Newsweek reporter Matthew Phillips dug deeper, interviewing representatives from the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. The APA released a report in February of 2007 saying girls are depicted in a “sexualized manner” by mainstream media throughout U.S. culture.
It is no surprise, given the sexualized media messages that inundate them, that these same girls want to be “Midnight Fairy Rock Girl” or “Scar-let Pirate.” Folks handing out candy to trick-or-treaters tomorrow night can expect to see lots of young girls showing skin on their doorstep.
In the Newsweek feature, sadly entitled “Eye Candy,” the reporter does cite findings from the APA’s report that should serve as a wake-up call to parents and media producers:
“But what might be news is the increasing evidence of the negative impact an overemphasis on body image has on girls' lives. The APA task force's team of psychologists linked oversexualization with three of the most common mental health problems for women 18 and older: eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression. And there is evidence that the effect is trickling down the age brackets. ‘Clinicians are reporting that younger and younger girls are presenting with eating disorders and are on diets,’ says (APA’s Eileen) Zurbriggen.”
Maybe Halloween costume retailers who market smutty costumes to little girls, and the parents who pay for them, should read Celia Rivenbark’s 2006 book: Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like a Skank. On her Web site, www.celiarivenbark.com, the author discusses why she wrote the book. In a video, she holds up a t-shirt made for a seven-year-old adorned with a picture of a muffin with metal studs on it. The shirt says, “Wanted Stud Muffin.” Rivenbark quips, “They actually have a name for these clothes and the kids that wear them. They’re called ‘prosti-tots.”
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