WUNRN
USA - STUDY OF TEEN FEMALE
SEXUALIZATION ON PRIMETIME TV
Direct Link to Full 21-Page Report:
Parents Television Council - PTC
Study: Sexualized Teen Girls
Are Hollywood's New Target
LOS ANGELES (December 15, 2010) –
In a new report, the Parents Television Council™ details the nature and extent
of
PTC found that when underage female characters appear on screen: more sexual
content is depicted; the teen girls show next to no negative response to being
sexualized; more sexual incidents occur outside of any form of a committed
relationship; and there is less accuracy in the TV content rating.
“The results from this report show Tinseltown’s eagerness to not only objectify
and fetishize young girls, but to sexualize them in such a way that real teens
are led to believe their sole value comes from their sexuality. This report is
less about the shocking numbers that detail the sickness of early sexualization
in our entertainment culture and more about the generation of young girls who
are being told how society expects them to behave,” said PTC President Tim
Winter.
“Storylines on the most popular shows among teens are sending the message to
our daughters that being sexualized isn’t just acceptable, it should be sought
after. It is outrageous that TV executives have made it their business to
profit off of programs that depict teen girls blissfully being sexualized by
casual partners and only showing disapproval for being sexualized five percent
of the time.
“The TV networks really stick it to families by leaving off the ‘S’ descriptor
to warn them about this type of sexual content a shocking 75 percent of the
time. But parents and the PTC aren’t just asking for more warning, we are
asking the entertainment industry to take immediate steps to reverse this
trend.
“It will take action from parents, actors themselves, and advertisers who pay
for TV content – not to mention awareness on the part of the public and our
elected representatives – to instigate change. Combining the pervasiveness of
teen sexualization with the well-documented research on the consequences –
everything from body dissatisfaction to depression – should be more than
enough.
“To any parent of a pre-teen or teenage girl, the harm of sexualized imagery is
readily apparent. We cannot allow our daughters, not to mention boys and adult
men, to accept the message that women should be valued only for their sex
appeal - even if it seems every magazine cover, billboard, movie, and television
program convey that message,” Winter concluded.
Nielsen data was used to identify the top 25 shows for ages 12 to 17. Analysts
focused on scripted, primetime broadcast programming on the top 25 list which
aired during the first two weeks of the November 2009 sweeps period (October
29, 2009 - November 11, 2009) and the May 2010 sweeps period (April 29, 2010 –
May 12, 2010). The data was reviewed based on numerous different factors
ranging from the genre of the program to the gender of the initiator and the
participant’s attitude toward the sexualizing incident.
Major Findings:
• Underage female characters are shown participating in a higher percentage of
sexual depictions compared to adults (47% and 29% respectively).
• Only 5% of the underage female characters communicated any form of dislike
for being sexualized (excluding scenes depicting healthy sexuality).
• Out of all the sexualized female characters depicted in the underage and
young adult category for the entire database, 86% were presented as only being
of high school age.
• Seventy-five percent of shows that included sexualized underage female
characters were shows that did not have an “S” descriptor to warn parents about
the sexual content.
• Based upon a definition established by the American Psychological Association
of “healthy” vs. “unhealthy” sexuality, the study findings show that 93% of the
sexual incidents involving underage female characters occurred within a context
that qualified as “unhealthy.”
• The data revealed that 98% of the sexual incidents involving underage female
characters occurred outside of any form of a committed relationship.
• The data show that 73% of the underage sexualized incidents were presented in
a humorous manner or as a punch line to a joke.