the article quoted “he chose the young actress because she could be a ‘contemporary Lolita’” the young actress was also branded as sexually provocative. This links to the ‘male gaze’ theory, the way females are objectified and how males view them in what they see such as adverts, music videos etc. This is also the sense in which the woman becomes the object in which the buyer is purchasing rather than the advert itself. This theory also suggests that we ‘Buy’ the image, ‘get’ the woman’. Linking this back to the Dakota Fanning advert it proposes that by using this young girl in a sexual way it will help sell the product. Also CRB checks on people in order to avoid paedophiles more, this is because of people such as Soham and the Madeline McCann news stories, people have becomes more protective over the younger generation as a result of these news stories.
It seems that the celebrity culture of today’s generation is taking over and influencing young female’s lifestyles and how they look. They see women who are ‘Fake’ as ‘Real’ , also when young females read newspaper for example ‘The Sun’ as this newspaper is based around soft news and more gossip, the younger audience tends to read this for example young females. Also the Sun’s website has more celeb based stories and articles. Some female readers tend to look at page 3 as a way of fanticising or wanting to look like the women they are seeing in front of them.
Body Dismorphia is a problem in which young females fall into, through looking at images, they see within the media. “Every time I see my reflection or a picture of myself I have to catch my breath: I see someone who is different from anyone else I’ve ever seen…” . As a result of this young females are wanting to look skinnier than they are, this has led to young females being sexualised within today’s media, as they are using their bodies as a way of gaining attention. The idea of adapting their bodies to a much more adult appeal at an early age seems to be what is known as the “norm” meaning that seeing young females as much older young girls is a normal thing; however this is surprisingly not normal. This is because the media are allowing young females to be seen as older more mature women. An alternative perspective is how males also fall into this problem of ‘Body Dismorphia’ as a result of boys and anorexia “Men are much more aware of their bodies, they are much more into dieting and how they look”.
An example of this looking at my primary research is a programme called ‘Toddlers and Tiara’s’ "Little girls are supposed to play with dolls, not be dolls," this programme is based around toddlers being put in beauty pageants by their parents, in which they are made to look and act older than they really are, through the use of fake tan, false eye lashes, make-up etc. Toddlers and Tiaras is a programme in which shows parents taking their children’s childhood away from them and glamourizing them in this un-natural way. This links to the theory of commodification the way in which people or texts are made into something, In the relation to this programme they are taking the lives of these children and making it into a programme showing how they seen to look fake at a young age. This looks at Piaget a theorist in which suggested “play was the work of childhood. A means of exploration, discovery and problem-solving through which children could learn to co-operate with others and become independent adults.” As the digital platform is increasing frequently for example images being updated constantly audiences can now have a much wider access to these allowing them to see changes in celebs making them feel more conscious about themselves.
Sexualisation of young females affects the way males see young females, “heterosexual men objectify women through voyeurism”. The way in which we look at someone sexually without them knowing… by producing things that cause premature sexualisation, an example of this is the John Lewis advert , this shows how a young girl is being sexualised as she grows up and in constantly shown in a stereotypical women’s role.
The way in which the media manipulate images to look sexual shows the extent in which they go to in order to sexualise females to attract audiences more. This links to the identity theory through the different ways in which women are represented. The representation of women is the way in which females are being seen or looked at by others. However this isn’t the case as young teenage girls look up to these celebs that necessarily don’t look the way they are being perceived “...77% of Americans believe that celebrities have too much of an influence on young girls” . This is an example of the Commodification Theory, the way in which people and texts are made into something that they are or aren’t. As they get digitally edited and manipulated to look in a certain way. “Music, magazines or merchandise? Tell us who you think bears most responsibility for exposing children to sexualised images” boasted the Guardian article. By exposing young teenage girls to these images makes them question what is “real” and what isn’t this is because they assume that what they are seeing is how they really look, when the truth is they look nothing like they do in these glamorized images. This questions ‘hyper reality’ in the sense of images being updated frequently within the media audiences constantly want to look like what they see “what is real and what is fiction are blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins...” .
This is entrenched in the ‘mass media’ because the ways in which these images are communicated through the media have developed due to the change in ways of which audiences such as young females can access these images, “Media can be viewed then as both a reflection and a shaper of social reality…” , as a result of parents working more and technology increase allowing audiences to have more access to information. Nowadays it is simple to find an image of a celebrity icon and idolize it. The elite being media institutions, dominate the minds of these young females by producing content for them to look at in a way they believe is the truth about celebrities. By showing teenage girls anything that looks “kiddy” they don’t like the look of as they believe it is better to look older than what they are. The way in which the mass media manipulate the minds of young females suggests that this changes their behaviour and their attitudes towards things. As a result of this these teenage females ruin their lives by steering towards drugs and possibly prostitution as a way of wanting their bodies to be liked.
Pornographic depictions of women seem to be one reason why boys perceive young females in an unnatural and non-real way “The cost of women in such an environment is clear: men systematically target women for acts of sexual objectification, degradation, and abuse.” This is because what they see is cosmetically enhanced and computer manipulated. This automatically changes the way young males see young females. As they assume every young female should look in a particular way. Furthermore when they see a ‘real’ female they tend to prefer the ‘fake’ because they look ‘perfect’. This puts pressure on young females because they don’t think that what people see is good, therefore by having these pressures put on them they behave in this body conscious way and lack self-confidence. Another reason is through the use of ‘Porn consumption” information such as porn has become more available to audiences and as a result of this they no longer have to consume this by purchasing this from a store but can now access it in the comforts of their own homes.
Additionally there is an alternative ideology showing how groups of young people are shown to be educated in college, is a positive light as a replacement of them being sexualised, an example of this alternative ideology is the shows ‘Hollyoaks’. Another example is ‘Young Apprentice’ this also shows how clever these young people are. Nevertheless the media tends to ignore this and focuses on the negatives rather than the positives, thus links to the ‘effects theory’ “looks at how media texts influence those who consume them…” and goes against the ‘copycat theory’ the way in which audiences no longer copy each other, but aspire to them. The use of ‘psychographics’ such as ‘ Young and Rubican, this looks at how audiences are segmented into different groups based on what they see within the media, for example the main two are aspirers and succeeders. Thus by audiences watching this programme can escape from the sexualised world and focus on reality and their futures ‘uses and gratification theory’ “people's needs influence how they use and respond to a medium” .
In conclusion to this not all teenagers are sexualised throughout the media. However a majority are, through the media taking a minority and focusing on them by making an overall generalisation of them. Furthermore as this is biased as not all teenagers are focused on sexuality and sex as shown through these texts, ‘Hollyoaks and Young Apprentice’ this creates another ‘moral panic’ in which exaggerates the nature if young people. An illustration of this is Kendal from the Kardashians. The young female is said to have done bikini and lingerie photo-shoots at the age of 16, there was controversy on how she needs to act her age rather than a mature women that she clearly isn’t as she is still maturing. By her doing this it shows how she could be seen to be doing this to attract men; however she is just simply excelling in something she is good at and has the figure to show off. As she is young most young females can idolize her in order to feel more confident about their own bodies.
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