13 going on 30: Prostitutes

Girl Prostitutes: Part 1
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This week we examined the historical background of teenage prostitutes in early American history.  There was a moral panic surrounding girl prostitutes back in the 1800s and early 1900s.  The girls in this time period were seeking an alternative source of income for their struggling families.  Prostitution was more regulated than it is now, and much safer for the girls.  Proportionately there were similar rates of girl prostitution when the moral panic was going on.

A similar moral panic exists today.  The current issue of teenage prostitution is exposed in this video.  This video terms the teenage prostitutes as "victims", the men who are "pimps" are the perpetrators.  But to say, this girls are victims of what? Victims of misogyny?  Victims of a patriarchal system? Or is this just another moral scare?

Many of the girls come from different backgrounds, not the traditional "abused-as-a-child" scenario.  One says she comes from "a nice family, with good values".  Not all of these girls come from impoverished homes.  Some say that they are "dared" to try it.  What are the implications of girls' friends "daring" them to prostitute?  Why would girls dare other girls to do such a thing?

Is "Innocence Lost"?

For Some Girls, Life IS a Fairytale: Toddlers and Tiaras

This week's cover of People magazine featured an article on the TLC series Toddlers and Tiaras.  We discussed this television show in class on the first day, but I think it is important to continue discussing this controversial show.  The article states that after three years of the show "viewers and pageant skeptics have been expressing horror at an industry that is now accused of "sexualizing" young girls."  My question to this is: why now?  What has changed in the show in the past three years that now all of a sudden the girls are being sexualized?  Throughout the series the girls have been sexualized while they play "dress-up" and have been infantalized whenever they actually do "act" their age (i.e. crying, temper tantrums, etc.). We discussed this as an example of the absence of "girlhood" on the show.  It appears that Toddlers and Tiaras only promotes the binary of being an infant or being a grown adult, and there is no place for "girlhood". 

Interesting enough, one dissenter of the show was quoted saying...

"Little girls are supposed to play with dolls, not be dolls," New York-based licensed clinical social worker Mark Sichel tells PEOPLE in its new issue, on newsstands now. 

Although he argues against the sexualization of the young girls, he seems to fully support the other gender stereotypes that exist in our society.  Little girls should be able to play with whichever toys please little girls the most.


Mr. Sichel does point out another problematic activity in the show-- the use of 'padding, fake hair, flippers (faux teeth) and spray tans to (re)create celebrity look-alikes'.  Not only does this promote young girls to use and consume these products; it also promotes the adulation of celebrities at a young age.  This contributes to the consumer culture marketers have built around young girls, including the marketing term "tweens" (which I am sure to discuss later in the semester).  It also sets a false and unachievable beauty standard for girls to hold themselves to, which can further contribute to the psychological and physical health risks (anorexia, low self-esteem, poor body-image) that we find in young girls today.

Books over Looks?

In an column written by author Lisa Bloom, her Don't Dumb Girls Down article discusses the ways in which adults consistently approach little girls and proceed to call them words like "cute, nice, adorable, beautiful, well-dressed, etc".  She sees this as particularly problematic in a society where girls at younger and younger ages are beginning to wear make-up, develop eating disorders, and lose self-esteem. 

What does she say is missing?  "A life of meaning, a life of ideas and reading books and being valued for our thoughts and accomplishments."  This directly connects to this week's reading from The Girls History and Culture Reader: The Nineteenth Century.  The two essays we read directly spoke to the early 19th century education techniques and standards for young girls in the United States.  In Chapter 2, the essay "Grown Girls, Highly Cultivated" discusses female education in the Antebellum Southern Family, namely for the family of Elizabeth and William Wirt.  In raising their first daughter, the couple emphasized a diverse education that focused both on intellectual development and housewifery.  They hoped to raise their daughter Laura with "female gentleness and delicacy, with masculine learning & genius-- simple yet elegant-- soft and timid, yet dignified and commanding" (pg. 34).  The outcome of this formalized version of learning was deemed unsatisfactory by the parents and in educating the younger children they changed their educational curriculum and focus onto purely domestic issues (while allowing their daughters to seek more 'masculine' education during leisure time). 

Two hundred years later, we find the women in American expected to be educated by those same standards of promoting "female gentleness and delicacy, with masculine learning & genius-- simple yet elegant-- soft and timid, yet dignified and commanding" (pg. 34).  Still in a culture that is media-saturated and capitalist/consumer oriented, girls cannot escape other informal types of education.   It is important that we take the initiative to speak to girls about important issues in current media, to ensure that girls receive positive messages along with the negative messages.  Sadly, I have to agree with Bloom when she says that she can't impact the larger community, but can only work at changing opinions and attitudes at the individual level.

I'm a Belieber: Girl Fan Culture Surrounding Male Pop Stars

In this week's reading "Feminism and Youth Culture", Angela McRobbie goes into great depth discussing the participation in and visibility of girls in subcultures.  This piece was written in the late 1970s, early 1980s and deconstructs girls' participation in the motorbike, mod, hippy and teeny-bopper subcultures of that era.  She notes that historically "the mod preoccupation with style and the emergence of the unisex look and the 'effeminate' mode man, gave girls a more legitimate place in the subculture than had previously been the case" (McRobbie 7).  Although this granted girls access into the subculture, it did not permit any form of "sexual fluidity" (as McRobbie describes) it for girls (7).

Now let's turn an eye onto one of today's most popular teeny-bopper icon: Justin Bieber.  

Justin Bieber is the Canadian-born pop singer that was discovered on YouTube. Quickly after his musical debut, he became a pop-sensation and won the adoration of girls all across the world. 

We discussed Justin Bieber a little bit in class last week, namely that there is a girl's perfume coming out branded with his name.  What I find to be particularly interesting is the following website: LesbiansWhoLookLikeJustinBieber.tumblr.com

LesbiansWhoLookLikeJustinBieber.tumblr.com

This is a teeny-bopper culture that is centralized around girls who physically resemble the pop-icon Justin Bieber.  Not only do the girls glamourize having the physical appearance of Bieber, they also celebrates a non-traditional form of beauty: girls who resemble an effeminate boy.  Sexuality is another aspect of this subculture that must be considered.  This particular subculture consists of homosexual women who are in a way celebrating their resistance to "normative sex roles" by explicitly stating their adoration and (sexual) desire for the other girls featured on the site.  An example of this can be seen in the following two comments:

Considering all the aforementioned information, I have a few questions.

• What are the implications of new media on the formation of girls' subcultures?
• Does new media open a new venue for subcultures, even countercultures to form and exist whereas in other circumstances these subcultures may fail to flourish?

**(Although the specific ages of the website participants is not explicit, it can be determined through the picture that the individuals still belong to our loosely-defined category of "girls".)