SUMMARY
This report investigates the sexualisation of youth and the effects that it has on children, teenagers and on adults. I will be first telling you a bit about the sexualisation of youth and a brief description of what it actually is and who it is affecting. The discussion then focuses on the advantages and disadvantage of the changes that have happened over the years to the sexualisation of children teenagers and even to adults.
INTRODUCTION AN OVERVIEW OF THE SEXUALISATION OF YOUTH
The purpose of this report is to talk about the sexualisation of youth and to discuss what this issue is doing to our children and to our life’s. The sexualisation of our children is effecting more than just the children affected is effecting parents, other children around them and it is effecting everyone around this child. This research is being done via internet and via books and articles.
The sexualisation of teenagers and of young children has become widely known about over the years as more harm is coming to these young girls and boys as the sexualisation of these young people is increasing and these children are becoming more sexualised earlier and therefore there not having the childhood that children had over ten years ago. Children these days are going through puberty earlier they are suffering from more mental disorders to do with their bodies such as having eating disorders and being obese. Children are having to deal with a whole lot more these days as they are wanting to do more with the friends then they would of ten years ago they are becoming more interested in boys and wanting to spend more time with them. These young teenagers are becoming more involved with in the activities that older teens are doing such as drinkin...
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.... 2010. Web 08 Feb. 2011. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Australian_History/1960s .
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Health On the Net Foundation. (n.d.). sexual health. Retrieved Feburary 16, 2011, from sexual health: http://www.irishhealth.com/clin/sexual_health/features2.html?artid=16973
Commonwealth of Australia Senate Printing Unit, Parliament House, Canberra. (2008, june). report on children and there sexualisation. Retrieved feburary 16, 2011, from sexualisation of children: http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/eca_ctte/sexualisation_of_children/report/report.pdf
When the authors begin to discuss these children as being sexual individuals it make its somewhat difficult to read as in society we often view children as innocent, vulnerable and in need of protection from adults. However the authors make it clear that children are not asexual, they do experience arousal and engage in sexual practices. This from of adult understanding still remains taboo in s...
Erica Zhang Professor Nelson Intro to Mass Media & Communications 3/11/2013 Media Analysis Assignment In today’s media, the sexualisation of women has unfortunately also extended to young preteen girls, through a myriad of detrimental social constructs and internalized prejudices spanning centuries. The commodification of their sexuality is unnerving, as it encourages predators to project their fantasies onto unwilling participants that are too young to understand the nature of these harmful actions, and know how to escape or refuse them. In an attempt to shed light onto this issue as a concerned parent, Rachael Combe wrote the article Little Girls Gone Wild as a response to this sudden boom in increasingly sexualised behavior among and towards preteens. While her intentions remain sincere and her concerns as a mother legitimate, the article is flawed in the sense that she is not delving deeper into the causes behind this phenomenon, shaming the young girls for indulging in their outward appearances and for participating in a role that society has forced them into, instead of the predators that reinforce this sexualised image and make it something to be desired and aspired to.
For young girls in Australia it has been said that ‘one barometer of the health of society is the measure of mental health of our children and young people’. This measure does not bring us good news. Evidence indicates that exposure to ideals of sexual attractiveness in the media is associated with greater body dissatisfaction among girls and young women, leaving girls feeling ‘ugly’ and ‘gross’. Body image is not the only side effect of sexualisation. The increase in sexual activity among adolescents is at an alarming rate, and the age of sexual activity is ever decreasing. For boys in Australia too often we believe that the sexualisation in the public sphere is only affecting girls and women. However, if we were to believe that, we would
...t gives useful information on the topic of gatekeeping and teen sexuality. It is explained in a way that is easier to understand than some other articles would be. From this article I learned that parents are very concerned about media gatekeeping and sexual images in advertisement. This is an important fact to understand because it shows us how much our parents care for us, when sometimes this is not the case. Being educated on sexual behavior and identity is very important in life and should be understood the best it can.
Today, I believe that children are being sexualized earlier and earlier, mostly in light of the fact that they are being presented to sexual material in videos, music and different sorts of media. I think that early exposure to sexually graphic material is likely to have a negative influence and a potentially dangerous impact on children under the age of 18. Although young children do not understand sex or its function in relationships, the images they see can leave a lifelong influence on their lives.
Steele’s Constructing Sex, the Sexual, and the Erotic- 'Doing It’: The Social Construction of S-E-X, which covers the social construction and perception of sex, sexuality, pleasure, and gender. In the text Steele mentions that very often in this society, penial penetration and male pleasure and climax are commonly seen as indicator of having had sex (Steele). The focus on male pleasure above females is not only relevant to the physical act of sex, but also the perception of gender and the way media targets their audience. More often than not, the typical objects of male pleasure (females) are taken and added into media and advertising to appeal to male pleasure even in ads that the products are targeted away from men. For example, underwear made for females often features an ‘attractive’ female seductively showing off the garments, effective for targeting straight males. Even in commercials for products for either gender like burgers or sunscreen, still use an objectified women as their selling point. Another point that Steele looks at in the text is the idea of consent, Steele states that “The dangers inherent in contemporary constructions of S-E-X… is about the pleasure of the actor” which can cause the dismissal of the object of desire as irrelevant (Steele). This idea of the focus being solely on the actor is problematic as it can easily perpetuate rape culture, and is a large part of the RadioShack ad.
Accordingly, “pornography can be considered mainstream” (page 460, paragraph 1, line 5), said the author. However, there were problems brought up since the pornography glorify the violence and crimes, and it had no difficulties in being shown in mass media. Jean Kilbourne, though, did not place all the blame on advertising when she pointed out: “Ads don’t directly cause violence, of course. But the violent images contribute to the state of terror” (page 466, paragraph 2, line 1). Such erroneous attitudes are known to be existed as: “women are valuable only as objects of men’s desire, that real men are always aggressive, that violence is erotic, and that women who are the victims of sexual assault “ask for it”” (page 478, paragraph 5, line 2). The impact it made on women well-being is dreadful when it comes with them along their journey through life starting from being misbelieved as young to ending up with self
Mary Pipher goes on to say that the problem faced by girls is a ‘problem without a name’ and that the girls of today deserve a different kind of society in which all their gifts can be developed and appreciated. (Pipher,M). It’s clear that cultures and individual personalities intersect through the period of adolescence. Adolescence is a time in a young girl’s life that shapes them into the woman they become. I think it begins earlier than teen years because even the clothing that is being sold for younger girls says sexuality. Bras for girls just beginning in every store are now padded with matching bikini underwear, Barbie dolls are glamour up in such away that these girls believ...
Whilst I, as a mother was aware of our children's exposure to violent images via gaming; early sexualisation through various media, I was shocked at the extent of
Lloyd Duhaime, Barrister, Solicitor, Attorney and Lawyer, defined Pornography as “sexual acts or sexual representations that are calculated to stimulate sexual feelings, independent of the presence of another loved one or chosen human being.” These sexual feelings and stimulations could result in some mental and emotional issues. Let’s start by looking at the mental issues that pornography leads to. As explained and proved in the ”Family North Carolina Magazine- Winter-2010” pornography viewing among teenagers creates a disorientation in their developmental phase, where they start learning about sexuality and gaining moral values. These teenagers get the wrong meaning of sexuality which have some negative effects on them in the future such as the fear of getting married or unfaithfulness to their partner. This study has also proved that pornography lower the level of self-esteem among adolescents. Also, according to Robert A. Baron, pornography has an effect on mental health among adult, and being highly exposed to pornography creates a ...
Since they additionally reduce their womanliness by declining to take an interest in sexualized depictions, these female competitors experience much feedback from society, particularly male viewers, for being persistent and forceful. On top of this kickback, female competitors who don't feel the requirement for or contradict sexualization confront dissatisfaction from individual athletes.[5] Female competitors who grasp sexualization for the most part regard the choice of the individuals who restrict sexualization, yet a few, for example, Olympic champion swimmers Jenny Thompson and Ashley Tappin, have really scrutinized their associates for not flaunting their bodies and taking after the well known pattern. As indicated by Mark O'Keefe, a
This case study is evident that young girls are much more aware of their sexuality and their consent. Many young girls participate in weekend socialising, drinking and using drugs with men, who consequently believe these girls are at the legal age of consenting to both sexual intercourse and drinking alcohol, only when these young girls go too far is when rape is cried.
In this article the main objective was to educate the readers on objectification and sexual coercion between men and women. Although this article does hint that women can and do objectify men, the main focus is on how men view women as objects and how they mainly focus on physical appearance because it is for more likely to occur. Objectification is defined as the act of viewing another person as an object with an emphasis on physical appearance. Once a man starts to objectify a woman to a certain extent, it can and most likely will lead to him sexually pressuring her. Sexual pressure is defined as any situation in which “men expect sex and believe that it’s a woman’s role to provide sex to her partner”.
Paedophilia is a concept which has changed throughout the eras the beliefs and attitudes towards paedophilia is something that is seen as a very difficult subject. Social standards are extremely influential when it comes to deciding what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour for a society and over time especially within the western world this is one of the things that have crossed boundaries and become a topic of debate for a variety of cultures. Paedophilia is considered to be an abnormal or unnatural attraction towards children. Throughout this essay there will be an attempt to discuss the constructions that surround the notion of paedophilia with focus on the social and psychological aspects. Firstly it is important to understand the history of paedophilia to be able to fully explore the explanations which we will be presented later on in this essay. Dating back to as far as the Roman and Greek eras where relationships between children and adults were accepted and portrayed as forms of mentorship. Up until the age of enlightenment, there was little more known than the naturalistic approach to maturity and sexuality. La Fontaine, (1990) states a paedophile is generally defined as a person who gains sexual gratification from contact with pre-pubescent children, this is a supported definition from various academics. According to the ICD-10 manual, Paedophilia is ‘a sexual preference for children, boys, girls or both usually of pre-pubertal or early pubertal age’. A person 16 years of age or older meets the definition if they have a persistent or predominant sexual preference for prepubescent children at least five years younger than themselves. Alter...
In today’s society things are being expressed and experienced at younger ages, than ever before in our time. Children and teenagers are discovering their sexuality at very early ages. Sexuality is the discovering of who you are and what makes you different from everybody else.