Media sexualization of young girls

Salon.com has an important interview with M. Gigi Durham, a professor of mass communication at the University of Iowa, on the occasion of the publication of her new book The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It.

One of the reasons I got involved with media literacy, lo these many years ago, has to do with wanting to find ways to empower young women beyond the destructive images of female-ness so pervasive in popular culture. That was 30 years ago. I find it more distressing than I can express that things have gotten worse, rather than better.

Read Durham's book. Get involved in media education. Build spaces for empowering young women AND young men (especially the blogroll) beyond these destructive dynamics. Make these issues a central part of your faith formation and identity work in communities of faith (Claire Bischoff's work is worthy of attention in this area).