A Study of Teen Female Sexualization on Primetime TV

[chanel]

According to a new study conducted by the Parents Television Council (PTC), Hollywood is shockingly obsessed with sexualizing teen girls, to the point where underage female characters are shown participating in an even higher percentage of sexual situations than their adult counterparts: 47 percent to 29 percent respectively.

PTC’s report, entitled “New Target: A Study of Teen Female Sexualization on Primetime TV” is based on a content analysis drawn from the 25 most popular shows in the 12-17 demographic throughout the 2009-2010 television season.

“The results from this report show Tinseltown’s eagerness to not only objectify and fetishize young girls, but to sexualize them in such a way that real teens are led to believe their sole value comes from their sexuality," said PTC President Tim Winter. "This report is less about the shocking numbers that detail the sickness of early sexualization in our entertainment culture and more about the generation of young girls who are being told how society expects them to behave."


Read more: Prime Time TV 'Objectifies and Fetishizes' Underage Girls, Study Says - FoxNews.com

Is this true? And if so, what can be done?

 

[strollingbones]

this has been going on forever.....daytime tv...esp soaps had far more sex in them than prime time tv.....prime time is just catching up...brooke shields was one of the first young stars to be used in this manner....pretty baby (?) and blue lagoon.
remember brad pitt kissing the child in 'dairy of a vampire'? tv use to have modest dress codes....barbara eden in 'i dream of jeannie' caused an uproar showing her naval.

what can be done about it? nothing. the horse left the barn a long time ago.

 

[editec]

Hollywood is shockingly obsessed with sexualizing teen girls, to the point where underage female characters are shown participating in an even higher percentage of sexual situations than their adult counterparts: 47 percent to 29 percent respectively.

Love the way they couch this in such a way to make it sound so much worse than it really is.

Not the carefully vague use of the term "underage female characters"

And what do they mean when they say "sexual situations"

Do we even know? Could it include every time a boy or girl on TV is flirting, dating, kissing and so forth> I suspect that's what they're talking about because I don't recall much on TV showing teens screwing do YOU?

So this is, I think, much ado about nothing

When you were kids what was the most important thing on your mind?

The boy girl thing, right?

So honestly, now, what do you expect shows about teenagers to be about?

Canning food and praying to Jesus?!?

Kids want stories about things kids care about.

Teenagers are homonally predisposed to obsess about the dating, tye boy/girl and finding their way in their social scene.

That's hardly "sexualizing kids"

God sexualized kids a long long ling time ago, folks.

 

[chanel]

You're probably right. I read a great book a few years ago called "Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls" which advised parents and teachers to remind teen girls essentially that "beauty fades and dumb is forever" (read that too - lol). It's up to responsible adults to provide a counter offensive to the media messages. It's sad how our values have gotten so effed up. Girls have it tough these days.

I recommend that book highly to anyone raising daughters.

 

[IanC]

who knows what can be done? no one.

my parents were authoritarian conservatives who tried to tell me what to think and I turned out to be a disinterested dirty hippie. I refused to tell my kids what to think but pointed out consequences and asked them what they thought was right and what made sense and they turned into articulate, moral and motivated conservatives. its a mystery to me.

of course not having cable until they were teenagers might have had an impact.

 

[chanel]

Wow. No cable? You child abuser!!!!

Interestingly, in spite of all the mixed messages, females are doing better is school. We must be doing something right.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

What disturbs me, and any normal man, is the "adultifying" of teens and preteens.
And I am not talking about TV...real life.

How many guys are with me here...how many times have you looked at a distance at a female in...that way...and as she comes closer you realize you were looking at girl maaaybe 16.
Where are this girls parents? Especially the father!

 

[IanC]

Wow. No cable? You child abuser!!!!

Interestingly, in spite of all the mixed messages, females are doing better is school. We must be doing something right.

we still wouldnt have it except that it came with the internet. the weird part is that I watch way more TV than my kids. my loss

 

[Samson]

this has been going on forever.....daytime tv...esp soaps had far more sex in them than prime time tv.....prime time is just catching up...brooke shields was one of the first young stars to be used in this manner....pretty baby (?) and blue lagoon.
remember brad pitt kissing the child in 'dairy of a vampire'? tv use to have modest dress codes....barbara eden in 'i dream of jeannie' caused an uproar showing her naval.

what can be done about it? nothing. the horse left the barn a long time ago.

Um....Brad Pitt played a VAMPIRE that ate rats in Diary of a Vampire. Not your average American male, SB.......

Anyway the thread is specifically about Teen Female Exploitation on PRIMETIME TV. Not in R-rated films where you're supposed to know that Brooke Shields is playing the character of a child prostitute in Pretty Baby, and that child prostitution is, and has been, in practice since the beginning of the World's Oldest Profession.

I don't watch much Primetime TV but wonder about the quote:

"The results from this report show Tinseltown’s eagerness to not only objectify and fetishize young girls, but to sexualize them in such a way that real teens are led to believe their sole value comes from their sexuality,"

WTF is he talking about?

"Sexualize them in such a way?" ...... What "way" is that? And is PTC President Tim Winter arguing that many real teens would not believe "their sole value comes from their sexuality," without primetime TV? Hell, there's people all over the fucking planet who don't even have electricity and they are objectifying and fetishizing young girls.

 

[chanel]

My son date a girl throughout high school who was not permitted to watch TV during the school year. (She was #1 in her class). He brought over "Lost the first season" and the whole family got addicted. Now they watch all the time. They called "Lost" the gateway drug to TV addiction. Good thing it ended. lol

He's going to college to be a TV writer. I guess it was Karma they broke up.

 

[Truthmatters]

What disturbs me, and any normal man, is the "adultifying" of teens and preteens.
And I am not talking about TV...real life.

How many guys are with me here...how many times have you looked at a distance at a female in...that way...and as she comes closer you realize you were looking at girl maaaybe 16.
Where are this girls parents? Especially the father!

Here is an example of where the problem originates.


You personal reaction to a female on the street.


You looked at them like a piece of ass and felt a little guilty and blamed the girls dad for not following her arround.


Stop treating the women you see as a potential piece of ass no matter what their ages.


Want to know why TV does this , look in the mirror.

Believe me you, I have been treated like this my entire life.

To be female in this culture is to have your whole being judged on wether some fucknut things you are doable or not.


When we teach our girls to USE this power because there is no fighting it then you call then bitches.

This is why being a bitch is a new value to women.

If I be a bitch and piss you off you stop looking at me like you are about to rape me.


Men need to act like they can control their dicks and quit blaming it on what someone looks like.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

What disturbs me, and any normal man, is the "adultifying" of teens and preteens.
And I am not talking about TV...real life.

How many guys are with me here...how many times have you looked at a distance at a female in...that way...and as she comes closer you realize you were looking at girl maaaybe 16.
Where are this girls parents? Especially the father!

Here is an example of where the problem originates.


You personal reaction to a female on the street.


You looked at them like a piece of ass and felt a little guilty and blamed the girls dad for not following her arround.


Stop treating the women you see as a potential piece of ass no matter what their ages.


Want to know why TV does this , look in the mirror.

Believe me you, I have been treated like this my entire life.

To be female in this culture is to have your whole being judged on wether some fucknut things you are doable or not.


When we teach our girls to USE this power because there is no fighting it then you call then bitches.

This is why being a bitch is a new value to women.

If I be a bitch and piss you off you stop looking at me like you are about to rape me.


Men need to act like they can control their dicks and quit blaming it on what someone looks like.

HAHAHAHAA!
You done vomiting?
Yeah...let's try and remove about 5 million years of evolution and reverse the draw men have to a female body.
Good Luck with that.

 

[Truthmatters]

Why not try to act like a civilized human being and quit making your fucking inability to control you lower brain obvious to the person on the street you are ogliing.


What many of you men dont realize is the women (yes even the little girls) are aware of what you are doing because you make asses out of yourself doing it.

 

[Samson]

Believe me you, I have been treated like this my entire life.

To be female in this culture is to have your whole being judged on wether some fucknut things you are doable or not.

What is it like to be a moron in this culture, TM?

 

[Truthmatters]

And there you have it.

The level of respect men in the US show women.


You run arround with you nuts hanging our like thye are your GPS system.

We pretend not to see it.

You are actually thinking we dont see your brainlessness.

 

[Samson]

And there you have it.

The level of respect men in the US show women.

Could the level of disrespect you receive be proportional to your stupidity, and not have anything to do with your gender?

 

[Truthmatters]

go suck your own sack you fucking buzzing fly

 

[Samson]

go suck your own sack you fucking buzzing fly

It's hard to imagine why you don't get any respect, TM.

 

[editec]

What disturbs me, and any normal man, is the "adultifying" of teens and preteens.
And I am not talking about TV...real life.

How many guys are with me here...how many times have you looked at a distance at a female in...that way...and as she comes closer you realize you were looking at girl maaaybe 16.
Where are this girls parents? Especially the father!

Mother nature made girls of 16 sexually attractive.

Blaming the fathers of these budding beauties for the fact that you or I are PROGRAMMED TO THINK THEY'RE SEXY make like ZERO sense.

And, FWIW.

BLAMING YOURSELF for seeing these beauties and recognizing their beauty makes no sense, either.

It's time for us to admit that teens are NOT children.

Teens never were children, and no amount of social pressure is every going to change that fact.

100 years ago and for all time before that, too, a 16 year old was a YOUNG WOMAN who was ready for marriage and motherhood.

That hasn't changed.

What has changed (and I think I approve) was that we now expect these YOUNG ADULTS to hold off on getting married and having children because people now need more time to get educated so they can be productive members of society.

But let's stop pretending that there's something wrong with us when we observe that beaufty young adults are beautiful young adults.

Pretending that they're children is simply nuts.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

What disturbs me, and any normal man, is the "adultifying" of teens and preteens.
And I am not talking about TV...real life.

How many guys are with me here...how many times have you looked at a distance at a female in...that way...and as she comes closer you realize you were looking at girl maaaybe 16.
Where are this girls parents? Especially the father!

Mother nature made girls of 16 sexually attractive.

Blaming the fathers of these budding beauties for the fact that you or I are PROGRAMMED TO THINK THEY'RE SEXY make like ZERO sense.

And, FWIW.

BLAMING YOURSELF for seeing these beauties and recognizing their beauty makes no sense, either.

It's time for us to admit that teens are NOT children.

Teens never were children, and no amount of social pressure is every going to change that fact.

100 years ago and for all time before that, too, a 16 year old was a YOUNG WOMAN who was ready for marriage and motherhood.

That hasn't changed.

What has changed (and I think I approve) was that we now expect these YOUNG ADULTS to hold off on getting married and having children because people now need more time to get educated so they can be productive members of society.

But let's stop pretending that there's something wrong with us when we observe that beaufty young adults are beautiful young adults.

Pretending that they're children is simply nuts.

ummm...no.
15 is not a young adult. 15 is an older child.