Sexy Little Girls
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I have to confess, I’m disturbed by beauty queens. While some of you may see a colorfully painted and costumed clown, innocently twisting and wrenching harmless little balloons into bizarre parodies of ordinary objects and be struck suddenly with a sense of anxiety and fear, I feel the same way about Miss America. After all, they’re really just painted clowns of a different type, right? Performing, prancing around and looking oh-so-natural in six inch spiked heels can be an interesting show, but I’m always waiting for them to throw up right there on stage so the gown will fit just a weeeeee bit better. AND, the only thing creepier than beauty queens? Little girl beauty queens. Think Jonbenet Ramsey, pre-strangulation. I see them and can’t help but think of those life-sized dollies standing in a box behind a clear plastic film in the 5-and-dime toy department. Their gaze is always dead and disturbing … just like the dollies. As it turns out, little girls as young as six are hot for Daddy. Yup – according to a new study, the little tykes wanna be sexy and I’m going to tell you all about it. Here’s the story from The Mail Online:
They may throw tantrums, struggle to use utensils and can barely spell their own names, but a new study has found that six-year-old girls have already begun thinking about themselves as sexy.
The study, published in the journal Sex Roles, asked girls from the Midwest to select which doll they most identified with: a gussied up, ‘sexy’ doll and a more conservative one.
A devastating majority chose the sexier one as the one they most wanted to be and the one that was more likely to be popular.
‘It’s very possible that girls wanted to look like the sexy doll because they believe sexiness leads to popularity, which comes with many social advantages,’ lead researcher Christy Starr said to MSNBC.
Sixty girls and their mothers participated in the study.
Using a different set of dolls for each question, the researchers ask the girls which one looked like herself, looked how she wanted to look, was the popular girl in school and was the one she wanted to play with.
The researches said they were inspired by the ever evolving playthings of the nation’s little girls.
‘On the heels of 20th century criticism of the anatomically questionable Barbie doll came the 21st century Bratz doll-an adolescent-figured doll modelling sexy clothing and make-up on huge eyes and plump lips,’ they write.
In order to understand why the girls chose the sexy dolls, they asked their mothers about their media intake, own self-objectification and amount of involvement with their daughter’s body image.
According to the study, girls who watched a lot of TV and who had mothers who self-objectified were more likely to choose the sexy doll.
The researchers believe that the media instructs girls to be predisposed to self-sexualization and then the instruction, or lack thereof, by their mothers amplifies that tendency.
However, mothers who did not self-objectify had daughters who were less likely to choose the sexy doll, meaning that maternal influence can counteract media.
‘As maternal TV instruction served as a protective factor for sexualization, it’s possible that higher media usage simply allowed for more instruction,’ Ms Starr said to MSNBC.
They also found that girls that participated in dance class were less likely to choose the sexy doll, purporting that the classes instilled a strong and positive sense of body image.
I dunno about you but if I had a little girl, I think I’d just encourage her to spend the Summer at clown camp. Sure, her future may involve mutilating balloons but when it comes to kids, I’ll take the whiteface and big shoes over fishnets and heels any day.
I’m Jeffrey Lynch and that’s today’s Spot of Bother.
Musical credits:
Bother Me Often, Carter Beale
Bothersome Reprise, Carter Beale
