Spring Break
Starr Symposium speaker discusses media effects on girlhood
David Cordill
Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: News
Brown said the APA task force indicated possible links between sexualization and health problems such as depression, low self-esteem and eating disorders. But since these studies only involved pre-teens, or young and adult women, she said she could only speculate about its effect on lower age groups.
"My biggest concern around that is younger children," Brown said. "I really don't even know what all that stuff is connected to their being exposed to. … This early sexualization has happened so fast that there are no studies on it. … We don't know where this is going."
The selling-out of female assertiveness by way of "girl power" in this gender demographic was exemplified by Brown's segments on the power of makeovers. She said makeover reality shows only display a narrow kind of beauty, usually Anglo and white.
In her "Power to Fight" segment, Brown said females are sexualized and marginalized as advertising is directed toward girl-on-girl aggression with women judging and competing against each other.
"I'm very in support of constructive anger and being in touch with our anger," Brown said, "because that's really at the source of social change. When we see something unfair, we need to be in touch with that. But this is not that. This is something very different."
For Lindsay Pericich, an 18-year-old senior at St. Theresa's Academy, the event was an eye-opener.
"I'm a Girl Scout and it really bothers me that the whole image of girls is pink and divas and big boobs and trying to push sex all the time," Pericich said. "The real images of girl power are those things as opposed to girls in leadership positions, doing things in the community, and making a difference in the world. … Girls have such an impact on the world but it's ridiculous that's what it is being pushed out there all the time by the media."
The event was funded by the Family Study Center Endowment. The annual Starr Symposium, which began in 1992, promotes women's issues and family-oriented concerns.
dcordill@unews.com
"My biggest concern around that is younger children," Brown said. "I really don't even know what all that stuff is connected to their being exposed to. … This early sexualization has happened so fast that there are no studies on it. … We don't know where this is going."
The selling-out of female assertiveness by way of "girl power" in this gender demographic was exemplified by Brown's segments on the power of makeovers. She said makeover reality shows only display a narrow kind of beauty, usually Anglo and white.
In her "Power to Fight" segment, Brown said females are sexualized and marginalized as advertising is directed toward girl-on-girl aggression with women judging and competing against each other.
"I'm very in support of constructive anger and being in touch with our anger," Brown said, "because that's really at the source of social change. When we see something unfair, we need to be in touch with that. But this is not that. This is something very different."
For Lindsay Pericich, an 18-year-old senior at St. Theresa's Academy, the event was an eye-opener.
"I'm a Girl Scout and it really bothers me that the whole image of girls is pink and divas and big boobs and trying to push sex all the time," Pericich said. "The real images of girl power are those things as opposed to girls in leadership positions, doing things in the community, and making a difference in the world. … Girls have such an impact on the world but it's ridiculous that's what it is being pushed out there all the time by the media."
The event was funded by the Family Study Center Endowment. The annual Starr Symposium, which began in 1992, promotes women's issues and family-oriented concerns.
dcordill@unews.com
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