So I wanted to continue with my discussion in my last post about sexiness, but I want to now focus now on more about how sexiness in our culture effects the younger generation.
When I was younger I did not understand what sexy was. The only exposure I would get was from tv shows or movies that would talk about a sexy woman. This was usually some woman that was in a skimpy or revealing outfit. I can remember looking at myself in the mirror afterwards and wonder why don’t I look like that, will I ever look like that when I am grown up. Well I am pretty much grown up and I am pretty sure I still don’t look like those women in the movies or magazines.
Now different from when I was growing up, our current young generation of girls are living in a age where social media is how they get most of their daily information or spend most of their time on. These are social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and you can argue getting information through websites like Youtube and Netflix.Because this generation is constantly being bombarded by advertisements, tv shows, magazines, and everything else out there that can exposure them to things that can be deemed sexy how are they able to piece together what exactly sexy is?
Some people would say children learn about what being sexy from watching TV shows and movies that are risqué. I can remember when I was younger my mom would let me watch PG-13 movies with her and sometimes there would be something that she thought was too sexual or sexy for me to watch. Once she feel asleep when I was watching Titainc and I saw the sex scene. Honestly I really thought nothing of it. It wasn’t until afterwards when my mom found out what I had watched and she had a look of horror on her face of what made me think was really dirty and raunchy this then made made me think twice of what exactly did I just watch.
So I wouldn’t say young girls learn about sexiness through TV, movies, or magazines but rather through their own peers.Its the social community they are brought up in like girls from their school, soccer team, etc. Its when young girls are starting to go through puberty when they start to question what being sexy actually is. This is because their bodies are ragging with hormones and will feel this need to be a little sexy.
When I was that age and I got into junior high and everyone starting wearing tighter shirts and shorter skirts and I came home one day asking my mom if I could buy sexier clothing.This was because everyone else was wearing clothing like that and I was feeling left out, I realized now that this is the new norm to being a girl my age. I like to call this stage is a young girls life the Britney Spears song, “I’m not a girl not yet a woman”. Its the in between stage for young girls who are discovering new things about their selfs and their bodies. This is when they are trying to find comfort in this new skin they are getting.
Many girls who are going through this stage have a lot of self esteem issues and many people argue it is the media that is hurting these young girls from being comfortable in their bodies but really I would argue again it is their peers that are the ones that are hurting them the most. If young girls had a strong foundation of peers and friends that didn’t care the way someone looked a lot of girls would probably feel a lot more confident and fine with their appearance but unfortunately our society thinks too much of the way people look.
So I don’t have necessarily a plan of action to help this issue and I think this will always be a problem for young girls. But maybe being a aware that this is occurring to young girls in our society we can be that person that can explain what being a sexy person is and help them through this tough and awkward stage in their life.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 