Sexualized Teen Girls: Tinseltown's New Target: A Study of Teen Female Sexualization in Prime-Time TV

From the Parents Television Council (PTC), this document reports on a study examining teen female sexualisation in prime-time television. The following is excerpted from the Executive Summary:

"...The study used sexualization as a mechanism for understanding the proliferation of sexually explicit teen female images in the media....As a response to public concern, the American Psychological Association’s (APA) 2007 report examined and summarize ...psychological theory, research, and clinical experience on the topic. The APA’s study suggests that the sexualization of girls may not only reflect sexist attitudes, a societal tolerance of sexual violence, and the exploitation of girls and women, but may also contribute to these phenomena. The implications of these findings, combined with the lack of research specifically addressing the proliferation and sexualization of underage females, was central to PTC’s commitment to examine and better understand [these] issues.

Further, PTC recognizes that central to every parent’s concerns are not only the issue of a child’s attitude towards sex, but also the process by which knowledge, attitudes, and values about sexuality are acquired. ...[T]elevision often presents teens with new models of bad behavior, frequently within a framework that is void of consequences. The result is that today’s youth are growing up with a media-market version of sexuality.

Ultimately, the risks for these girls lie in the tendency for mass media messages to miscommunicate the true definition of what it means to be female. However, the greater risk is in sending the message to today’s young girls that their sexuality is their primary identity and most valued commodity.

The present study analyzed all scripted programs within a Nielsen ranking of the top 25 prime-time shows for viewers aged 12-17 in the 2009-2010 season.... Below are a few of our findings:

• The presence of an underage female was associated with higher amounts of sexualizing depictions compared to the onscreen appearance of an adult female....
  
• Out of all the sexualized scenes depicting underage or young adult female characters, 86% of those female characters were presented as ...being of high school age.
  
• ...5% of the underage female characters communicated any form of dislike for being sexualized.
  
• One or several instances of implied nudity and/or sexual gestures (e.g. suggestive dancing, erotic kissing, erotic touching and/or implied intercourse) were in every onscreen scene that contained sexualized depictions of underage girls.
  
• It is unclear how existing parental devices like the V-Chip can be useful in helping families avoid explicit sexual content portrayed by underage characters, given that 75% of the shows that contained the content did not have an S-descriptor [indicator that a programme contains sexual content] in the content rating.

....In summary, results from this report show that when underage female characters appear on screen, there is: more sexualizing content depicted; fewer negative responses to being sexualized; more sexualizing incidents occurring outside of any form of committed relationships; more female initiation in the sexualized scenes, or mutual agreement between the teen and her partner that the sexualizing incident is acceptable; and less accuracy in the content rating.

....a national dialogue demands the involvement, awareness, and commitment to positive change by every segment of the marketplace, including:

• Parents, who must pay closer attention to the numerous and often harmful media images and messages their daughters are consuming in entertainment;
  
• The creators, performers and distributors of entertainment media, who must understand the magnitude of their influence and the role they play;
  
• The advertisers, whose media dollars underwrite television programming that contains sexualized content;
  
• Industry commentators and journalists, whose critical observations help to influence the behavior of the entertainment industry;
  
• Our public servants, who have regulatory oversight of the public airwaves and who must ensure that the public interest is being served;
  
• And teenaged girls themselves, who must understand the sexualization issue and take an active and aggressive stance, either individually or collaboratively through groups like SPARK."