36 - Media and The Sexualization of Young Girls

Abstract

In today’s society the media is the most common agent of socialization. With all the technological advances, our society has made it nearly impossible to escape the images, perspectives, and the concepts that the media portrays. Furthermore, many television shows depict women as sexual objects and music videos are a prime example with sexually explicit lyrics and dancing. According to Gordon (2008), the media deems what is appropriate and acceptable in teenage television and internet. Is there a preference for dress attire among young girls? Is there a relation between the frequency of media contact and self-perception? The purpose of our study was to examine young girls perception of dress and sexualization. Starr and Ferguson (2012) found that young girls have a preference for sexualized attire due to frequent media interaction. Based on these findings, we expect participants to prefer the sexualized attire of dolls and a relation to exist between frequency of media contact and self-perception. A correlational design was utilized. Participants were 18 girls ages 6-14 that responded to questions by choosing a doll dressed in sexualized attire or a doll dressed in average attire via a computer. Parents were given a questionnaire about the frequency of television viewing and internet usage. Results showed girls whose parents reported the significance of looking your best were more likely to chose the doll with average dress attire. In addition, children with female parents as the primary caregiver were more likely to chose the doll with sexualized dress attire. We found no relation between frequency of media contact and self-perception. We concluded that parental influence is significant in understanding how young girls view dress attire in the media and in everyday life.

Key words: Media, Self-perception, Sexualization, Parental Influence