Beauty is Good: The Appearance Culture, the Internalization of Appearance Ideals, and Dysfunctional Appearance Beliefs Among Tweens

Trekels, Jolien; Eggermont, Steven

doi:10.1111/hcre.12100

Cited by 32 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…This reasoning is in line with Engeln-Maddox's (2006) suggestion that women internalize appearance ideals because they believe it will bring about various rewards. Recently, Trekels and Eggermont (2016) confirmed these assumptions and showed that early adolescents were more likely to internalize appearance ideals if they believed that compliance with those ideals is rewarded.…”

Section: Explanatory Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Prior research has related exposure to sexualizing media messages to adolescents' cognitive preoccupation with outward appearance. Specifically, media exposure has been related to girls' and boys' self-objectification (i.e., valuing body appearance over body competence ;Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2012), dysfunctional appearance beliefs (i.e., equating self-worth with appearance; Trekels & Eggermont, 2016), and anxiety to be judged and rejected based on their appearance (e.g., Trekels & Eggermont, 2017a). Studies have further shown that young girls may accept a narrow and sexualizing view on girls and women as part of their own identity (e.g., McKenney & Bigler, 2014a).…”

Section: Sexualizing Appearance Behaviors Among Youthmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

How Social and Mass Media Relate to Youth’s Self-Sexualization: Taking a Cross-National Perspective on Rewarded Appearance Ideals

Trekels

Karsay

Eggermont

et al. 2018

J Youth Adolescence

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Although media exposure has been related to cognitive preoccupation with appearance, research rarely investigated adolescents' behavioral self-sexualization. To address this gap, the present study among 12- to 16-year-olds (N = 1527; 50.2% girls) in Austria, Belgium, Spain, and South-Korea (1) investigates whether different types of media use relate to self-sexualization, (2) explores the explanatory value of rewarded appearance ideals, and (3) considers culture and gender as moderating factors. Despite cultural variation, a general trend of increasing self-sexualization with social media use and magazine reading appeared across the countries. Moreover, women's magazine reading and rewards were related to self-sexualization among all the girls across the countries, which suggests that girls may be more vulnerable to the examined effects. Overall, this study provides a better understanding of the unique contribution of specific media genres to youth's self-sexualization and points at the importance of social media use in girls' and boys' engagement in sexualizing appearance behaviors across four countries.

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Section: Explanatory Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 85%

Section: Sexualizing Appearance Behaviors Among Youthmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Social and Mass Media Relate to Youth’s Self-Sexualization: Taking a Cross-National Perspective on Rewarded Appearance Ideals

Trekels

Karsay

Eggermont

et al. 2018

J Youth Adolescence

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In extreme cases, reports show that a number of teenage girls go as far as posting nude 'selfies' in order to attract attention (Mascheroni et al, 2015). The tendency to internalise standards of beauty and self-objectify is thus influenced by perceived potential benefits such as popularity, and leads to attempts to emulate behaviours seen as most rewarding (Trekels et al, 2018;Trekels & Eggermont 2016;Mascheroni et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Denouncing child manipulation to produce sexualised imagery on YouTube

Grannò¹,

Mosca²,

Walravens-Evans³

2020

Preprint

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Over the last decade, a vast YouTube-based ‘market’ of child-produced content involving sexualised behaviour has developed. Children-performers produce videos featuring implicit sexual imagery to satisfy the demands of an adult fan base, and in exchange for a digital reward. We first report the discovery of several YouTube keywords leading to such content, outlining their remarkable interconnectedness via analysis of search trends over the last decade. Following, we investigate audience-child interactions by semantic analysis of n=1398 comments mined from n=30 videos, revealing the occurrence of collective grooming. We then demonstrate how this phenomenon is sustained and enhanced by YouTube search algorithms. Following, we detail a model framework to contextualise our findings. Finally, we propose specific amendments to the 2018 Online Harms White Paper that might tackle this phenomenon. Our results reveal a new form of child abuse, as of yet undescribed, wherein the core features of online grooming are translated to social media, the fundamental principles of which act as a powerful incentive. Because the victim’s manipulation is enacted collectively, we believe that responsibility ultimately rests with society as a whole. The principal aim here is to raise awareness of this issue, in an attempt to kick-start discussion of its causes, implications and potential solutions.

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“…Research has explored the impact of watching gender-stereotypes and sexualized bodies on both boys and girls. For example, research has shown that children internalize information about bodies, sexualize and objectify themselves and others based on media exposure (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997;Trekels & Eggermont, 2017). These kinds of beliefs are associated with lower expectations of girls and women's capabilities, and negative mental health outcomes (Grabe & Hyde, 2009;Tiggemann & Slater, 2015).…”

Section: Learning From Televisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representations of Gender-Diverse Characters in Adventure Time and Steven Universe

Walsh

2020

SMC

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Television is a strong educational and socializing agent for children. Watching television can teach children appropriate language and vocabulary to use, as well as the social norms about gender behaviors or activities. Previous research on gender representations in children’s television has been limited to studying male and female characters because children’s programming has historically presented audiences with cisgender characters (e.g., boy and girls). Recently, television shows aimed at children have provided audiences with nonbinary and gender-diverse characters. This study is the first exploratory content analysis, to my knowledge, to examine the portrayal and representation of nonbinary and gender-diverse characters in children’s television. The current study examined the gender-neutral pronoun and gendered language use toward nonbinary and gender-diverse characters, as well as the portrayal of these characters as leaders, and with special skills in Adventure Time and Steven Universe. Overall, nonbinary and gender-diverse characters were portrayed as strong, positive, characters, and were represented similarly to their cisgender counterparts. This represents a promising shift toward more inclusive and equitable television representation, which may lead to the acceptance and appropriate use of gender-neutral pronouns toward peers by cisgender children, and the feeling of visibility and validation by nonbinary children. Future research should examine the impacts of these characters on viewers. RELEVANCE STATEMENT: As children’s television becomes more diverse it has the potential to positively impact the lives of cisgender (e.g., boys and girls) and nonbinary children. Because television has the potential to influence young children, gender-diverse representations in children’s television may lead to children developing more accepting attitudes and behaviors toward nonbinary peers.

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Beauty is Good: The Appearance Culture, the Internalization of Appearance Ideals, and Dysfunctional Appearance Beliefs Among Tweens

Cited by 32 publications

References 59 publications

How Social and Mass Media Relate to Youth’s Self-Sexualization: Taking a Cross-National Perspective on Rewarded Appearance Ideals

How Social and Mass Media Relate to Youth’s Self-Sexualization: Taking a Cross-National Perspective on Rewarded Appearance Ideals

Denouncing child manipulation to produce sexualised imagery on YouTube

Representations of Gender-Diverse Characters in Adventure Time and Steven Universe

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