Thursday, August 14, 2014

The sexualization of young girls

Rashida Jones had a point. I mean, I don't consider myself a full-fledged feminist (I love my demeaning and offensive rap music too much for that) but the amount of semi-pornographic images of young women harass us on the daily is bothersome to say the least. It's to the point that I feel we have become desensitized to it.



Why is it normal for us to turn on Disney Channel channel shows and see 'teenagers' that resemble 20 year old women, complete with full faces of makeup and push up bras? Do you know what that sends to our young girls?  It makes them feel that their self worth is dependent on their looks. So they use the formative years of their adolescence to scrutinize mirror reflections and how many likes their selfies get instead of discovering who they are as a person, finding their individuality. Do you know how many grown women don't know what their likes and interest are but I bet you those same women know exactly what pose to do when someone wants to 'snap a pic for the 'gram.'



I don't know if this is necessarily a problem that plagues just our generation. This has probably been an issue for women for years (centuries, generations, whatever) but that doesn't mean we should stay blind to it.



I'm not trying to be "Old Miss Hannigan" wagging her finger and prefacing everything I say with "In my day..." I just need to stress the importance of letting young girls be that... girls. They need to learn love themselves regardless of what the media tells them they should look like at the that age. Leave the insecurities and vanity to the grown women battling wrinkles!