{"id":38557,"date":"2011-08-15T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2011-08-15T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=38557"},"modified":"2015-09-20T00:10:26","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T05:10:26","slug":"sexualized-vs-sexual-the-case-of-thylane-blondeau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/08\/15\/sexualized-vs-sexual-the-case-of-thylane-blondeau\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexualized vs. Sexual: The Case of Thylane Blondeau"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: Christie W., \u00a0Michel E., Andrew S., and an anonymous reader asked us to write about the recent discussion of\u00a0Thylane Loubry Blondeau. \u00a0We’re pleased to feature a guest blogger doing just that.<\/em><\/p>\n

There is no shortage of sexualized images of girls in American culture.\u00a0 Shows like TLC\u2019s Toddlers and Tiaras frequently contain over-the-top sexualized portrayals of girls.\u00a0 Images like these are undeniably sexualized.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

However, these images of Thylane Loubry Blondeau, a 10-year-old French model making headlines this week, are creating controversy instead of condemnation.\u00a0 Some argue that, unlike the child beauty queens, the photographs of Blondeau are art<\/em>.\u00a0 There is an interesting class effect here; unlike the hypersexualized girls on shows like Toddlers and Tiaras, the photos of Blondeau are high fashion, therefore high class, and therefore acceptable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m no prude.\u00a0 I think that children are \u2013 and have a right to be \u2013 sexual beings.\u00a0 However, there is a difference between sexuality<\/em> (feeling <\/em>sexual) and sexualization <\/em>(being seen as<\/em> sexy). <\/em>I (and many other like-minded feminists) believe that girls should<\/em> be sexual; but, sexualization (and its concomitant focus on appearance instead of desire) is bad because it denies girls\u2019 sexual subjectivity in favor of sexual objectification.<\/p>\n

There is ample psychological research to support this notion that sexualization is bad. \u00a0An American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls<\/a> reported in 2007 that sexualization is linked with negative consequences such as disordered eating, low self-esteem, and deficits in cognitive and physical functioning.\u00a0 These links have been identified in both girls and women \u2013 some as young as Blondeau.<\/p>\n

Sexualized images like these are troublesome at the societal level as well.\u00a0 They encourage others to view young girls as objects of sexiness.\u00a0 Additionally, these images are hugely problematic for girls and women with body image issues.\u00a0 The fashion industry already promotes the thin ideal.\u00a0 These pictures of Blondeau push the envelope by explicitly promoting the prepubescent thin ideal, a body type that is wholly unattainable for women.\u00a0 The normalization of beautifying a 10-year-old\u2019s body type can have potentially disastrous consequences for women\u2019s body image.<\/p>\n

It is dangerous to assume that \u201chigh fashion\u201d sexualization is \u201cart\u201d and therefore less of an issue than lower class sexualization.\u00a0 I do not take the paternalistic view that girls should be \u201cprotected\u201d against sexualization. Instead, we should work with girls (and boys) to discourage sexualization and to encourage strength, intelligence, and sexual agency.<\/p>\n

Images from\u00a0tvtropes<\/a>,\u00a0Jezebel<\/a>, and\u00a0Snob<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sarah McKenney is a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at the University of Texas at Austin where she studies gender development and the sexualization of girls.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: Christie W., \u00a0Michel E., Andrew S., and an anonymous reader asked us to write about the recent discussion of\u00a0Thylane Loubry Blondeau. \u00a0We’re pleased to feature a guest blogger doing just that. There is no shortage of sexualized images of girls in American culture.\u00a0 Shows like TLC\u2019s Toddlers and Tiaras frequently contain over-the-top sexualized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,279,223,29,225,55,2103,2093,675,120],"class_list":["post-38557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodies","tag-objectification","tag-childrenyouth","tag-class","tag-clothesfashion","tag-gender","tag-gender-bodies","tag-gender-objectification","tag-psychology","tag-sex"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38557"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67968,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38557\/revisions\/67968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}