The Oversexualisation of Teenage Girls and the Role Media Plays

It is no secret that young girls today grow up tragically quickly - whether due to social media validation, copying their idols, sexuality as empowerment or the normalisation of hookup culture - it has become very normal for girls to be desperately trying to be women. 

And it is a good thing that young people are more educated in sex and relationships than their families before them. Yet, the infantilization of adult women, anonymity and competition on social media, and glamourising of ‘barely legal’, ‘taboo’ and ‘DDLG’ have put a spotlight on young girls to be constantly performing and catering to the male gaze. 

So what is infantilization? 

Infantilization is the act of projecting smallness, submissiveness, youth or childishness onto women, or the act of being aroused by it. 

In terms of the debate around infantilization and womanhood, though, it can manifest in many ways, from the removal of womanly body hair to look smoother, younger, more childlike, to the running gag in every sitcom ever about a woman’s life being over at thirty, to ‘schoolgirl’ or ‘DDLG’ fantasies in the bedroom. 

The media encourages this, and in the films you have watched you may have found yourself watching fully grown adults playing the roles of high-schoolers. This often may not be intentional, but can be harmful, especially when the sixteen year old character looks like a twenty-three year old woman. 

The woman is fully developed, and of course it would not be untoward for a man to fantasise about her in any other setting, but when this sexually developed and mature woman is playing a minor - and when the line blurs between character and actress, the man may find himself seeing it as normal to be attracted to a senior in high-school . 

This is mainly due to the unrealistic standards portrayed - actors tend to be better looking than most, the setting tends to be glamorized or sensationalised, the love scenes intensified. Most schools and pupils in a show or film do not look like their real life equivalent, which is generally much more lacklustre and sullen. 

You will often tend to see shows now trying to swerve this by using a loophole - they will purposely be ambiguous as to the ages of the characters. They may appear as final-year high-schoolers, and therefore old enough for love-and-sex drama,  but the series may take place in the high-school setting for two or three years. References to ages may be purposefully avoided. 

And the media definitely has an impact. For example, take Megan Fox, who from the age of fourteen was deliberately dressed in provocative clothing and objectified in all of her artwork, which at the time harmed her reputation. She was a sex symbol in a time where sex was still stigmatised. 

Or take Emma Watson. It was so normal to sexualise young girls at this point that UK tabloid The Sun ran a countdown to her 16th birthday, at which point she would be legal and fair game to sleep with. 

Such predatory behaviour has been stamped into us as normal from childhood, and no matter how far we have come since then, it will take a long time for us to stop finding metaphorical sand everywhere - little crumbs of the patriarchy buried everywhere out of sight. 

If you still do not believe us, though, take a look at the below Google searches. Completely normal searches, no filters or changed settings - but when you google ‘Schoolgirl’ you see adult women, scantily clad - but when you Google ‘Schoolboy’ the results are innocent and the people shown are actually of schoolboy age. 

The objectification of women is a fact that has been far too readily dismissed or accepted in our society. But it is critical to understand how the objectification of young women and refusal to allow them to be innocent, together with the infantilization of adult women, is putting our children at risk. 

Written by Jasmine Lowen 

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