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Caitlin McDonnell

Assignment #1 (Rough Draft)

English 101

September 14, 2014

The Effects of Sexualization of Young Girls

With all the sexual advertisements in todays society, it is very easy for the precocious

sexualization (Hollandsworth 493) and self-objectification (Hanes 483) of young girls to go

unnoticed. These two topics often lead to many conflicts. The articles Little Girls or Little

Women? The Disney Princess Effect by Stephanie Hanes and Toddlers in Tiaras by Skip

Hollandsworth give two insightful views on this idea of sexualization of young girls.

Everyday you drive down the highway, walk through the mall or turn on the television

and radio, you see or hear an advertisement. Millions of Americans watch these advertisements

and are not effected by them. Hanes article focuses on the issues and influences that come along

with these advertisements. In Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Effect, Hanes explains the

different types of sexualization and objectification that these young girls witness. She writes

about the effects these ads have on the girls saying they can lead to self-objectification to

cyberbullying to unhealthy body images (Hanes 483). It is clear these are negative effects on

any young person trying to grow, develop and find themselves. For girls who do not have many

adult or teenage figures in their lives, they think this is how they are supposed to look. In stead of

teaching them teaching them values such as kinds, reading, love of animals and perseverance

(483), society is teaching these girls to worry about their body image, looking like what Disney

presents as the perfect princess, and to wait for their prince.

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Many parents are first hand witnesses to these changes as they watch their young girls

grow up. They realize this is not how their daughters should be developing but they fear they

cannot do anything about it. They say that things they used to do arent working; they say

theyre losing control of what happens to their girls at younger and younger ages ( 483). These

girls are seeing the same appropriate, pure movies and princess stories that have been around for

years but once they turn on the television they are introduced to a total different world, seeing

ads and television shows that focus on finding the right man. These ads and shows present these

couples as perfect.

"Bachelorette" Andi Dorfman and Josh Murray(hngn.com)

The perfect girl is seldom portrayed as an athletic built girl with many sports

achievements. Girls start to drop out of sports at the middle school level when they start to

believe that sports are unfeminie and unsexy(484). After seeing dancing princesses, models

strutting up the run way, watching actress in movies, and seeing cheerleaders at football games

on the television, they begin to think that is what guys find attractive. Some girls want to do

physical actives but are too worried the guys will find them unattractive so, they decide to join

the cheerleading team where they can be found doing sexual routines. Marketers are motivated

use the sexualization of women to attract little girls, or violence to attract little boys, because

developmentally children are drawn to things they dont understand, or find unnerving(Levin

487). These girls are objectifying themselves to become more sexual and are falling into the
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dark hole of sexualization too look like these sexy babes and perfect princesses. The children

are missing the true meaning of these princess stories and are blind to the lessons that could be

learned. They do not believe they can be independent and do what they love all while staying

true to themselves and being their own version of the perfect girl.

Pageants are becoming more and more popular in todays American society. In pageants,

females often apply layers of makeup and pounds of hairspray often making them

unrecognizable. Skip Hollandsworths Toddlers in Tiaras explains how girls are redoing

themselves to win money and fame all for the wrong reasons. Parents are often the biggest

offenders of encouraging their daughters to be something they are not and forgetting to teach

their daughters how to love themselves and to do these pageants to better themselves.

Hollandsworth wrote about one mother shouting Your job is to make them love you (490).

This shows how parents are teaching their children to make people love them for what they look

like on the outside, rather than for who they are on the inside. Eventually, they begin to believe

their natural beauty is not good enough.

Advertisements often alter the appearance of woman and girls in their advertisements

changing their natural beauty by using the popular Photoshop software. These advertisements are

hiding the natural beauty which makes females so unique. Girls often grow up thinking their

bodies are not good enough and they have too many
Vogue Photoshop process
imperfections. The ads are not only selling products but they (nbasfinest.blogspot.com) are
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also sexualizing females, causing many psychological problems such as anorexia, low self-

esteem, depression, and anxiety.

Although we are the ones in the ads, we are also the ones creating these types of media

displays. Many people who watch the Toddlers in Tiaras television show say do not see little

girls enjoying themselves. What they do see are terribly exploited little [girls](491) and the

pageants have been compared to kiddie porn (491). This company by Vogue ad resembles how

these young girls are being made-over into someone they

are not.

French Vogue
advertisement of littler girl
models
(nbasfinest.blogspot.com)

In an interview between Hollandsworth and Nancy Irwin, Psy. D., Irwin talks about how

the girls in these ads and pageants are being trained to look and act like sexual bait and are

becoming tools of their mothers(493). The girls do whatever they can to grab the judges

attention and It is difficult to ignore the link between flirtatious behavior exhibited by the pint-

size contestants in heavy makeup and the naive sexuality that is becoming increasingly blatant

among elementary school girls (493). While they are becoming objects of others, being pushed

to be perfect and missing out on being a regular girl, they are not worrying about how these

young girls feel.

While these companies such as Disney and Vogue are putting out these ads, they are not

thinking about the negative effects they might have. These companies are solely worried about
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making money. They are just doing their jobs and are blind to what they are doing and showing

the young people who view their ads. The companies may not be the only ones at fault for this.

Parents also play a large role in limiting what their children view or using these ads as a teaching

moment to show them that is not how they have to look and they can be their own person.

Both Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect and Toddlers in Tiaras

demonstrate how ads objectify and sexualize women. They talk about two subjects that most

females can relate to. These two conflicts could easily be changed. We, as a society complain

about these problems even though we are the ones guilty of creating them. We need to teach the

younger generations to not be effected by what they see around them, whether they be in movies

or in ads. They need to be reminded to stay true the themselves and to stand up to something if

they do not agree with it. It is our job to inspire, pave the way and give hope to these younger

females.