Endangered Girls and Incendiary Objects: Unpacking the Discourse on Sexualization

Egan, R. Danielle; Hawkes, Gail

doi:10.1007/s12119-008-9040-z

Cited by 28 publications

(38 citation statements)

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“…Some postmodern feminist thought points to women's choice to dress in an infantilized or sexualized way as a means to rebel or reclaim these displays [44,70]. Certainly some measure of these hyper-normative costumes may have been poking fun at it, perhaps dismantling normative power [71].…”

Section: Combinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female Disempowerment Disguised as a Halloween Costume

Sullivan¹,

Hipple²,

Hyers³

2017

TOFAMSJ

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Objective:We explore the relationship between gender stereotypes and North American Halloween costumes. Method (Study 1):Extending Nelson's analysis of gender-markers in mass-produced children's Halloween costumes, Study 1 explored gender-typing in children's costumes (n = 428), also adding a sample of adult's costumes (n = 428) from major retailers, coding for character archetypes (heroes, villains, and fools), active-masculinity/passive-femininity, and for degree of disguise. Results (Study 1):Compared to boys'/men's costumes, girls'/women's costumes represented more ornamental feminine-passivity. Method (Study 2):Ornamental feminine-passivity was explored in an additional sample of baby girls' (n = 161), child girls' (n = 189), teen girls' (n = 167), and women's (n = 301) costumes, coded for character archetypes and markers of infantilization and sexualization. Results (Study 2):In addition to age differences in character archetypes, women's costumes were most likely to be sexualized (especially heroes), girls' and teenage young women's costumes were most likely to combine both infantilization and sexualization, and baby girls' costumes were least likely to incorporate either gender-markers. Conclusion:Costumes reinforce gender stereotypes differentiating boys/men and girls/women and the ways in which girls/women are stereotyped varies across the lifespan. Patterns are discussed with regard to how gender stereotypes embedded in holiday traditions reinforce messages of disempowerment for women and girls.

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Section: Combinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Female Disempowerment Disguised as a Halloween Costume

Sullivan¹,

Hipple²,

Hyers³

2017

TOFAMSJ

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“…Egan and Hawkes 2008;Ringrose 2011, 2013;Sparrman 2014). This can be connected to Klara's emphasis on the fact that they did not want to include risk factors in the campaign; they did not want to include "sex negativity" as sex "essentially is something really positive".…”

Section: Troubling An Absence Of Sexual Dimensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating Care : The Contradictions of HPV Vaccination Campaigns

Lindén¹

2016

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“…Girls' sexual expression was taken to be inadvertent, and of concern primarily because of how men would interpret it -'the attention that you may attract, you don't know how to handle' (mother of 11 and 14 year old girls). Rather than 'compulsory sexual agency' (Gill 2008), then, girls were generally positioned as passive and in need of protection, precisely as sexualisation discourse proposes according to Egan and Hawkes (2008). Accordingly mothers fretted over their daughters' overall wellbeing, the pressures they were under, their 'obsession' with their looks and body image, the effort involved in grooming, how current fashions excluded girls who did not fit a 'pencil-thin' norm, their failure to wear sufficiently warm clothing, and their unhealthy eating habits -'they exist on air!'.…”

Section: Sexualisation: Not My Child… and Nobody's Sonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Negative judgements of products extended to those who consumed them; young girls' encoded class difference provoked vehement hostility from a mother (of three teenage sons) in a way that seems to confirm Egan and Hawkes' (2008) Review derives many of its recommendations from such arguments, focusing for example on how businesses might assist parents wishing to register offence, feedback or criticism.…”

Section: Other People's Taste Other People's Daughtersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global concerns, local negotiations and moral selves:

Bragg¹,

Buckingham

2013

Feminist Media Studies

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Parents are contradictorily positioned within the 'sexualisation of childhood' debate. On the one hand, they ('we') are assumed to share a universal 'concern' about it and are urged to 'challenge' it through campaigning, refusing to buy inappropriate products, talking with children about 'media messages' and so on. On the other hand, parents -often specifically 'mothers' -are also held responsible for sexualisation through their irresponsible consumption. This article draws on qualitative research with parent groups to suggest that sexualisation may be a less pressing issue for parents than is often claimed: because they tend not to perceive their own children as 'sexualised', do not accept that goods are inherently sexualized, and subscribe to ideas about child development and 'good parenting' that involve letting children make decisions about such goods on their own behalf. Thus, even where parents articulate general concerns about the issue, within their own families they may opt for negotiation, compromise and subterfuge rather than overt challenge. Regardless of this, however, parents are increasingly compelled to respond to the issue, and thereby to engage in practices of ethical self-formation and individual responsibility-taking. Whilst these practices have a longer history than the sexualisation debate itself, they are framed or shaped in particular ways by it. The article indicates some problematic areas that emerged in the course of discussions with parents, such as: (self-)surveillance and critical judgement of 'other' girls and mothers; the obscuring of constraints on individual choice in ways that naturalise social inequalities; and the convergence of sexualisation discourse with older discourses that make women responsible for male sexual violence.Keywords: parenting, sexualisation, girls, young people 2 Global concerns, local negotiations and moral selves: contemporary parenting and the 'sexualisation of childhood' debate 'Jayne's grandma': Don't blame the shops for selling this kind of stuff. If the mothers didn't buy it the shops wouldn't stock it. Blame the moronic mothers.'Jen48': when we have young women treating jordan as some sort of goddess what do you expect we have become a nation with no morals, no respectible mother would buy such rubbish for there child ,god help this country in 20 years time.(Online responses,

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Endangered Girls and Incendiary Objects: Unpacking the Discourse on Sexualization

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

Female Disempowerment Disguised as a Halloween Costume

Female Disempowerment Disguised as a Halloween Costume

Communicating Care : The Contradictions of HPV Vaccination Campaigns

Global concerns, local negotiations and moral selves:

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