New research about the sexualisation of prepubescent girls confirms that nothing provides a platform for discrimination against girls and women more than the way they choose to dress.
Survey participants were less likely to feel sympathy for a damsel in distress in a bikini, and saw her as lacking in mental capacity and moral standing if she was dressed in revealing clothing. Yet instead of addressing those who judge and apply a sexual gaze upon children, or those who feel uncomfortable with girls expressing sexuality, the authors recommend ‘reducing the sexualisation of young girls.’
Of course, concern over ‘cute little things’ and the subsequent frenzy whipping about alleged sexualisation is nothing new. Sadly, neither is the shaming and victim blaming that often goes hand in hand with such rhetoric.
There is no doubt that socially constructed ideals of female beauty and what’s ‘hot’ are being absorbed by young people and they often feel pressure to conform, but this doesn’t mean that every girl in a short skirt or bikini is sexualized, neither does it mean the alleged sexualisation is having a major impact on their self-esteem. In fact, if you ask the girls, they’re usually feeling pretty confident in themselves.
What is threatening to a girl’s wellbeing and self-esteem, is the moral judgement and condemnation from conservative busy bodies who take it upon themselves to scrutinise and discriminate based on aesthetics. Slut-shaming is also a social construct that has very real and damaging consequences, leading to victim blaming where women and girls are accused as provocateurs of their own assault.
Considering this research is drawing parallels between adult attitudes towards older and younger girls, it is truly vile that some accuse children, inadvertently or otherwise, of attracting adult sexual attention and bullying. There is nothing a child wears that makes them any more or less of a target or more deserving, and no evidence to suggest that paedophiles pose any greater risk to girls in bikinis than they do to any other child.
A child dressed to mimic an adult is clearly still a child. The real problem lies with those who see anything else.
Campaigns around children’s clothing, like the 2012 anti-Target ‘trampy shorts’ Facebook campaign I wrote about here, are often far more about personal taste and moralising than legitimate concerns for girls’ welfare.
Sadly, Chrissie Hynde, herself a victim of sexual assault over four decades ago, has also long internalised and perpetuated the self-blame rhetoric, thereby alleviating some responsibility from the perpetrator. If we’re to reduce violence against women, we must challenge this way of thinking.
There’s no doubt that the more girls self-objectify, the more likely they are to suffer from depression. Research collated from worldwide studies recently published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry and countless other studies paint a grim picture of body-image related anxiety in teen girls. Girls and women are bombarded throughout life with beauty industry messaging telling them they’re not enough as they are, and that their worth, as judged by others as well as by themselves, is in their appearance. But it’s disingenuous to conflate that with ‘sexualisation harm’ and then assert that a girl in a short skirt must be ‘less than’ another or unworthy of our care. The sexualisation agenda has more to do with rigid ideals about female purity and conservative morality than a true desire for girls and women to have freedom of choice and expression. Who are these people determining and policing what girls are or are not allowed to wear, and why do they insist on turning girls’ healthy expression into woe-filled cries of sexualisation? I imagine, if we were more accepting and encouraging of all girls and their choices, we’d see those rates of depression decline.
Of course young people must be encouraged to counteract limiting messages about gender conformity – whether they feel they have to be sexy or that they have to suppress their sexual expression for fear of being shamed. Empowering girls to find, accept and embrace their true selves comes from a process of challenging the harmful stereotypes that bind them, and empowering them to make informed and meaningful choices. It does not come from judging, shaming or policing them or their clothing.
So let’s change discriminatory attitudes rather than compound them by ignorantly insisting girls are ‘asking for it’. If you’ve been guilty of shaming or projecting adult sexuality on a young girl in a short dress or bikini, in future simply be happy for her that she’s comfortable in her own skin, and know that she isn’t asking for anything, not least your judgement.