Sexualization

To make something sexual in character

Sexualization (sexualisation in Commonwealth English) is the emphasis of the sexual nature of a behavior or person. Sexualization is linked to sexual objectification, treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire. According to the American Psychological Association, sexualization occurs when "individuals are regarded as sex objects and evaluated in terms of their physical characteristics and sexiness." "In study after study, findings have indicated that women more often than men are portrayed in a sexual manner (e. g., dressed in revealing clothing, with bodily postures or facial expressions that imply sexual readiness) and are objectified (e. g., used as a decorative object, or as body parts rather than a whole person). In addition, a narrow (and unrealistic) standard of physical beauty is heavily emphasized. These are the models of femininity presented for young girls to study and emulate."

Children and adolescents spend more time engaging with media than any other age group. This is a time in their life that they are more susceptible to information that they receive. Children are getting sex education from the media, little kids are exposed to sexualized images and more information than ever before in human history but are not able to process the information, they are not developmentally ready to process it, and this impacts their development and behavior.

In 2006, an Australian report called Corporate paedophilia: sexualisation of children in Australia was published. The Australian report summarises its conclusion as follows:

Images of sexualised children are becoming increasingly common in advertising and marketing material. Children who appear aged 12 years and under are dressed, posed and made up in the same way as sexy adult models. Children that appear on magazines are seen older than they really are because of the sexualised clothes they are given to pose in. "Corporate paedophilia" is a metaphor used to describe advertising and marketing that sexualises children in these ways.

However, in 2010, the Scottish Executive released a report titled External research on sexualised goods aimed at children.

The report 'Letting Children Be Children', also known as the Bailey Review, is a report commissioned by the UK government on the subject of the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood.

Many scholars trace the sexualization of African American women back to slavery, where certain stereotypes were invented as a way to dehumanize African American women. These stereotypes include the Jezebel, seen as a light skin overly sexual African American woman with no control over her desires; the Mammy, an African American woman who was asexual in nature and whose sole purpose was to cook for a white family; the Sapphire, first shown on the Radio/Television show Amos n' Andy, she was a loud, crude, jealous woman, who took joy in emasculating men. These stereotypes have carried over to the way young African American girls view themselves and how society views them. The Jezebel stereotype, in particular, has reemerged in the form of hip hop video vixens. These images seen in music videos have two effects: they influence how black women are viewed in society and they also shape how African American women view themselves.” Instead of being correctly labeled as victims these women are instead turned into "groupies, hoochies, and chickenheads". Dagbovie Mullins introduced new problems in regards to the sexualization of Black girls, completely dichotomous to the sexualization of Black girls is the infantilization of Black women. While the "Bad Bitch Barbie" character was developed out of a history of over sexualizing the bodies of Black women, it has also been used as a way of Black women to reconquer their sexuality. Black women's bodies are either invisible or hypervisible. In the 1800s, a South African woman named Sarah Baartman was known as "Hottentot Venus" and her body was paraded around in London and Paris where they looked at her exotic features such as large breasts and behind. Her features were deemed lesser and over sexual.

The image of Asian women in Hollywood cinema is directly linked to sexuality as essential to any imagining about the roles they play as well as her actual appearance in popular culture. Asian female fatale's hypersexualized subjection is derived from her sexual behavior that is considered as natural to her particular race and culture. Two types of Asian stereotypes that are commonly found in media are the Lotus Flower and the Dragon Lady. The Lotus Flower archetype is the "self sacrificing, servile, and suicidal Asian woman." The dragon lady archetype is the opposite of the lotus flower, a "self abnegating Asian woman [who] uses her 'Oriental' femininity, associated with seduction and danger to trap white men on behalf of conniving Asian males." According to film maker and film scholar, Celine Shimizu, "The figure of the Asian American femme fatale signifies a particular deathly seduction. She attracts with her soft, unthreatening, and servile femininity while concealing her hard, dangerous, and domineering nature." self sacrificing, dependent, powerless, sexually naive, childlike, pampered, and irresponsible". Stereotypical Latina physical characteristics include "red lips, big bottoms, large hips, voluptuous bosoms, and small waists" and "high heels, huge hoop earrings, seductive clothing." Within the "hot Latina" stereotype lies three categories of representation:
The Cantina Girl, the Faithful, self sacrificing señorita, and the vamp. The Cantina Girl markers are "'great sexual allure', teasing, dancing, and 'behaving in an alluring fashion.'" The faithful, self sacrificing Señorita starts out as a good girl and turns bad by the end. The Señorita, in an attempt to save her Anglo love interest, utilizes her body to protect him from violence. The Vamp representation "uses her intellectual and devious sexual wiles to get what she wants." The media represents Latinas "as either [a] hot blooded spitfire" or "[a] dutiful mother". The sexual implications of the "hot blooded" Latina has become an overgeneralized representation of Latin people. This has led many to see the Latin people as "what is morally wrong" with the United States. Some believe it to be wrong simply because the interpretation of this culture seems to go against white, Western culture. Even in the business world this stereotype continues; "tight skirts and jingling bracelets [are misinterpreted] as a come on". This sexualization can also be linked to certain stereotypical jobs. The image of the Latina woman often is not in the business world but in the domestic. Many poor women have resorted to sex work because the demand is high and the hours and pay are often dictated by the workers themselves.

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