Samantha Gonzalez

Shaw Bouley
ENC1102
March 17, 2024

Annotated Bibliography
M. Gigi Durham, Ph.D. “The Lolita Effect: Media Sexualization of Young Girls and

What We Can Do About It”; The Overlook Press; 2008

This book is focused on reframing how society teaches young people, specifically girls

about their sexuality. Human beings are sexual by nature, it is biological and at the end of the

day, it is how we keep our species alive. Sex has always been a taboo topic, especially with girls

because it has been unclear how to present it in a form that protects them from abuse and

liberates them. However, just because sex is normal does not mean young girls should feel the

need to exploit themselves in order to gain value or attention. There is a fine line between

repressing sexual development and discouraging girls from exhibiting behavior that could get

them hurt. Many products ranging from underwear to makeup encourage little girls to see sex as

an exchange for money and popularity.

I selected this source because it recognizes that sex is a normal part of human

development and is to be celebrated. In my research, I want to explore how society shapes the

way young girls view their sexuality and the role commercialism plays. This article is also from

the point of view of a woman that shares a lot of my values and who understands that we live in

a patriarchal society that will sexualize young girls when given the chance.

Sharon Lamb, Ed.D. Lyn Mikel Brown Ed.D. “Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our

Daughter from Marketers’ Schemes”; St. Martin’s Publishing Group, April 1, 2007

This book is from the point of view of a mother on how girls are being marketed to in a

way that confuses them on how to express their sexuality. Girls, from an adolescent age, seek
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identity and a large part of identity nowadays is material possessions. At the same time, the

products they are marketed often have flirty messages or sort them into categories such as

“Cheerleader Chick”. As these subtle messages are continuously fed to girls through their

formative years, they develop preconceived thoughts on what it means to be a teen or an adult.

Some products for preteens encourage them to believe they must be “boy crazy”; even though

these items target girls who are on the brink of puberty, they are expected to be obsessed with

celebrity men. A large portion of girls would not normally conform to these heterosexual,

stereotypical, expectations of what girls are truly interested in.

Sharon Lamb is a mother that completed her own research on stores advertised items to

her daughter. In her book, she reviews what messages popular girls clothing stores send to their

young customers through the products they sell. Notably, JC Penney, Limited Too, and Claires.

Sharon Lamb is a psychology professor at UMass which makes her a credible candidate for

writing about how commercialism affects adolescent girls’ mental health.

S. Liliana Escobar-Chaves, Susan R. Tortolero, Christine M. Markham, Barbara J. Low,

Patricia Eithel, Patricia Thickstun; “Impact of the Media on Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and

Behaviors”; American Academy of Pediatrics; January 12, 2007

This book notes varying types of media and the sexual messages they display to young

people. For example, teen and preteen magazines give advice on how to become more desirable

to men. They reinforce the idea that the most important thing a girl can be is attractive.

Advertisements that overly-sexualize women, without the actual product having anything

remotely to do with sex, leave an impact on young female viewers self-image. Content from
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television, music, video games, and music videos also contribute to the narrative that “cool” girls

must be sexual by nature.

Most of the authors of this publication have their Ph.D. and are Behavioral Science

professors at the University of Texas making them suitable to comment on this topic. I selected

this source because it contains statistics of how often sexual content is in each type of media.

They also conducted a study to see if the media encourages sexual protection, mentions STIs or

risk of pregnancy, and whether the content is promoting having multiple sexual partners.

However, this research is from 2007 and social media, in particular, has completely changed

since then. I will use this source to compare how media presents sexuality to girls nowadays

versus twenty years ago.

Jackson, Sue and Vares, Tiina; “Too many bad role models for us girls’: Girls, female pop

celebrities and ‘sexualization”; Sexualities; August 1, 2016

The main argument in this source is that the sexual messages promoted by many female

celebrities with young fan bases are unhealthy and damaging to girls understanding of sex. In a

broader sense, this research examines pop culture’s role in sex. Pop culture is the first form of

sexual “education” many children encounter, however is likely not the healthiest in forming

realistic expectations of sex. The author uses direct quotations from conversations between

young girls about female celebrities. Each data point is a recorded quotation from one of the

girls. The conclusion is that many celebrity role models lead to girls to have an internalized

sexist view of them. They call for action, urging parents to ask their daughters questions on how

they feel about their role models and what messages they take away from them.
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Both Sue Jackson and Tiina Vares have written multiple publications on feminist rhetoric,

specifically focused on younger generations. Sue Jackson is a professor at the School of

Psychology at Victoria University. Tiina Vares is also a professor who is currently teaching at the

University of Canterbury. Due to their expertise in their areas of study, these authors are more

than credible and have collected research thoroughly.

Oppliger, Patrice A Ph.D.; “Girls Gone Skank: The Sexualization of Girls in American Culture”;

McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers; 2008

This source highlights how technology and pop culture have caused girls to grow up in an

especially sexual environment. Because it is so normalized, it has gotten to the point that girls

will sexualize themselves unprovoked. This contributes to social commentary on how American

culture has changed in the last 30 years. The author cites statistics on breast enhancements,

fashion, and pornography. The data in this article was collected online in the form of ad

campaigns and medical statistics. The data points are separated into categories such as Breast

Enhancement, Fashion, and The Internet. The author concludes that girls are growing up faster

because they feel it is expected of them. This article calls for a cultural shift where Americans

could view sex as sacred and as an adult activity.

Oppliger has a Ph.D. in communications and is a professor at Boston College. Because

this topic falls into the scope of her major she is an expert on it. This source is similar to

Durham’s book, because it recognizes that girls are willing to sexualize themselves in order to

succeed in our modern world. This source is different than others because it comes American

culture to what it used to be. As a culture, America used to be more sexually conservative than it

is now.
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Slater, Amy and Tiggemann, Marika; “Little girls in a grown up world: Exposure to sexualized

media, internalization of sexualization messages, and body image in 6-9 year-old girls”;

ScienceDirect; May 26, 2016

The purpose of this article is to see if there is a connection between the amount of sexual

content consumed by girls and a lower body image. This topic connects to rhetorical discussions

on the unrealistic beauty standards women face. This article is in response to the APA’s 2007

report that girls are becoming more sexualized. Research was completed for this article by

conducting individual interviews with 300 6 to 9-year-olds. The interviews measured the

internalization of sexual messages, exposure to sexual media and body dissatisfaction. The main

argument in this source is girls who are exposed to sexual context are more likely to sexualize

themselves but at the same time be less satisfied with their bodies.

Both Amy Slater and Marika Tiggemann are professors with their doctoral degrees

working at the Centre for Appearance Research at the University of the West of England and

School of Psychology at Flinders University, respectively. This is like other sources I have used

(“Too many bad role models for us girls’: Girls, female pop celebrities and ‘sexualization”)

because the research is conducted by asking girls how they view themselves rather than looking

at products and advertisements. This way, the effects of media are far more obvious.

Literature Review
American culture has changed and in turn, our collective view of women has changed.

Women have been told that sex is liberating, and that is a positive thing, but liberation often is

mistaken with objectification and young girls are following their lead. In 2007 the American
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Psychology Association sent out a report on the increasingly harmful sexualization of little girls

and its consequences. This began a heated discourse on what specifically is causing this

epidemic-level issue. Sex is everywhere, it is on television, mentioned in songs, and displayed in

video games (Oppliger, Patrice A Ph.D, 13). And this would all be just fine if it promoted

realistic expectations of girls but instead a lot of it depicts violent, unfaithful, and unprotected

sexual scenarios. Before children are taught sex education in school; they will already have an

unhealthy understanding of it through what they learned in pop culture (Jackson Sue and Vares

Tiina 5). It is one thing for girls to grow up in a hyper-sexual environment that is modern day

America, but on top of that they are constantly encouraged by products and advertisements to be

sexual figures themselves. In 2002, Abercrombie and Fitch released a line of thong underwear

that read, “Wink Wink,” and “Eye Candy” for girls as young as seven (M. Gigi Durham Ph.D.

28). Marketers sell products like these because they know they will make a profit, there is an

abundance of elementary-age girls whose parents will see no issue in purchasing a thong for their

second grader. There is strong evidence to suggest girls understand sexual innuendo and the

more they are exposed to it, the worse their body image is (Slater, Amy and Tiggemann, Marika

11). As a society, we cannot let a generation of little girls believe they need breast enhancement

surgery to look like the heavily edited photos of women in magazines; it is irresponsible and we

are failing them. Especially considering that until puberty, children are considered “asexual”, in

other words, they have no sexual desires at all (Sharon Lamb, Ed.D. Lyn Mikel Brown Ed.D.

21). Furthermore, adolescent girls want these products not because they have any sexual feelings

of their own, but because they see successful women flaunting their sexuality and equate

provocativeness with getting ahead in life. Marketers can so effortlessly take advantage of this;

at the end of the day, we still live in a patriarchal society where women are sexualized at any
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given chance and as a result, little girls are too. All in all, girls should be encouraged to enjoy

their childhoods without worrying about being “sexy” because there is nothing sexy about a kid.

Advertisements and products that promote sexual messages to girls damage the natural sexual

and mental development they would naturally have.