{"id":3185,"date":"2007-02-20T09:24:14","date_gmt":"2007-02-20T16:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/02\/20\/sexualized-images-in-media-harm-women-and-girls-duh\/"},"modified":"2007-02-20T09:24:14","modified_gmt":"2007-02-20T16:24:14","slug":"sexualized-images-in-media-harm-women-and-girls-duh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3185","title":{"rendered":"Sexualized Images in Media Harm Women and Girls, Duh!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes its hard not to laugh at these headlines because they are so obvious. \u00a0I guess it is nice to have some research to back up the obvious–hence this report from the American Psychological Association<\/a>\u00a0on the negative effects of media\u00a0sexualization\u00a0on women and girls.\u00a0 First, they operationalize sexualization:<\/p>\n

The provocative research included a study of published research on the content and effects of virtually every form of media, including television, music videos, music lyrics, magazines, movies, video games and the Internet. Researchers also examined recent advertising campaigns and merchandising of products aimed toward girls.<\/p>\n

Sexualization was defined by the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls as occurring when a person\u2019s value comes only from her\/his sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is sexually objectified, e.g., made into a thing for another\u2019s sexual use.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then later they lay out the negative effects:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Cognitive and Emotional Consequences: Sexualization and objectification undermine a person\u2019s confidence in and comfort with her own body, leading to emotional and self-image problems, such as shame and anxiety.
\n\u2022 Mental and Physical Health: Research links sexualization with three of the most common mental health problems diagnosed in girls and women\u2014eating disorders, low self-esteem, and depression or depressed mood.
\n\u2022 Sexual Development: Research suggests that the sexualization of girls has negative consequences on girls\u2019 ability to develop a healthy sexual self-image.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The report also suggests families and health professionals take an active role in countering this trend.\u00a0 They even suggest media literacy classes.\u00a0 What is missing, unfortunately, is any\u00a0direct accountability for media outlets.\u00a0 The report does not suggest that media stop doing this; rather they suggest that we teach girls and young women how to cope with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What do you think?\u00a0 If we really wanted to take on patriarchal media capitalism, would it work, or should we focus more on teaching girls\/women how to cope?\u00a0 What kinds of actions could\u00a0people use to get media outlets to change?\u00a0 What about the good old fashioned boycott?\u00a0 Is that dead?\u00a0 What do you think?<\/p>\n

Here is the link to the APA study.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes its hard not to laugh at these headlines because they are so obvious. \u00a0I guess it is nice to have some research to back up the obvious–hence this report from the American Psychological Association\u00a0on the negative effects of media\u00a0sexualization\u00a0on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,34,94,54,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism-sexism-etc","category-gender-and-the-body","category-gender-and-the-economy","category-media-criticism","category-popular-and-unpopular-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}