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Christianity Today, September, 2008 |

Review

Girls on Display

Why females younger and younger are being portrayed as sexual objects.

Todd C. Ream and Sara C. Ream | posted 9/23/2008 11:36AM

The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It
M. Gigi Durham
Overlook Hardcover, 2008
320 pp., $16.47

This spring, Disney pop star Miley Cyrus became the center ...

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Dave	Posted: September 26, 2008 1:28 AM

Quote: Bratz dolls are aimed at 4-8-year-old girls, with "dewy lips, fishnet stockings and barely-there miniskirts — a creep-out factor for a lot of moms. Earlier this year, a report from the American Psychological Assn. mentioned the Bratz dolls by name and said 'it is worrisome when dolls designed specifically for 4- to 8-year-olds are associated with an objectified adult sexuality.' " So we have the cultural subversion theme going on: "ten-inch tall hoochie mamas" for little girls to play with. Director of the movie Sean McNamara's first reaction to the dolls is revealing: "These aren't cute dolls — they look like sluts." The driving force behind Bratz is Avi Arad, an Israeli-American who is very big on diversity, at least for America: "The first thing I saw in them was diversity." ... "I really liked the idea that they had a Latino girl, an Asian girl, an African American girl and a lily-white kid." Arad, predictably, is not in favor of the same approach to Israeli culture.

Shirley Hawkes

Posted: September 25, 2008 3:55 PM


I am sick and tired of sexual things with children. Please do what you can to STOP IT!!

Rita	Posted: September 25, 2008 11:04 AM

Though I agree that our culture is too sexual, I am wondering why we have suddenly decided that the age a girl becomes a woman is 18? That is just a number. Throughout history, and especially Bible times, the age was when a girl began menstrating. Once that age hit the girl was available for marriage and therefore sex. We have demonized this idea in our culture. Why? If it was evil, why did God not say so in his word? He was pretty clear about all other sexual sins.

Christie

Posted: September 25, 2008 10:38 AM


Ya. With women's liberty, why would an ADULT woman ever choose to submit to her husband? Well it is a miracle when she does it in love. It glorifies God and reflects how man is able to submit himself to God in his free will. It is not under tyranny or for lack of option, but out of love and in hope.

Crystal

Posted: September 24, 2008 4:40 PM


LEAVE MILEY ALONE !

Les Nordman

Posted: September 24, 2008 3:29 PM

The authors wrote: "This spring, . . . Vanity Fair released photos of (Miley Cyrus) in nothing more than a sheet. . . . these images were particularly troubling due to the age of the star (15) . . . " Wait! Those photographs, the subject, and the photographer, Annie Leibovitz, are not part of the Lolita Effect. First and foremost is the character and history of the photographer, Annie Leibovitz. She does not photograph pornography. For example, take her 2000 Pirelli calendar. She knew that the Pirelli calendar is traditionally high-class soft porn. So she made her images of women exactly what the male consumers made them: pieces of meat. A supremely artistic, non-erotic slap in the face. For a photographer to 1. go straight into the arena such as the Pirelli calendar 2. refuse to participate in the expected behavior 3. subvert the behavior, in that arena, to the exact opposite: she does not do porn. 2. Miley and her dad are smart enought to avoid porn shots.

Roberto

Posted: September 24, 2008 9:39 AM

Let's leave Nabokov out of it. Whatever the term "Lolita" has come to symbolize, it is completely unrelated to the book from which the term originates or the author thereof. The central cause of the sexualization of young girls is the sexualization of our culture, which has little to do with sex itself, but with the substitution of other cultural signifiers with the sexulaized or the replacement of transcendence with the sexual. In an age when transcendence has been denied and/or replaced with the immediacy of a consumer culture, sex is the last signifier of transcendence. The worst of it is that Christians, and Evangelicals more than any other, have bought in to the consumer culture hook, line and sinker. Just look at the smorgasborg of consumer options on display within the Evangelical, consumer friendly subculture that has replaced the genuine biblical faith inagurated by Jesus. Whatever it is, that which passes for the "church" in America, it is not what we seen in the NT text.

back to the proper age

Posted: September 24, 2008 3:50 AM

The first commentator pointed out that Lolita is more about the adult than the child: the fault lies with adults and their over-sexualizing attitude rather than with children. The problem therefore lies in the non-Biblical over-rating of sexal eroticism. Showing affection for the mother or father of your children has fallen by the wayside and the pornographicizing of adults and the adulterous spirit has become widespread and synonomous with sex. Sex is no longer for procreation or showing fondness for the wife or husband of one's youth. Sex is treated as both blase and paradoxically of great intensity and consumes far too much of our time and energy. Long-gone is the age of the apostles in which we live and yearn for fullness in Christ Jesus. This oversexualization in general is the mark of a very corrupt society and has led to camps between "heterosexuals and homosexual" where our identity is first marked by our sexual orientation rather than our propeR gender and its biblical role.

Glenn

Posted: September 24, 2008 12:44 AM

As a father of a teenager, I have been horrified by how young pop stars are oversexualizing everything they do, turning what we once accepted as "bubble gum" pop into the same trash performed by their adult peers. The lyrics have gotten more explicit about sex, the dances and clothes have gotten more sexualized, and the lifestyles of these children has gone too far. Disney has churned out quite a few now-"fallen" teen stars, and yet they don't seem to react with anything more than "Time for another Lohan!" Truly, this tide must be stemmed, or our daughters will be washed away. As for whether the title was a good idea: Let's face it, the girls wouldn't act that way if the boys and men didn't like it. Nabokov's "Lolita" is a perfect reference. I applaud any effort to not only diagnose the problem but also to address solutions for parents. I think that the education needs to happen not only with our girls but in teaching our BOYS proper respect for girls and for sexuality.

Hatji

Posted: September 24, 2008 12:28 AM


I agree that the five cultural assumptions the author mentions need to be challenged with the truth. This trend was first apparent to me (and I was probably late, at that) when Brittany came on the scene appealing to young girls. And then there were the mothers who had their 5 year-olds dressing up and singing, "I'm a Barbie girl" in a talent show. When Mammon is God, nothing is sacred.

Jim B

Posted: September 23, 2008 8:34 PM

The sexualization of children is just the most offensive aspect of the general elimimation of childhood as a social concept. Childhood is a concept that arose in concert with the spread of literacy and mandatory schooling, starting about 100 years after the invention of movable type printing. As our culture becomes less print based and more image based, the ideas and information previously only accessible to those who through time and training were able to read about such things are now accessible to anyone able to sit in front of a television or computer screen. It is a direct result of a technological shift in how we as a society communicate. As Neil Postman said so well, "A society that cannot keep secrets cannot sustain the ideal of childhood". We can't turn back the clock, but we can take steps to monitor, limit, and filter the media our children are exposed to. It often seems like a losing battle with the ubiquitous nature of mass media, but we have to at least try.

Kim	Posted: September 23, 2008 5:26 PM

Another contributer to the reason for the increased sexualization of younger and younger children, not just girls, is that sin isn't defined by people as it once was. If nothing is sinful, then how can it be wrong to sexualize children? In a society where anything goes, it tend to. Ego=Edging God Out. We don't feed our ego, our desires for what we want, without backlash. Defining sin for ourselves/children/society is integral.

Pastor

Posted: September 23, 2008 4:45 PM

What's troubling as well is how popular evangelical Christianity and its media (including host site) hold up Miley and her dad Big Billy as model Christians. Britney Spears' mom's book was originally about parenting, not just a memoir - and Nelson was going to publish it. They just re-purposed the content into the bio now on the market. It shouldn't be surprising, however. I was just watching a documentary that showed Ted Haggard's church (in his then-hetro-pre-homo-now-happily-hetro state) - lots of young women in slinky black clothes leading the singing with fireworks and an American flag. Popular evangelicalism loves trash.

ERO	Posted: September 23, 2008 4:31 PM

I think a closer read of this article would clarify the fact that the five listed descriptions of sexuality are false cultural assumptions, not the opinion of the author. And the reference to the Nabokov novel seems perfectly reasonable to me. Whatever the actual themes of the novel may be, the name "Lolita" has become synonymous with overly-sexualized young girls. It's good to see that writers are addressing this problem and giving parents tools to fight against it.

William

Posted: September 23, 2008 3:28 PM

Without a doubt the sexualization of young girls in our culture is serious issue, but that sexuality is (1) for public display; (2) defined by a narrow or nonexistent ideal; (3) the property of youth; (4) more exciting if it is violent; and (5) about male dominance over females is absurd, simply minded and a reactionary feminist agenda. The core reason for the sexualization of young girls is the ubiquity of the media which has all but obliterated any sense what might be termed "issues of adult concerns", which belong to the realm of adults, not that of children. The favorite twist on this is the young wise child teaching the confused adults in TV and movies. Children have become little adults. Just look at the life of Brittney Spears. The literary ignorance of both this book's title that of the reviewer is also unfortunate. Lolita is not about the sexualization of young girls, but the protagonist's obsession with a young girl, her innocence or lack thereof aside.

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