Thaindian News

Washington, May 11 (IANS) Are clothiers turning young girls into sex objects? According to a new study, up to 30 percent of young girls’ clothing available online in the US is sexy or sexualizing.

Sexualization occurred most frequently on items that emphasized a sexualized body part, such as shirts and dresses designed to create the look of breasts, or highly decorated pants’ pockets that called attention to the buttocks.

The study was carried out by Samantha Goodin, former Kenyon College (Ohio, US) student and a research team led by Sarah Murnen, professor of psychology at Kenyon College, reports the journal Sex Roles.

In their view, this has serious implications for how girls evaluate themselves according to a sexualized model of feminine physical attractiveness, according to a Kenyon College statement.

According to ‘objectification theory’, women from Western cultures are widely portrayed and treated as objects of the male gaze.

This leads to the development of self-objectification, in which girls and women internalize these messages and view their own bodies as objects to be evaluated according to narrow standards often sexualized - of attractiveness.

Bearing in mind the negative effects of self-objectification such as body dissatisfaction, depression, low confidence and low self-esteem, Goodin and team looked at the role of girls’ clothing as a possible social influence that may contribute to self-objectification in preteen girls.

They examined the frequency and nature of sexualizing clothing available for young girls (children not adolescents) on the websites of 15 popular stores in the US.

Across all the stores, of the 5,666 clothing items studied, 69 percent had only childlike characteristics, e.g. polka dot patterns and ribbons.

Of the remaining 31 percent, four percent had only sexualized characteristics, 25 percent had both sexualizing and childlike features, and four percent had neither sexualized nor childlike elements.