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Over-sexualization of female image in today’s social media


“Welcome to Generation XXX, where private are Public, and EXTREME is the Norm”---Sexy Baby (Official Trailer)

Communication never been faster or easier than what we have today, and our lives has became increasing individualized, it all about what we do, what we posted on your social site, we want to show everybody that are on our social media site and how great our life is. We changed our profile picture regularly with the prettiest, hottest, or sweetest picture of us, so we can get some few comments and some like from these website. I have to admit, I like seeing all the like on my page and all the compliments under my picture. This is our generation, and this is the norm of our lives. And sometimes, I wonder, what is wrong with the current generation.  
We are now live in a culture where sexuality is no longer a taboo, however, people still see sex as a private thing and it should be a private thing. We now have some really quiet and shy parents giving children awkward “sex talk”, meanwhile children are having access to free online pornography. Social media and pop culture is turning sexuality into a major selling points for their product, we now have pop stars wearing bras and underwear dancing on the stage; we now have parties naming “Girls gone wild”, we now have billboards and posters with half-naked sexy models all over the country, are we really doing any goods for our generation, especially the younger ones?



This documentary Sexy Baby (2012), demonstrate the issue of over-sexualization of female image in today’s social media by resenting three different stories from three different female in different age range, occupation and social background. It talks about how the role of pornography has change how females are view and how sexuality is portrayed in our society, and for the younger generation, pornography has became a norm and it is expected for women to be like those girls in porn, that is how girls or women should be.

One of the stories in this film is about 12 years old, Winnifred who is from Upper East Side of New York City, her parents are all highly educated and she had a happy family. What is shocking for me to know is that while Winnifred and her friend were having a conversation, they said kids their age were already watching pornography online regarding the sex difference. Because most of them have access to computer or smart phones, there is no way for their parents to find out what they did. It was traumatizing for some of them to see these graphic images for the first time, I wonder what physiological effect will these bring to children, this really concerns me.

I remember when I was taking PSYC 1F90 last year, and the class was joking around about how guys and girls learn about relationship, so guys learn about relationship in pornography and girls learn about relationship in Disney Princess movie, well in the case of Winnifred and her friends, both guys and girls are now learning about relationship in pornography, how can these young children learn what a normal relationship should be if there is no single adult to guide these children? I might be exaggerating the issue here, but it’s true that kids today are living in a digital age that appreciate sexuality and this make the idea of female became highly sexualized.
The film spent a big part discussing Winnifred and her friend’s facebook page, one of Winnifred’s friends who is now 13 years old, had sent one of her naked picture to a boy that she liked and the picture ended circulated on facebook for a while, this girl was obviously traumatized by this events, has sexting became a norm in the society for female to show their love to male? Why is doing something like this became acceptable? Even for girls that is underage? The film went on the discussing about Winnifred’s facebook profile, and she was trying to take some picture with see-through top and sexy bra to express her sexuality on her profile, and not surprising, this is what pre-teen are doing nowadays.
The film also talked about Laura’s story, she is a 22 years old kindergarten teacher who has decided to perform a labiaplasty which is a plastic surgery on the labia (the “lips" surrounding the vagina), before watching this film I have no idea what this is and I was shocked that female were actually doing something like this. Laura was told by her pervious boyfriend that her private part didn’t look like the women in porn and he said Laura was abnormal (a freak) for having it. During the interview with the plastic surgeon who performed this kind of surgeries , he was telling the team that his job was super busy, mothers and daughters would often came and performed this kind of surgery together and his youngest client was only 18 years old.

What is meant to be a woman in today’s society has gone through a dramatic change, women nowadays has to be sexy. Over-sexualization of female image has even affecting how young female see themselves and how they dress up. We can see a earlier onset of sexualization. Pornography also has a huge impact on how should women be like and what is normal to be a women in today’s society. These social forces has change how female should behave, how female should be like and how their body should look like. This shouldn’t be the norm of our society; I think it should be the time for us to change is norm.

“We are like the first generation to have what we have, so there is no one before us that can kind of guide us. I mean we are the pioneers.”--- Winnifred, 12, Sexy Baby (Official Trailer)  


Additional Material:
Too Sexy Too Soon:



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