A prolific discourse on the sexualisation of girls has developed in the Anglophone west. Since 2006, at least six governmental policy papers, four think tank reports, ten parenting manuals as well as over a thousand newspaper articles have been published on the topic. Deconstructing popular feminist narratives, one finds that beneath calls for protection there often resides a deeply ambivalent construction of the middle-class white girl. I argue that these narratives are beset by a melancholic subtext, one that is fuelled by care and a desire for the future as well as an undercurrent of suspicion, anger and resentment.
Albury, Kath and Catharine Lumby (2010) ‘Too Much? Too Young? The Sexualisation of Children Debate in Australia’. Media International Australia, 135: 141–152.
2.
AttwoodFeonaClarissaSmith (2011) ‘Investigating Young People’s Sexual Cultures: An Introduction’. Sex Education11(3): 235–242.
3.
BraggSara (2012) ‘What I Heard about Sexualisation: Or, Conversations with my Inner Barbie’. Gender and Education24(3): 311–316.
4.
BuckinghamDavidSaraBragg (2004) Young People, Sex and the Media: The Facts of Life?, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
5.
ButlerJudith (2004) Undoing Gender, New York: Routledge.
6.
CvetkovichAnn (2012) Depression: A Public Feeling, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Edell, Dana, Deborah Tolman and Lyn Mikel Brown (2013) ‘Embodying Sexualisation: When Theory Meets Practice in Intergenerational Feminist Activism’. Feminist Theory, 14(3): 275–284.
9.
EganR. Danielle (2013) Becoming Sexual: A Critical Appraisal of the Sexualization of Girls, Oxford: Polity Press.
10.
EganR. DanielleGailHawkes (2009) ‘The Problem with Protection: Or, Why We Need to Move towards Recognition and the Sexual Agency of Children’. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies23: 389–400.
11.
EganR. DanielleGailHawkes (2010) Theorizing the Sexual Child in Modernity, New York: Palgrave.
12.
FarleyMelissa (2009) ‘Prostitution and the Sexualization of Children’. In: SharnaOlfman (eds) The Sexualization of Childhood, Westport: Greenwood, pp. 143–164.
13.
Freud, Sigmund ([1917] 2001) ‘Mourning and Melancholia’. In: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV (1914–1916): On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works. London: Vintage, pp. 237–258.
14.
GillRosalind (2009) ‘Beyond the “Sexualization of Culture” Thesis: An Interactional Analysis of “Sixpacks”, “Midriffs” and “Hot Lesbians” in Advertising’. Sexualities12(2): 137–160.
IsaacsSusan (1952) ‘The Nature and Function of Phantasy’. In: JoanRiviere (eds) Developments in Psychoanalysis, New York: Da Capo Press, pp. 67–121.
17.
JacksonSueTiinaVares (2011) ‘Media “Sluts”: “Tween” Girls’ Negotiations of Postfeminist Sexual Subjectivities in Popular Media in Popular Culture’. In: RosalindGillChristinaScharff (eds) New Femininities: Postfeminism, Neoliberalism and Subjectivity, London: Palgrave, pp. 134–146.
18.
JenkinsPhilip (2004) Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America, New Haven: Yale University Press.
19.
KehilyMary Jane (2012) ‘Contextualising the Sexualisation of Girls Debate: Innocence, Experience and Young Female Sexuality’. Gender and Education24(3): 255–269.
20.
LambSharon (2001) The Secret Lives of Girls: What Good Girls Really Do – Sex Play, Aggression, and Their Guilt, New York: Free Press.
21.
LerumKariShariL. Dworkin (2009) ‘“Bad Girls Rule”: An Interdisciplinary Feminist Commentary on the Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls’. Journal of Sex Research46(4): 250–263.
22.
LevinDiane E. (2011) ‘Objectified Self, Objectified Relationships: The Sexualization of Childhood Promotes Social Injustice’. In: BeatriceS. FennimoreA. LinGoodwin (eds) Promoting Social Justice for Young Children, New York: Springer, pp. 25–34.
23.
LevinDiane E.JeanKilbourne (2008) So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood, and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids, New York: Ballantine Books.
24.
McRobbieAngela (2009) The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change, London: SAGE.
25.
Mulholland, Monique (2011) ‘Is there a New Normal? Young People Negotiate Pornification’. Presentation at Pornified? Complicating Debates about the “Sexualisation of Culture”: An International Conference, London, UK, 4 December.
26.
PapadopoulosLinda (2010) Sexualisation of Young People Review, London: Home Office.
27.
RenoldEmmaJessicaRingrose (2011a) ‘Phallic Girls? Girls’ Negotiation of Phallogocentric Power’. In: JohnC. LandreauNelsonM. Rodriguez (eds) Queer Masculinities: A Critical Reader in Education, New York: Springer, pp. 47–68.
28.
RenoldEmmaJessicaRingrose (2011b) ‘Schizoid Subjectivities? Re-theorizing Teen Girls’ Sexual Cultures in an Era of “Sexualisation”’. Journal of Sociology47(4): 389–409.
29.
RingroseJessica (2013) Postfeminist Education? Girls and the Sexual Politics of Schooling, London: Routledge.
30.
RobinsonKerry (2008) ‘In the Name of “Childhood Innocence”: A Discursive Exploration of the Moral Panic Associated with Childhood and Sexuality’. Cultural Studies Review14(2): 113–129.
Rush, Emma and Andrea La Nauze (2006) ‘Corporate Paedophilia: Sexualisation of Children in Australia’. Australian Institute Working Paper #90. Deakin, ACT: Australian Institute. Available at: http://www.tai.org.au/documents/dp_fulltext/DP90.pdf.
33.
StallybrassPeterAllonWhite (1986) The Politics and Poetics of Transgression, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
34.
Tankard ReistMelinda (2009) ‘Introduction’. In: MelindaTankard Reist (eds) Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls, Melbourne: Spinifex Press, pp. 1–23.
35.
TolmanDeborah (forthcoming) ‘Insisting on “Both/And”: Artifacts of Excavating Moral Panics about Sexuality: An Afterword’. In: BreanneFahsMaryDudySarahStage (eds) Moral Panics about Sexuality, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
