Vogue Paris Thinks Little Girls Are Sexy

Wow: compared to these hypersexualized photos of young girls in the December 2010 issue of Vogue Paris, Bratz dolls are practically Puritan.

The photo shoot features young girls (five, six years old at the youngest?) with come-hither eyes, lounging on leopard-print pillows, stiletto-heeled and red-lipped, mimicking only the more sexualized poses one finds in fashion mags. It's verging on repulsive.

Yet a spread like this doesn't make it through to publication in a "high-fashion" magazine like Vogue Paris without the nod of more than a few editors. Unbelievably, not one person felt these photos were not just inappropriate, but disturbing and clearly detrimental to the psychological and physical well-being of girls.

Maybe the editors of Vogue Paris need a copy of the the American Psychological Association's (APA) most recent report on the sexualization of girls in popular culture. An APA task force found that the proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandising, and media is undoubtedly harmful to girls' self-image and healthy development. Analyzing published research on the effects of everything from music lyrics to magazines to video games on health and well-being, the task force unearthed startling consequences from the overwhelming portrayals of women and girls as solely sexualized beings.

We all know humans are sexual beings. Sexuality is a part of who we are and from adolescence up through adulthood, it's an important part. But what happens when our self worth comes only from, according to the APA, ones' "sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics," and "when a person is sexually objectified, e.g., made into a thing for another's sexual use" in almost every magazine photo spread, television show, film, music video and video game? Well, a lot actually -- and none of it is good.

The sexualization of girls can lead to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and an inability to develop a healthy sexual self-image. That's a whole lot of bad. In fact, it's hard to envision anything good coming from slathering a six year old girl in make-up, sliding her into a tight dress clearly designed for an adult woman -- and an adult woman wishing to highlight her sexuality at that -- and taking photos for all the world to ogle at as some kind of "high fashion."

High fashion (or art), this is not. This is a disgusting portrayal of young girls who deserve better than to be used as oversexualized playthings by the international fashion world.

However, do not despair! There are advocates working to ensure an alternative to the overabundance of harmful images of girls in popular media -- in this country and globally. Like Nancy Gruver, Founder of New Moon Magazine, a magazine for girls in the United States, who asks on Daughters.com: "How can we support safe media, fight negative media, and assure positive media for girls? Basically, how can we team together to support girls?"

It's a perfect question, and it's a challenge also; a challenge to all of us to not only support positive portrayals of girls in the media, but to make our feelings known when negative images spread. The editors of Vogue Paris may disregard the concrete evidence that these sorts of images of girls are, in fact, harmful but we don't have to. Tell Conde Nast, the parent company of Vogue Paris, that this is not "edgy," it's not high-fashion, it's not even artistic. It's harmful to the psychological and physical well-being of girls around the world and an apology should be issued immediately -- through the media, to its subscribers, and to all consumers who purchase the magazine.