Web and reality TV help make
porn pervasive
By MARTHA IRVINE, AP National Writer, Yahoo News, June 3, 2007
CHICAGO - Porn used to be relegated to a video hidden in the
bottom drawer, or a
magazine under the mattress. Today, it's part of everyday life.
Hugh Hefner's girlfriends have become TV's "girls
next door." Porn stars have MySpace pages
and do voiceovers for video games. And while "porn on
demand" is standard for hotel TVs
and upgraded cable packages, it's even easier to
find it with a few clicks on the computer.
In April, 2007, more than a third of the U.S.
Internet audience visited sites that fit into the
online "adult" category, according to comScore Media Metrix.
So the message is clear: In today's world, sex
doesn't just sell. The pervasiveness of porn has
made sexiness from subtle to raunchy a much-sought-after attribute online, at school
and even at work.
Many agree that the trend has had a particularly
strong influence on young women in some
cases, taking shape as an unapologetic embracing of sexuality
and exhibitionism.
"I am one of those girls," says Holly Eglinton, a
31-year-old Canadian who recently won a
talent search competition to appear as an unclothed newscaster on
the Internet's "Naked
News." She auditioned after meeting a producer for the
show on a social networking site
where she's posted provocative photos of herself
an increasingly common practice.
For Eglinton, taking off her clothes for an Internet
audience was freeing, fun and a little
rebellious.
"It's something that sort of suits my personality,"
she says. "I'm kind of an extrovert and a bit of
a camera hog, a poser."
It's a prevalent sentiment in our look-at-me culture.
But many wonder if it really is empowering,
especially for younger women and girls who try to emulate
what's already on the Web.
Too often, educators and health professionals say,
the results are cases of "Girls Gone Wild"
gone wild.
Michael Simon, a therapist and high school counselor
in the San Francisco Bay area, has seen
an increasing number of girls and young women in his
private practice after episodes in which
they undressed or masturbated in front of
a Web cam for people they met online.
"Instead of pornography or performative sexuality
being one choice among many ways of
being sexual, it's essentially become the standard of sexiness,"
says Simon. "It's also the
standard by which a man or woman is a prude, depending on
how much they embrace that
kind of sexuality."
Yvonne K. Fulbright, a sexologist and author who
co-hosts the "Sex Files"
program on Sirius
satellite radio, also has seen the shift in attitude.
She's posted messages on Craigslist looking for
people who want to comment on various
topics for the show and, instead, often receives responses from
young women who send
descriptions of their breast and waist sizes.
"They're under the impression that they can be the
next big thing," Fulbright says.
"Unfortunately, for a lot of females that means taking off your clothes
and being sexual.
"It's a really warped sense of what it means to be
sexy."
Indeed, there was a time when dancing for the masses
in barely there outfits was the realm of
music video stars and strippers. Then the Internet and
reality TV came along, providing new
platforms for young women to flaunt it for a shot at
fame.
In one hit prime-time series, for instance, eager
young contestants perform soft- core porn
dance routines in hopes of becoming the next member of The
Pussycat Dolls singing group.
The fascination with being "hot" also has made its
way into the workplace, where confidence is
often conveyed in the way one looks and dresses.
"I would say that, in the world of Washington, D.C.,
power brokers, it's important to be sexy,
but in a more sophisticated, muted way," says Charles Small, a
25- year-old young
professional who works in the nation's capital. That's in
contrast, he says, to cities such as Los
Angeles and Miami, "where overt sexiness is
more the status quo."
Some employers taken aback by the trend have
responded by setting tougher dress
codes. Many school administrators have done the same.
"As a high school teacher, I see 14-year-old girls
dressing in a way that makes me shake my
head. Where do they get that?" asks Dennis Brown, an educator and parent in Huntley, Ill.,
outside Chicago.
Recently, he says his own 5-year-old daughter
proclaimed, "Daddy, I look fat."
"And I thought, 'Oh my gosh, here we go,'" he says.
"Now I have to start deconstructing that
mind-set."
It's a big topic of discussion among researchers. A
2007 report from the American
Psychological Association compiled the findings of myriad studies, showing
that the
sexualization of young women and girls, in particular, can hurt them in
many ways. Problems
can include anything from low-self esteem and eating disorders to depression and anxiety.
Simon, the California therapist, has seen those
symptoms in several of his young female
patients.
While boys tend to seek out porn for their own sexual
pleasure, he sees a sexual disconnect
with girls who exhibit provocative behavior they're not ready
for
from undressing online to
performing oral sex on boys.
"It doesn't have anything to do with their sexual
pleasure," says Simon. "It has to do with
pleasing somebody else the grasping for attention.
"As a parent, it makes me want to cry."
And while they tell him they feel empowered, too
often, he says they end up getting pegged as
"sluts."
Julie Albright, a sociologist at the University of
Southern California, has noted that dynamic in
her research. She's working on a book about "players," men who
juggle more than one sex
partner and earn a title of esteem for behavior that
much of society still frowns upon for
women.
"If you 'act like a man,' in that sense, you're
trying to grab hold of that same kind of power, that
same kind of lifestyle and claim male privilege," Albright
says.
"The problem is, you're still female and it's still a
man's world."
Anna Stanley, a 25-year-old in Madison, Wis., knows
all about that double standard. She also
wonders if she and her peers place too much importance
on the power of sexiness.
"It seems like it stems out of the 'Girl Power' thing
of the '90s gone awry men objectify us,
so let's objectify ourselves and get something out of it.
It's not really progress," she says. "But
it's something I have mixed feelings about
because sometimes I do it, too.
"Sometimes you do dress up to get noticed and
attention, and you do feel more confident
when you do that."
She wishes there was more focus on helping women
develop a healthy sense of their own
sexuality.
Missy Suicide founder of the "Suicide Girls" pinup
Web site couldn't agree more.
"I think that women shouldn't be afraid of their
sexuality. It's a part of who we are. You
shouldn't be embarrassed and ashamed of your body and yourself," says
the 29-year-old
entrepreneur, who lives in Los Angeles. But, she says, it
shouldn't be the sole focus.
She and the women on her site are known for
challenging the stereotypes of
beauty, with their
tattoos and piercings and varying body types.
"I get messages from girls all the time saying they
never felt beautiful before because they never
saw girls like themselves in magazines or on TV. Then they saw
a girl like them on 'Suicide
Girls,'" she says of the site, an online community
that attracts a worldwide audience of both
admirers and women who want to become nude pinups.
Victoria Sinclair, the lead anchor on "Naked News,"
also sees herself as a role model. She left
a job in the corporate world to join the show as lead
anchor in 1999 and never looked
back.
"Sometimes, there are moments when I think, 'Oh my
goodness what am I doing?'" says
Sinclair, who recently turned 40. "But I'm really OK with it."
She says it works for her because she has control
over what she does on the show and has
been allowed to age gracefully, without plastic surgery.
Still, many skeptics remain.
"To be sure, it can make you feel powerful to know
that you are arousing strong feelings in
other people, that you have their attention and admiration,"
says Eileen Zurbriggen, a
psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz,
who helped compile the APA report.
"This is the same sense of power experienced by
charismatic rock stars and politicians. But
politicians also wield other kinds of power. They can
make actual changes to the legal,
economic, and geopolitical landscapes changes that
have far-ranging impacts.
"Women," she says, "might be better off developing
other sources of power."
On the Net:
APA report:
http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html
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