The American Psychological Association, in response to analyzing the effects of sexualized images on girls and young women, found that it had a strong negative impact upon their healthy development.
They defined sexualization as "occurring when a person's value comes only from her or his sexual appeal or behaviour, to the exclusion of other characteristics, and when a person is portrayed purely as a sex object."
Images in the various media outlets have an effect upon their physical and mental health, cognitive functioning and healthy sexual development, said the experts, when they studied marketing campaigns and products that targeted that demographic.
Eileen Zurbriggen, chair of the group and associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz said that "Sexualisation can lead to a lack of confidence with their bodies as well as depression and eating disorders. Such images also have a negative effect on healthy sexual development in girls."
"One of the key things here is social responsibility. Advertisers and other media need to be aware that the products they produce and images associated with them have an impact and it's not always a good impact," said Andrew Hill, a professor of medical psychology at the University of Leeds.
Their conclusion was that there needs to be more information provided for parents, health and school personnel to understand the impacts that this type of imagery has upon girls and young women. They also said that young ladies should also be taught "media literacy skills" that expose the negativity surrounding girls being shown as sex objects.
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