The media's portrayal of young women as sex objects harms girls' mental and physical health, US experts warn. Magazines, television, video games and music videos all have a detrimental effect, a task force from the American Psychological Association reported. Such images also have a negative effect on healthy sexual development in girls, the researchers said.
Research on the content and effects of television, music videos, music lyrics, magazines, films, video games and the internet was analysed. Sexualisation was defined as occurring when a person's value comes only from her or his sexual appeal or behaviour, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is portrayed purely as a sex object. They gave examples of a trainer advert that featured pop star Christina Aguilera dressed as a schoolgirl with her shirt unbuttoned, licking a lollipop.
According to the research identified by the task force, such images and promotion of girls as sexual objects negatively affects young girls in many ways. "The consequences of the sexualisation of girls in media today are very real," said Dr Eileen Zurbriggen, chair of the group and associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "We have ample evidence to conclude that sexualisation has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, and healthy sexual development.
" The task force called on parents, school officials, and health professionals to be alert for the potential impact on girls and young women. Governments also had a responsibility to reduce the use of sexualised images in the media and advertising, they said. Dr Zurbriggen added: "As a society, we need to replace all of these sexualised images with ones showing girls in positive settings - ones that show the uniqueness and competence of girls.
"The goal should be to deliver messages to all adolescents - boys and girls - that lead to healthy sexual development." Professor Andrew Hill, professor of medical psychology at the University of Leeds, said it was hard to disagree with any of the reports conclusions. "If you look at teenage magazines, it's all about sex.
"We are a visually absorbed society - our views of people are dominated by how they look." "One of the key things here is social responsibility - advertisers and other media need to be aware that the products they produce and images associated with them have an impact and it's not always a good impact," he said.
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