Mommy vs. media in sexualization of girls: Where are the dads? [View all]

[redqueen]

http://www.about-face.org/mommy-vs-media-in-sexualization-of-girls-where-are-the-dads/


An article on AlterNet about sexualization of young girls concluded “Mothers are a strong predictor — even more than the amount of media consumption alone — of whether a girl will regard herself as a sex object.” But I couldn’t help but wonder: What role do fathers play in their daughters’ sexualization?

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The new study reported on in the article focused on the media/parent divide within heterosexual, two-parent families. Using a set of two papers dolls — one dressed provocatively and the other dressed conservatively, yet fashionably — it gauged 60 young girls’ preferences to appear “sexy.” The girls, aged 6 through 9, overwhelmingly labeled the sexy doll as the more popular doll — the doll they’d most like to look like.

Some researchers argued that if children are predisposed to sexualization by their mothers, they will be more likely to accept and recreate sexual trends glamorized by the media. Others argue that the media’s omnipresence will inevitably turn young girls into sexualized creatures; it is up to the mothers to be role models for their daughters and help them develop a sense of media literacy if they are to “escape” the trend of sexualization. That sounds like a lot of responsibility to place on one parent alone. Where are the men in this picture?

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But don’t fathers’ behaviors have an equal impact? Fathers who sexualize and objectify women suggest to their daughters that doing so is acceptable by society at large. Fathers who respect women, who refrain from consuming media that represents women as sex objects and little else, are just as valuable as mothers who discourage such objectification.

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I agree very strongly that the way fathers behave and react toward media messages about women, and toward the women in their lives, has a huge impact on the way daughters perceive the importance of and the reasonable expression of their own sexuality.