Sexualization of Pre-teen Girls in Advertisement

1. Sexualization of Pre-teen Girls in Advertisement By Liz Facchini

2. Thesis • Through exposure to sexualized advertisements, pre-teen girls are forced to construct an unrealistic image of themselves in order to imitate their surroundings.

3. Method • The three magazines I chose to analyze were Seventeen, Girls Life and Sports Illustrated Kids. My original ad was in Seventeen, and I chose Girls Life because it was targeted towards a similar demographic as Seventeen and I wanted to analyze the difference and similarities in the advertisements, models and features of the magazines. I chose Sports Illustrated Kids in contrast to both Seventeen and Girls Life in order to fully compare the way the magazines portrayed girls and sexuality.

4. Categories • Male gaze? • Race? • Celebrity used to sell product? • Geared toward youth? • Overtly sexual?

5. Evidence • Seventeen: 89% of the advertisements were classified as overtly sexual, 95% of the images the male gaze was present, use of celebrity such as Ashley Greene, Kristen Stewart and Miley Cyrus to sell products, and 80% of models used were white. Advertisements were largely focused on cosmetics, beauty products and sexualized clothing that were far from age-appropriate • Girls Life: 24% of the advertisements were classified as overtly sexual and in 37% of the advertisements the male gaze was present. There was the use of celebrity such as Selena Gomez, DemiLovato and Taylor Swift to sell products but also not as frequently as Seventeen. 65% of models were shown as white. There was much less of a focus on beauty products and more of a spotlight on products such as books and video games • Sports Illustrated: advertisements for specific products were sparse, and photographs and features were focused on a male audience. When females were shown, they were not sexualized or photographed with the male gaze in mind. I classified none of the images as overtly sexual. 73% of people photographed were white. There were a lot of tear-out trading cards in the magazine as well as advertisements for videogames and factual books.

6. So What? • In the advertisements I analyzed, an alarming amount of young girls are shown as being over-sexualized. They are being taught how to dress in order to appeal to boys through the use of the male gaze as well as the use of celebrity and real-life images of girls all imitating a similar style of dress. This creates a sense that in order for girls to feel good about themselves, and also to fit in amongst their peers, they must imitate the styles being shown in magazines.