FEM 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Lip Gloss, Heteronormativity
24 May 2018
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FEM Day 17 – March 26, 2018
Lecture 16 Cultural Representation and the Creation of Desire
Lamb, Brown, Orenstein. “fast facts about sexualization & marketing to girls”
• In 2007, 11.5 billion $ spent in the US on clothing for 7-14 yr olds, up from 10.5 billion
in 2004
- Societal expectation of girls change
• Close to half of 6-9 yr old girls regularly use lipstick, lip gloss, presumably w/ parental
approval; % of 8-12 yr olds who regularly use mascara (18%) & eyeliner doubled (15%)
between 2008-2010
- Thought that if they don’t wear makeup they won’t pretty
• Tween girls spend more than 40$ million a month on beauty products. In 2007 Nair
released Nair Pretty, depilatory designed to make 10-year olds conscious of “unwanted
body hair”
- Mothers imposing ideas that they had to worry about hair
• Written on a bikini underwear set for sizes 4 and up
- P – perfect
- O –off the hook
- P – princess
- S – stylin’
- T – too cool for you
- A – angel
- R – rockin
- Sexualizing the female body
• Media = important avenue of children’s socialization
• Images of love & romance in Disney films use music, flowers, candles, ballrooms,
dancing, fancy dresses, butterflies, sunsets. Research suggests that girls aged 3-6 & 6-11
are primarily affected by these images.
• Heterosexual kisses portrayed as powerful & spell breaking
• Parent-child relationships portrayed as restrictive, tedious & protective, must be broken
away from for love.
• Friendships portrayed as less important than romantic love.
• Heteronormativity combines w/ racialized stereotypes: arranged marriages seen as
backward & old fashioned vs. western ideal of romantic love.
- Seen as backward
- Only western type of love is valid
• Race also appears through different body images & discourses:
- girls of colour shown w/ bigger breasts & hips
- white girls shown as delicate.
- Girls of colour shown as “sexy” & exotic; perpetuates racialized stereotypes of non-
western or racialized women (black, asian etc.) as promiscuous & hypersexual
- white girls shown as pure, respectable etc.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Lecture 16 cultural representation and the creation of desire. Fast facts about sexualization & marketing to girls . In 2007, 11. 5 billion $ spent in the us on clothing for 7-14 yr olds, up from 10. 5 billion in 2004. Thought that if they don"t wear makeup they won"t pretty: tween girls spend more than 40$ million a month on beauty products. In 2007 nair released nair pretty, depilatory designed to make 10-year olds conscious of unwanted body hair . Mothers imposing ideas that they had to worry about hair: written on a bikini underwear set for sizes 4 and up. Sexualizing the female body: media = important avenue of children"s socialization. Images of love & romance in disney films use music, flowers, candles, ballrooms, dancing, fancy dresses, butterflies, sunsets. Only western type of love is valid: race also appears through different body images & discourses: Girls of colour shown w/ bigger breasts & hips.
