Teenage girls are strutting their stuff in the revealing styles of their pop idols. But such rampant sexualisation is taking its toll on their mental health.

 

In 2002 the Big Brother housemate Jade Goody stripped naked on primetime TV. The following year Paris Hilton starred in a sex tape posted on the internet that was viewed by millions. Last year Britney Spears flashed her genitalia to the paparazzi, setting off a string of celebrity copycats. And two weeks ago the singer Beth Ditto clambered out of her knickers live on stage, tossing her undies into the crowd.

 

You’re nobody, it seems, until everybody has seen your never-nevers plastered across the cover of Heat magazine. And it’s not just show-biz exhibitionism that’s on the rise. Teenage girls are being swept up by reality TV-style t*ts-out culture, becoming more willing than ever to bare all.

 

Log on to social networking websites such as MySpace or Facebook, view the videos on YouTube and you’ll find explicit photos of girls, as young as 14, posing in their underwear or flashing for the camera. It’s not only socially and morally worrying, but new research indicates that such practices may cause long-term damage to young women’s mental and physical health.

 

Grace, 15, attends a girls’ school in North London. She has a MySpace and Facebook page and her photo galleries are littered with pictures of her gangly frame dressed in bra-tops, tight shorts and miniskirts. She sees it as keeping up with fashion, just like having her tawny hair highlighted. “Mum doesn’t like my clothes, she says I look too old, but I’m just wearing what everyone else is. There’s nothing wrong with it. I think Mum would freak if she saw my MySpace though; it has everything on it. She does say that I’m growing up too fast, but I think that’s good.”

 

Grace (it’s not her real name) says her parents don’t pay a lot of attention to her online life. “Mum doesn’t like me spending a long time on the computer and when Dad saw one of the pictures he said I should take it down, but he didn’t check all of them,” she says. Under current rules, you must be over 14 to register with MySpace, though some politicians are increasingly worried about teens misusing networking sites. The Attorney-General in the American state of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, wants a state law that would require children to obtain parental permission before creating profiles on them.

 

Grace’s web profiles reveal in detail her adolescent tangles with boyfriends, occasional vodka-swilling and snogging on the night bus. They also reveal that she has friends from across the world, many of them men. “I suppose I do like putting up sexy photos because it gets attention. But I do it because it’s funny, not because I really think I’m sexy. And they’re all idiots anyway,” she says of the men who write to her. “They think you’re interested in them but you’re so not.”

 

Many of them aren’t just harmless idiots, though. This week MySpace reported that it had identified and removed 29,000 convicted sex offenders caught using the site. It might all seem harmless to Grace, but the comments on her photos, posted by Grace and her friends, contain a rich analysis of her appearance, revealing a strong preoccupation with appearing sexy. “You look pretty fit here,” says one. “Look at your boobs, they’re huge,” reads another. There is also a sense of one-upmanship as weekend antics are compared. “You were so mashed last night,” reads one message. “What were you up to in the toilet?” Another asks if a girl called Frankie “really flashed a cabbie!”

 

Some feminists argue that this kind of exhibitionism is about women taking control of their sexuality, but the trend seems to have more to do with media adulation than emancipation. Research conducted in the past ten years shows that girls are modelling their behaviour on women in the media. When a poll by the Lab TV website asked nearly 1,000 girls who they considered a “good role model”, the glamour models Abi Titmuss and Jordan topped the list.

 

In the same survey, 63 per cent of girls said that they aspired to be glamour models rather than doctors or teachers, and a quarter thought that lap-dancing would be a “good profession”.

 

Prepubescent girls strut past in wedge heels and crop-tops. Many of their tops bear slogans such as “Little Minx”, “Heartbreaker” or “Who needs brains when you’ve got these?”

 

In a high street store a mother berates her teenage daughter for trying on a dungaree miniskirt she considers too revealing. “What do you want to wear that for?” she asks: “It’s hanging off you.” She tugs at the hem and one of the straps falls off her teenage daughter’s shoulder. The girl shrugs: “I like it. Anna’s got one,” is her only reply, before she storms back into the changing cubicle. Does her mother worry about the message she is sending out. “Of course,” she says. “I know she wouldn’t let herself get into trouble, but sometimes I feel that she doesn’t know what trouble is. It doesn’t help that all of her friends dress like it.”

 

See full article from Sunday times at this address:

 

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_an...icle2152155.ece

That is such bullsh!t -_- Certainly at my school all the girls wear skinny jeans, only the slags wear mini-skirts that often and they're 16 anyway lol. The whole 'popstars wear nothing so young girls aren't either' is bullsh!t, its the parents' problem if they can't control what their kids wear.

The whole 'popstars wear nothing so young girls aren't either' is bullsh!t, its the parents' problem if they can't control what their kids wear.

 

eh?... not sure i understand that...

 

pop stars DO influence directly what pre-teen girls wear and how they act. ive seen it in the playground where somewhat 'raunchy' dance routines have replaced traditional games as playtime entertainment. kids have always looked upto and emulated their idols... especially 'glamerous' ones. it got a whole lot worse since 'girl power' was sold to kiddies as the way to be.

I agree Rob. I work in primary education and on non-uniform days and parties, some of the girls do wear clothes, unsuitable for their young age, and yes, they do talk about pop stars and what they look like. As a parent, I believe that there are times when you have to say No. It might make you unpopular at that moment but you can't be your childs' best friend.

It's not easy for parents of children, particularly of secondary school age, to know what they're doing every second of the day, but especially where the internet is concerned, they have to take an interest in what their child is doing on there. If they have to block certain sites, so be it. There have to be limits to a childs' freedom for their own safety.

*Smacks head on table*

 

No comment, basically it's untrue

Oh and can I just say these people always fail to do compelete research AS USUAL :rolleyes: On Myspace profiles for anyone under 16 are private which means you can't view them unless you're on their friends list and for Facebook you can't view unless you're in the same network.

 

The media reporting three people like three million people as usual :rolleyes:

Exactly Grandwicky. They don't all dress and act like this -_- I should know having just left school. Nearly all the girls are into 'indie' fashions which involve flat shoes and skinny jeans and stripey tops, there's hardly any flash to be seen ( :(! ) and to suggest that the situation is any different now from the turn of the century is just :huh:

Parents control how much their children are exposed to things listed above, no parent should let a child watch Big Brother or watch an entertainment show talking about a sex tape or someone flashing in the first place. :rolleyes:

Edited August 6, 200717 yr by Dirty Pop

Exactly Grandwicky. They don't all dress and act like this -_- I should know having just left school. Nearly all the girls are into 'indie' fashions which involve flat shoes and skinny jeans and stripey tops, there's hardly any flash to be seen ( :(! ) and to suggest that the situation is any different now from the turn of the century is just :huh:

 

theres a difference between mid teenage girls wearing current fashion and pre-teen girls at primary/junior schools who perform dance routines theyve seen on the tv, which are unsuitable for these little girls to copy. the 'sexification' of pre-pubescent children has gone on for ten years, ever since the spice girls brought 'girl power' to the masses, like i say, i work in schools and ive seen it.

 

its totally wrong for preteen children to be targeted through available fashion and kids mags to emulate adult role model pop stars.

 

most pop vids today that feature female singers are soft porn and until recently would not have been allowed. is it any wonder then that we here in the uk has the most cases of underage sex, stds, pregnancies in europe? to suggest that theres no link would be proposterous.

It is up to parents to control and supervise what their young offspring get up to online. Grace's parents are the ones to blame for this because they are not supervising what she gets up to online and monitoring what she does. Kids of 12-13 or whatever should not be online unsupervised

Edited August 6, 200717 yr by Vic Vega

Parents should control / monitor internet access for their children.

 

But like all toys it is often provided to keep them quiet.

 

..and it is much easier to be pleased your kid is quiet and out of your hair than actually monitor what thy are up to.

... than to actually have a relationship with your child where they can be honest with you about what they do.

 

I know many people on here will not agree with me but 13 year olds should not have unsupervised access to the internet.

Whilst the media love to build up dangers out of proportion ...... there are many 'dangers' out there.

 

But my problem with many of the media stories is that many teenagers don't seem to have the common sense to deal with issues they face.

I don't get the whole being bullied on msn rubbish - delete contacts.

 

Yes myspace & facebook you have to be "friends" but then many just click accept to all friends requests.

 

...and any other undesirables online - well there is always the little red & white cross on the corner of the screen :o

 

Until they have the common sense to block / delete / switch off from undesirable comments / images then a 'child' is not old enough to be on the internet alone.

 

And that is up to the parents ...... oh but they will be the ones having their 15 mins of fame on the local news saying my poor child got a rude message on "teenspot" :rolleyes:

It is up to parents to control and supervise what their young offspring get up to online. Grace's parents are the ones to blame for this because they are not supervising what she gets up to online and monitoring what she does. Kids of 12-13 or whatever should not be online unsupervised

 

I totally agree with this... And with ICR's points as well... In fact, I would say that no one under the age of consent should be allowed to go online unsupervised...

 

To Jark and Grandwicky I say this - if you honestly believe that this aint a problem, I suggest you check out the statistics on Under-Age pregnancies and abortions that Brian has put up on the thread on Teenage Abortion rates. The facts are that this is a HUGE problem, and it is linked to the Internet, the Media, Pop videos and the fashion industry.. ALL of which are sexualising young girls... It's frankly disgusting IMO, and it aint as if there's anything like the strong "Safe Sex" message coming across as it did in the 80s when I was a teenager... HIV/AIDS aint gone away guys, although you'd certainly be forgiven for thinking so looking at the Media in general....

 

There is a serious moral breakdown in this country, and yeah, it IS worse now than it was 20 years ago....

I totally agree with this... And with ICR's points as well... In fact, I would say that no one under the age of consent should be allowed to go online unsupervised...

 

To Jark and Grandwicky I say this - if you honestly believe that this aint a problem, I suggest you check out the statistics on Under-Age pregnancies and abortions that Brian has put up on the thread on Teenage Abortion rates. The facts are that this is a HUGE problem, and it is linked to the Internet, the Media, Pop videos and the fashion industry.. ALL of which are sexualising young girls... It's frankly disgusting IMO, and it aint as if there's anything like the strong "Safe Sex" message coming across as it did in the 80s when I was a teenager... HIV/AIDS aint gone away guys, although you'd certainly be forgiven for thinking so looking at the Media in general....

 

There is a serious moral breakdown in this country, and yeah, it IS worse now than it was 20 years ago....

I don't believe it's not a problem but I do believe it isn't something that can be blamed on 'popstars dance routines performing on TV' etc. When was the last time you saw someone perform on Popworld, or GMTV or the Lottery with a raunchy dance routine? It just doesn't happen. The only place they are going to see raunchy music vids too is late night music channel, so again it all boils down to the parents! If they aren't going to be so clever as to put a basic protection service onto the internet, or to stop their kids watching videos on the music channel after a reasonable hour, they have only themselves to blame for their young teen girls being 'slutty'. On top of all this, I'd like to know how these girls who supposedly trample around in a miniskirt and other revealing clothes actually get hold of the garments? Only I'd imagine if the parents let them go shopping alone with their friends at aged 13, which yet again goes back to the parents for not taking charge over what their children do.

I don't believe it's not a problem but I do believe it isn't something that can be blamed on 'popstars dance routines performing on TV' etc. When was the last time you saw someone perform on Popworld, or GMTV or the Lottery with a raunchy dance routine? It just doesn't happen. The only place they are going to see raunchy music vids too is late night music channel, so again it all boils down to the parents! If they aren't going to be so clever as to put a basic protection service onto the internet, or to stop their kids watching videos on the music channel after a reasonable hour, they have only themselves to blame for their young teen girls being 'slutty'. On top of all this, I'd like to know how these girls who supposedly trample around in a miniskirt and other revealing clothes actually get hold of the garments? Only I'd imagine if the parents let them go shopping alone with their friends at aged 13, which yet again goes back to the parents for not taking charge over what their children do.

 

I can certainly agree with you that parents are to blame in many cases.. But if you honestly believe that this has nothing to do with the way the Media and the Fashion Industry sexualises young girls, then you're totally missing the point.... They put it out there, They make it the "norm", They make it an acceptable thing to do.... It's not about "challenging boundaries" or women "taking control" (the mass media and the fashion industry is controlled by MEN, it is almost totally about reinforcing Patriarchy and reinforcing a woman's 'role' as a Sex Object. 'Feminism' my arse...), it's about selling a product at the end of the day, it's Patriarchal Capitalism, and they dont give a flying fukk about the social and moral consequences so long as they make a buck.... THAT is what disgusts me more than anything...

I have to agree completely about that feminism point, and its' disgusting -_- I can't remember who but a while ago someone interviewed in the Radio Times (might have been michael burke) said women control the world and the media, I was like hmm lol.

 

And no, I don't think it's nothing to do with the way sex is portrayed but certainly to blame it on popstars is wrong because already the PC-ness of everything means they have to give dull stand-by-the-mic-and-shake-your-hips type performances on TV in case kids are watching!

I can certainly agree with you that parents are to blame in many cases.. But if you honestly believe that this has nothing to do with the way the Media and the Fashion Industry sexualises young girls, then you're totally missing the point.... They put it out there, They make it the "norm", They make it an acceptable thing to do.... It's not about "challenging boundaries" or women "taking control" (the mass media and the fashion industry is controlled by MEN, it is almost totally about reinforcing Patriarchy and reinforcing a woman's 'role' as a Sex Object. 'Feminism' my arse...), it's about selling a product at the end of the day, it's Patriarchal Capitalism, and they dont give a flying fukk about the social and moral consequences so long as they make a buck.... THAT is what disgusts me more than anything...

 

Its been going on even in our time though Scott

 

Do you remember the countdown to Sam Fox's 16th birthday in The Sun so that they could legally show her t*ts on Page 3 ? that must have been 20 odd years ago, then there is Madonna's VILE "In Bed With Madonna" video where she was doing disgusting things with a Perrier bottle and sucking off her dancers, again that was 20 odd years ago so I don't think that much has changed really

Its been going on even in our time though Scott

 

Do you remember the countdown to Sam Fox's 16th birthday in The Sun so that they could legally show her t*ts on Page 3 ? that must have been 20 odd years ago, then there is Madonna's VILE "In Bed With Madonna" video where she was doing disgusting things with a Perrier bottle and sucking off her dancers, again that was 20 odd years ago so I don't think that much has changed really

 

The "In Bed With Madonna" film was an 18 certificate though Craig - TOTALLY different story, it wasn't on Heavy Rotation MTV..... And you have to look at that scene in the broader context of a TWO HOUR documentary... Not the same thing at all....

 

Cant argue with your opinions on the whole Sam Fox thing though... Totally vile, bordering on Paedophilia if you ask me.... <_<

 

I have to agree completely about that feminism point, and its' disgusting -_- I can't remember who but a while ago someone interviewed in the Radio Times (might have been michael burke) said women control the world and the media, I was like hmm lol.

 

He actually said that???? :lol: :lol: 'Burke' by name, bloody great 'Berk' by nature.... :lol: I honestly cant think of ANY largeish Media organisation controlled by a woman... News International, Virgin, CNN, BBC, ESPN, NBC, etc, all controlled by BLOKES last I checked...

 

All I can think of media-wise are the big magazines like Vogue but then they're aimed at women in particular so I guess that's less of a surprise.

All I can think of media-wise are the big magazines like Vogue but then they're aimed at women in particular so I guess that's less of a surprise.

 

Ahh, but dont confuse "Editorial Control" with actual "Ownership" Jark.... Mags like "Vogue" might have females for Editors, but who actually owns and controls them...? The Editor of a newspaper or magazine has rather less control than you think, they have to answer ultimately to the Proprietor.... who actually has the power to kill a story or a feature dead even if the Editor approves it (there are MANY notorious examples of how Rupert Murdoch would control the editorial policy of his newspapers, meaning the Editors are merely puppets and not really in control of anything...) How many Proprietors are women...? This is the big question.....