Abstract
Becoming Sexual: A Critical Appraisal of the Sexualization of Girls by R. Danielle Egan examines the epistemological, conceptual, and historical assumptions that make the sexualization of young girls an issue in today’s society. Themes presented in this book will enlighten readers who are interested in gender, race, class, and sexuality.
Chapter One focuses on defining the concept of sexualization and reviews the literature on the subject from Australia, Britain, and the United States. The author discusses how sexualization “fosters the desire” to look like celebrities and also to act like those seen on television, in magazines, and in the music industry. Another theme that emerges is the idea that the sexual instinct will become compulsive and threaten the individual and social order in a broader sense. Pop culture is seen as especially impactful to young girls because of its sexual nature and gendered messages.
Chapter Two examines how gender, race, and sexuality play out in the area of sexualization. The author describes how the discussion of sexualization focuses on a small subsection of girls who are white, heterosexual, and middle class. Using examples of kidnappings such as JonBenet Ramsey and Madeleine McCann, Egan explores how society focuses on the white girl as an object in need of protection. The sexualization of the innocent white girl evokes such a reaction in us because of this inherent need to protect this group.
The third chapter posits that there is a connection between class and outrage over sexualization. Specifically, Egan argues that when middle-class women are seen as sexualized, it reduces them to working-class women who go against traditional femininity. The chapter concludes that the sexualized girl is a metaphor for everything threatening the middle class, and that she serves as a “displacement for cultural anxiety.”
Chapter Four examines the ambivalence about the sexualization of girls and the ideals of innocence that factor into the desire to protect the child. Egan discusses how the image of the sexual child is one “pieced together by the fantasies, projections, and desires of adults.” The author argues that in examining the psychoanalytic mechanisms going on in the realm of sexualization, we can work to understand why these ideas are seen as natural. Egan offers that, “It is my hope that my analysis will complicate reductionist thinking on the sexual child and add to the important conversations taking place on the sexual citizenship of children.”