>>KELSEY BUTTERWORTH: Hello.
Welcome to Girls Talk: Sexualization of girls.
In 2007, the American Psychological Association released a report on the sexualization of
girls.
While this report got a lot of attention, we thought it would be important to sit down
with the girls who are directly affected by the sexualization, and asked them about their
thoughts and opinions on the media they see around them.
>>>>LEAH: : That's gross >>TYLINN: I wouldn't even have the guts to
take a picture like that, for me to spread my legs open for a camera.
>>>>FAITH: : There's nothing attractive about that picture.
>>TYLINN: This is not going to attract no woman to that store; it's going to attract
men.
>>>>LEAH: : I doubt it would attract men.
>>>>FAITH: : The picture's not attractive at all.
>>TYLINN: I don't even think a teenage girl would go into that store, because the picture
is not selling nothing.
>>>>EMILY: : That is not cute, or sexy!
That's the kind of add that if you are looking through a magazine and you see, you turn the
page really fast.
>>SHANDA: People are still going to go to that store regardless of what we say.
Regardless of what, how bad it is.
Regardless of how basic the problem is, people are still going to go to that store and they
are going to make their money.
>>ISABELLA: The kids don't always want to be there.
They have other things that they could do, like, playing outside with their friends.
Instead, they are waking up early, putting on pounds of makeup on their face, wearing
tight dresses, and, like, high-heeled shoes.
>>LEAH: People who make this show are kinda like, um, saying...this is, like, how you
should be, you should be this pretty.
>>FAITH: They should be outside playing at a playground, or at a park.
And they are like spending, $2,000 on one pageant, like, they could go to school or
something.
Go buy them crayons and coloring books.
>>TYLINN: Don't get me wrong, I love Nicki Minaj.
I adore her songs, but something, not going to lie, I do adore her outfits, because they
do be cute.
But I would probably say that's an outfit I would wear to like, a Halloween party.
>>EMILY: Yeah!
>>FAITH: Yeah, some stuff she does wear is like, "Where are you supposed to wear that?"
>>ISABELLA: They care about, sexiness, and pretty...pretty just doesn't have the right,
like, ring to it when you think of Nicki Minaj, but when you think of that picture of Nicki
Minaj, that is pretty.
>>EMILY: Yeah, that one is pretty.
>>ISABELLA: That one isn't.
You can't even see her face in it.
>>LEAH: Your attention is drawn immediately to the spikes, to the butt.
And it makes her butt look...too big, like, more big than attractive.
>>EMILY: There's a big, big difference between being pretty and being sexy.
The image, um, in magazines and the advertisement world is that pretty is basically sexy but
you can see, like, really pretty girls with, you know, nice hair and a little bit of makeup
and they are pretty, because that's who they are.
Then there is people who are really altered and who are not who they are, and they look
completely different and they call that, like, "pretty" but its not.
It's sexy.
>>SHANDA: Stores don't sell loose clothes, or clothes that are age appropriate.
>>TYLINN: Oh that's too much, oh they too young to be wearing stuff like that, but men
be like, "Oh, it's cute, its sexy, I think all girls should wear that."
>>FAITH: They will look at you and, like, a sexual way.
In a perverted way.
>>KELSEY BUTTERWORTH: And how would that make you feel?
>>FAITH: Uncomfortable.
>>EMILY: People may be really judgmental.
Y'know, it could be a positive way or a negative way, but either way if you're wearing that
outfit, you're gonna get some judgment.
>>TYLINN: Most people don't appreciate who we are, they wear it just to, like, fit in,
cus, like, some girls are really insecure about the way that they look, because I feel
like, since they want to wear clothes like that, I don't think they are getting enough
attention.
>>SHANDA: The graphics on the shirt, it's not much, but when you think about where the
placements are, it's a lot.
>>FAITH: You just, put yourself out there.
As, like, a sex object.
"Hey!
I'm wild, hot, and sexy, come talk to me!"
Boys are going to look at you like, "You're an easy sex target".
If you put on a shirt, what else would you do?
[music] >>ISABELLA: Taking the candy and licking it,
like, sexually is like...wow
>>TYLINN: And the way she come when she doing that little pole thing going up.
And she did that pose with the leg up.
>>EMILY: The worst part was the whipped cream part, that was just...
>>TYLINN: I mean, she could have just took it out and just started...but no she just
put it (spraying noise) >>LEAH: She stuck it on her bra or something.
>>TYLINN: It has to be sexy and then Snoop Dog was just kinda...
>>EMILY: It was weird!
>>TYLINN: Snoop Dog is "ugh"! >>ISABELLA: And he controls the whole game.
>>FAITH: He's like a man controlling her.
>>EMILY: He's like the candy-king!
>>TYLINN: Like, he invented the game, like, "This is my candyland, I run it!"
>>EMILY: I am the candy-land king!
>>KELSEY BUTTERWORTH: So, who knows who this is?
>>GIRLS: Michelle Obama >>FAITH: Classy, African-American, woman.
>>TYLINN: She could still be wearing cute dresses like that.
She's not judged from the outside she's judged from the inside.
>>FAITH: You can still be a strong, African-Amrican woman that could still be not always looking
so negative for attention.
>>EMILY: Her voice is beautiful!
>>TYLINN: Her songs, they motivate you.
She sings about her problems but then it comes back and she redeems herself.
>>ISABELLA: She's not the ideal, perfect body and stuff but it doesn't really matter she
still has other, amazing factors about herself.
>>FAITH: Plus sized girls got it too.
>>LEAH: She doesn't feel like she has to dress up to be like, sexy and stuff, she can just
be, however she feels comfortable.
>>ISABELLA: When you are driving down the street or walking down the street and someone
looks at you in a certain way, I know how demeaning that feels.
When I walk pass the metro sometimes, I feel like that.
>>FAITH: If I could talk to those companies, I would tell them that makeup, hair, clothes,
do not make you look beautiful, it doesn't make you perfect, and it doesn't give you
the most confidence in the world.
>>LEAH: Just because, everyone else is wearing, super sexy clothes, or you see It on TV it
doesn't mean you have too.
It means you just have to be true to your personality.
>>TYLINN: To designers that design clothes for little girls, you have to be more aware
that the world state is different, there are men out there that are attracted to the clothes
you make today, and you all should change that.
>>SHANDA: It's not right for you to judge a girl.
Like, you're selling things that are not appropriate for a young girl and they actually buy your
clothes and they have to wear it outside.
>>EMILY: I wear what I feel comfortable and what I always wear and what represents me.