Sexualization of girlhood is a current issue in the US and around the world. Concerns that girls are asked to self-sexualize at younger and younger ages have led to an examination of the influence of media on girls. The current study attempts to explore public views on the ‘self-sexualization’ of a Disney pop star, Miley Cyrus, in what was called a ‘pole dance’ by the media. This performance at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards stirred considerable debate in the news and on public websites. The current analysis examines website responses of 13 websites through a qualitative, thematic analysis of over 500 individual responses. Analysis of internet comments revealed themes of agency and innocence in adolescent female sexuality as well as the function of these themes in US culture. The dominant themes are discussed in light of the largely absent gendered analysis of the performance and its significance.
American Psychological Association, Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls (2007) Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from: www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html.
2.
AttwoodF (2005) Fashion and passion: Marketing sex to women. Sexualities. 8(4): 392–406.
3.
AttwoodF (2006) Sexed up: Theorizing the sexualization of culture. Sexualities. 9: 77–94.
4.
BartkySL (1990) Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression, London, UK: Routledge.
5.
Bay-Cheng L (2011) Recovering empowerment: De-personalizing and re-politicizing adolescent female sexuality. Sex Roles. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-011-0070-x.
6.
BettieJ (2000) Women without class: Chicas, cholas, trash, and the presence/absence of class identity. Signs. 26(1): 1–35.
7.
BilligM (1996) Arguing and Thinking: A Rhetorical Approach to Social Psychology2nd edCambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
8.
BogleK (2008) Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus, New York, NY: New York University Press.
9.
BraunVClarkeV (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. QualitativeResearch in Psychology. 3: 77–101.
10.
BrownL (2004) Raising Their Voices: The Politics of Girls’ Anger, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
11.
CoyMGarnerM (2010) Glamour modeling and the marketing of self-sexualization. International Journal of Cultural Studies. 13(6): 657–675.
DuitsLvan ZoonenL (2007) Who’s afraid of female agency?: A rejoinder to Gill. European Journal of Women’s Studies. 14: 161–170.
14.
DurhamMG (2008) The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It, New York, NY: Overlook.
15.
DurhamMG (2011) Body matters: Resuscitating the corporeal in a new media environment. Feminist Media Studies. 11(1): 53–60.
16.
DurrheimK (1997) Social constructionism, discourse and psychology. South African Journal of Psychology. 27: 175–182.
17.
EvansARileySShankarA (2010) Technologies of sexiness: Theorizing women’s engagement in the sexualization of culture. Feminism & Psychology. 20(1): 114–141.
FredricksonBLRobertsTA (1997) Objectification theory. Psychology of Women Quarterly. 21: 173–206.
20.
Gavey N (2011) Beyond “empowerment”?: Sexuality in a sexist world. Sex Roles. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-011-0069-3.
21.
GillR (2007a) Critical respect: The difficulties and dilemmas of agency and “choice” for feminism: A reply to Duits and van Zoonen. European Journal of Women’s Studies Journal. 14: 69–80.
22.
GillR (2007b) Gender and the Media, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
GillR (2009) Beyond the ‘sexualisation of culture’ thesis: An interactional analysis of ‘sixpacks’, ‘midriffs’, and ‘hot lesbians’ in advertising. Sexualities. 12(2): 137–160.
25.
Gill R (2012) Media, empowerment, and “sexualization of culture” debates. Sex Roles. Advanced online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-011-0107-1.
26.
Giroux HA (2009) Child beauty pageants: A scene from the “Other America” [Web log post]. Available at: http://archive.truthout.org/051109A (accessed 1 April 2012).
27.
HartiganJ (1997) Unpopular culture: The case of “white trash.”. Cultural Studies. 11(2): 316–343.
28.
HeilfertyCM (2011) Ethical considerations in the study of online illness narratives: A qualitative review. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 67(5): 945–953.
HollandS (2010) Pole Dancing, Empowerment and Embodiment, New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
31.
LambS (2010a) Feminist ideals for a healthy female adolescent sexuality: A critique. Sex Roles. 62: 294–306.
32.
LambS (2010b) Porn as a pathway to empowerment? A response to Peterson’s commentary. Sex Roles. 62: 314–317.
33.
LambSBrownLM (2006) Packaging Girlhood: Saving our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes, New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
34.
Lamb S and Peterson ZD (2011) Adolescent girls' sexual empowerment: Two feminists explore the concept. Sex Roles. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-011-9995-3.
35.
LevinDKilbourneJ (2008) So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids, New York, NY: Ballantine.
36.
LevyA (2005) Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, New York, NY: Free Press.
37.
LiaingE (2011) The media’s sexualization of female athletes: A bad call for the modern game. Student Pulse: Online Student Academic Journal. 3(10): 1–2.
LumbyCFunnellN (2011) Between heat and light: The opportunity in moral panics. Crime Media Culture. 7(3): 277–291.
40.
MacPhersonT (2003) Reconstructing Dixie: Race, Gender, and Nostalgia in the Imagined South, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
41.
McKinleyNHydeJ (1996) Objectified body consciousness scale. Psychology of Women Quarterly. 20(2): 181–215.
42.
McNairB (1996) Mediated Sex: Pornography and Postmodern Culture, London, UK/ New York, NY: Arnold.
43.
McNairB (2002) Striptease Culture: Sex, Media and the Democratization of Desire, London, UK: Routledge.
44.
McRobbieA (2004) Post-feminism and popular culture: Bridget Jones and the new gender regime. Feminist Media Studies. 4(3): 255–264.
45.
McRobbieA (2008) The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change, London: Sage.
46.
PetersonZD (2010) What is sexual empowerment? A multidimensional and process-oriented approach to adolescent girls’ sexual empowerment. Sex Roles. 62(5–6): 307–313.
47.
Peterson ZD and Lamb S (2012) The political context for personal empowerment: Continuing the conversation. Sex Roles. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-012-0150-6O.
Rush E and LaNauze A (2006) Corporate paedophilia: Sexualisation of children in Australia. Discussion Paper Number 90, The Australia Institute.
50.
ShinkleE (2008) Fashion as Photograph: Viewing and Reviewing Images of Fashion, London, UK: I. B. Tauris.
51.
ShugartHAWagonerCEHallsteinDLO (2001) Mediating third-wave feminism: Appropriation as postmodern media practice. Critical Studies in Media Communication. 18(2): 194–210.
52.
TanenbaumL (1999) Slut!: Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation, New York, NY: Seven Stories Press.
53.
TolmanDL (2002) Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk about Sexuality, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
54.
Tolman DL (2012) Female adolescents, sexual empowerment, and desire: A missing discourse of gender inequity. Sex Roles. Advance online publication. DOI: 10.1007/s11199-012-0122-x.
55.
TylerI (2008) ‘Chav Mum Chav Scum’: Class disgust in contemporary Britain. Feminist Media Studies. 8(1): 17–34.
WetherellM (1998) Positioning and interpretive repertoires: Conversation analysis and structuralism in dialogue. Discourse and Society. 9(3): 387–412.
58.
WetherellMTaylorSYatesS (2001) Discourse as Data, Berkshire, UK/New York, NY: Open University Press.
59.
WetherellMPotterJ(1988) Discourse analysis and the identification of interpretative repertoires. In: AntakiC (ed.) Analysing Everyday Explanation: A Casebook of Methods, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage168–183.
60.
WhiteheadKKurzT (2009) “Empowerment” and the pole: A discursive investigation of the reinvention of pole dancing as a recreational activity. Feminism & Psychology. 19: 224–244.
61.
Williams ME (2009) The week in Miley Cyrus pole-dancing outrage: What makes the teen star's rump-shaking performance depressing isn't that it's shocking; It's that it's so familiar. Salon.com. Available at: http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/feature/2009/08/14/miley_outrage (accessed 1 April 2012).
62.
WilligC (2008) Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology2nd edBerkshire, UK/New York, NY: Open University Press.
