The Bratz doll --- with her mesh cami just covering a swell of breasts, her Tammy-Faye-on-steroids makeup, her stacked heels and her blue panties peeking out from the low-rise jeans --- is for "ages 6+," says the packaging.
What's wrong with this picture? (See the picture on page C3 and decide for yourself). Or direct your attention to the image of Miley Cyrus at right: a squeaky-clean 15-year-old superstar shows up in a magazine for adults wrapped in a blanket, hair artfully mussed, eyes made up, lips red and pouting. Hannah Montana as sex object.
"I think her packagers think it's a win-win situation," says psychologist Sharon Lamb, author of "Packaging Girlhood." "Either she gets seen as a 'brand' that can extend now to adulthood --- like it's not enough to be making billions of dollars off of children, but you have to make more! --- or, it would be a scandal, and she'd get good publicity that way.
"And the only ones who lose are the little girl fans who are disappointed and confused by it. They all think it's pornographic. They don't think, 'Oh, what a beautiful picture.' Ask any little girl, and she'll say, 'She doesn't have her shirt on!'"
What lessons do our daughters (and our sons) take from a highly sexualized culture that portrays younger and younger girls as objects? The AJC spoke last week with three experts, including the author of the new book "The Lolita Effect," and the psychology professor who chaired the American Psychological Association's Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls. Their comments appear on C3.
Copyright 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution