This is from the American Psychological Association. It is about the sexualization and objectification of girls (and women), and the damaging effects it has upon girls, teens, women, and even on men. It’s excellent. The link is at the end.

Here’s a rough summary of what it’s about:

1) Women are too often portrayed in a sexual manner in the media and society

2) Exposure to the sexual objectification of women in the media affects how GIRLS conceptualize femininity and sexuality

3) A narrow, unrealistic standard of physical beauty is emphasized

4) GIRLS are portrayed in a sexualized manner (for example, with captions such as ‘naughty and nice,’ wearing feather boas, adult women being presented as if they were little girls, etc).

5) Parents (perhaps unwittingly) convey to GIRLS the message that maintaining an attractive appearance is the most important goal

6) GIRLS then themselves encourage one another to meet unrealistic goals of beauty and thinness

7) Products and clothes for girls are designed to sexualize them like sexy celebrities

8) GIRLS learn to treat themselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated for their looks (self-objectification)

9) Studies show that self-objectification impairs mental activities of computation and logical reasoning

10) GIRLS experience anxiety about their appearance

11) GIRLS experience mental problems as a result of objectification and self-objectification, such as eating disorders and low self-esteem

12) Studies have shown a direct relationship between the narrow representations of female beauty (example, a thin ideal) and eating disorders

13) Sexual objectification and self-objectification have been linked to diminished sexual health and sexual assertiveness in teens and adult women

14) Exposure to narrow ideals of female sexual attractiveness can affect men and make it difficult for men to find an ‘adequate’ partner

15) Sexual objectification of women causes sexism, as it forces women to conform to younger and younger standards of an idealized girlified female sexual ‘beauty’

16) The portrayal of women as sexual objects is directly related to fewer GIRLS pursuing careers in math, science, engineering, etc.

http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report.aspx

Moral panic? No. We are resisting the pornification of women

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/01/feminists-pornification-of-women


Women's self-loathing is big business, and supports a global capitalist system that, ironically, depends heavily on the exploitation of women's labour in developing countries. Adding insult to injury, many of these underpaid women are spending a significant proportion of their wages on skin-whitening products that promise social mobility out of the sweatshops...

...An American Psychological Association study on girls' sexualisation found that it "has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, sexuality, and attitudes and beliefs". Some of these effects include risky sexual behaviour, higher rates of eating disorders, depression and low self-esteem, and reduced academic performance. Of course, there are girls who resist, but there are real social penalties to be paid by those who do not conform to acceptable feminine appearance...

...To suggest feminists who oppose the pornification of society are stirring up a moral panic is to confuse a politically progressive movement with rightwing attempts to police sexual behaviour. We can, of course, identify just such a conservative strand in current debates in Britain: interventions of the coalition government include calls for girls to be given lessons in how to practise abstinence and attacks on abortion rights. But feminists who organise against pornification are not arguing that sexualised images of women cause moral decay; rather that they perpetuate myths of women's unconditional sexual availability and object status, and thus undermine women's rights to sexual autonomy, physical safety and economic and social equality. The harm done to women is not a moral harm but a political one, and any analysis must be grounded in a critique of the corporate control of our visual landscape...

(see the rest of the article at the link above)

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This article explains how the sexual objectification of women is a real profit-maker for capitalists.