SexualizationofWomen.. - Department of Psychology - York University

the “thin ideal” is relevant to the sexualization of girls.
There is evidence that parents, peers, and the media all sup-
port a “culture of dieting” for girls (Levine, Smolak, &
Hayden, 1994; Nichter, 2000). Several studies (with mostly
White participants) have shown that mother–daughter
interactions affect how adolescent girls respond to cultural
messages about thinness (Ogle & Damhorst, 2004) and that
mothers’ investment in their own slenderness and mothers’
criticisms of their daughters’ weight are correlated with dis-
ordered eating in their daughters (Hill,Weaver, & Blundell,
1990; Levine, Smolak, Moodey, Shuman, & Hessen, 1994).
More recently, in a 3-year qualitative, longitudinal study
of eighth and ninth graders, Nichter (2000) found that
White mothers routinely engaged in “fat talk” about their
own bodies and the bodies of their daughters, concluding
that “girls seemed to be surrounded by excessive concerns
over physical appearance and talk of feel-
ing fat” (p. 120). Fewer girls received
messages from fathers, but when they
did, it was in the form of criticism,
“appraising looks, kidding quips, put-
downs, and snide comments like ‘When
did you start getting boobs?’” (p. 140).
This last comment suggests that body
comments and fat talk do, at least for
fathers, include specific references to sex-
uality and that comments on a girl’s body are often conflated
or experienced as comments on her sexuality. In addition,
such encouragement for girls to look at their bodies rather
than attend to their feelings teaches them to treat their
bodies as objects to be decorated and made desirable for
others; as they mature into adolescence, such looking
becomes sexualized (Lamb, 2002, 2006;Tolman, 2002).
Nichter (2000) found a different pattern for African
American girls, who received much more positive feedback
about their appearance and “style” from their parents.They
also said that they looked up to their mothers as role
models who would teach them how to succeed in a hostile
world. Although African American girls reported dieting at
almost the same rates as European American girls, they also
reported greater body satisfaction and self-esteem and less
concern about their weight. Both African American and
European American girls thus seem to be internalizing the
messages, whether positive or negative, they receive from
their parents.
African American girls . . .
reported greater body
satisfaction and self-esteem
and less concern about
their weight.
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Parents can also contribute to the sexualization of their
daughters in very direct and concrete ways—for example,
by entering their 5-year-old daughter in a beauty pageant
in which she and the other contestants engage in behaviors
and practices that are socially associated with sexiness:
wearing heavy makeup to emphasize full lips, long eyelash-
es, and flushed cheeks, high heels to emulate adult women,
and revealing “evening gowns.” Although relatively few
girls actually participate in such pageants, they have
become a topic of interest in the news, documentaries, and
advertising, in particular regarding whether this
precocious sexualization is problematic for these or other
girls. In this way, the participation of a few may in fact
contribute to the sexualization of many.
Some parents have agreed to let
their daughters undergo plastic surgery in
order to become sexier or more attractive.
Over 77,000 invasive surgical procedures
were performed on teens 18 years old and
younger in 2005, a 15% increase since
2000 (American Society of Plastic
Surgeons, 2006a). Minors cannot obtain
such surgery unless their parents consent;
parents typically finance the surgery, as well. Because these
procedures are expensive (and generally not covered by
health insurance), only girls from upper-middle-class or
wealthy families are likely to have access to them.
Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls
Teachers may also contribute to the sexualization of
girls. In her ethnographic research in preschools, Martin
(1998) found that girls were encouraged to play dress up
more than boys and that teachers encouraged girls in their
dress-up games to play at being sexualized adult women.
This often involved looking in mirrors, walking in “fancy”
high heels, and “vamping.”Teachers may also communicate
messages to girls that promote a thin-ideal body image.
For example, one study showed that teachers have negative
attitudes toward girls whose bodies do not conform to the
thin ideal (Villimez, Eisenberg, & Carroll, 1986). In this
study, teachers rated children in kindergarten through