Girls Gone Skank: The Sexualization of Girls in American Culture

by Patrice A. Oppliger

Overview

Instead of advancing women's social and professional empowerment, popular culture trends appear to be backsliding into the blatant sexual exploitation of women and girls at younger and younger ages. This study investigates the effects of mass marketed sexual images and cultural trends on the behaviors and attitudes of young girls and describes many ways in which young girls are increasingly taught to go to outrageous lengths in seeking male attention.

Topics include the powerful effects of cultural phenomena such as revealing fashions, plastic surgery, and beauty pageants in influencing teen and preteen girls to willingly participate in and promote their own sexualization. These chapters also explore other cultural factors contributing to this early sexualization of young girls, including absentee parenting and material overindulgence. Later chapters focus on the sexual representations of females in the mass entertainment media, focusing specifically on how popular magazines, television programs, films, and the Internet prey upon, promote, and reinforce young girls' physical and sexual insecurities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786435227
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	04/15/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Patrice A. Oppliger is an assistant professor of mass communications at Boston University. She is the author of books on gender and social issues and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Introduction     

1. Fashion     
2. Sexuality     
3. Pornography     
4. Strippers     
5. Plastic Surgery     
6. Beauty Pageants     
7. Bad Behavior     
8. Music     
9. Print     
10. Radio     
11. Television     
12. Film     
13. The Internet     
14. Sports     
15. Fantasy     
16. Empowerment or Exploitation?     
17. Conclusions     

References     
Index