Image via Wikipedia10-Year-Old Model’s Sexy Poses Ignites Debate on the Sexualization of Young Girls
Models pose in a variety of sexy positions:
- Lying on a tiger in a leopard print room
- Wearing hip-slung jeans and no top with beaded necklaces covering their chest
- Propositioning a pillow fight topless on a bed with a young man
- Hooking their thumb into their jeans, slinging their hip out
- Lying back on a bed with their legs crossed in high heels
Sure, you many see any number of these poses in a fashion magazine, except this model is just 10-years-old.
Yes, you read that right. Only 10-years old, yet posing in these very adult positions with that model perfect pouty expression, make-up, high heels, and high fashion threads.
Said model is Thylane Loubry Blondeau and this little girl is causing quite the stir in the media with her grown-up modeling spreads. Many are up in arms about the sexualization of young girls which doesn’t only point a finger at Blondeau, but at many trends like pole-dancing classes for young girls and shows like Toddlers and Tiaras that call for young girls to be anything but young girls.
The Sexualization of Young Girls
Blondeau has been in the fashion industry since she was 5-years-old and walked in a Jean-Paul Gauthier runway show. Most recently, she was pictured in French Vogue and the adult-like fashion pictorials this mini-model appeared in bothered many readers.
It’s “inappropriate,” “creepy,” “explicitly sexual” – all things I have to say I agree with. Sure fashion can be “edgy,” but photographing a pre-pubescent girl topless with make-up and heels isn’t edgy. It’s wrong.
Having a young girl model isn’t the problem here. It’s that Blondeau clearly isn’t being styled as a 10-year-old girl. She is really being made up to look like an adult – a sexy, pouty, sultry adult – whose purpose is to sell some sort of product to the real adults who are flipping through the magazine.
The Damage in the Long Run
Studies have demonstrated time and time again that viewing sexualized images can have a lasting effect on young girls. The American Psychological Association found that viewing sexualized images promotes “appearance and physical attractiveness” as key values for young girls and was also linked to low self-esteem, eating disorders, and depression.
That’s for viewing sexualized images. What if you’re the subject of the sexualized images? What damaging consequences are in store for Blondeau? What message does dressing Blondeau up as a grown up send her or the other people that see the images?
Blondeau is certainly being forced to grow up far too quickly. Sure, she is a beautiful girl and sure she may enjoy modeling and want to pursue a career, but her work thus far has proved that it could do more damage than good for this little girl in the future.
What do you think? Are Blondeau’s poses too sexy for a 10-year-old girl? Is this mini-model being forced to grow up to quickly?
Related by Care2:
Photo credit: Image by Ian MacJenzie (bravenewtraveler) used under a Creative Commons license.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/10-year-old-models-sexy-poses-ignites-debate-on-the-sexualization-of-young-girls.html#ixzz1UP9MuOLs
From Tumblr:
She’s ten and Jezebel is right… it really is creepy to look at these photos, but you really can’t deny that she is a very adorable girl. Are you caught up with just how young Thylane is or is this like - Uhh hello! It’s Vogue and Paris - French Vogue is always taking risks and European perceptions of sexuality is more “liberal” than Americans… Plus, the fashion industry is steeped in sexsexsexsex that it’s almost like, by now, we all ought to be numb to sex-ified advertising. We almost expect it. But… when we see something that we knowought to bother us, suddenly our moral alarm shrieks. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be disturbed that Thylane is only ten (…when I was ten, I was running around outside and playing, not looking sultry at the camera, thanks very much…) because we totally should be bothered, but what I am saying is that our society opens its arms to sexual ads. So, it was only time that something like this would happen.
But then again…
Maybe we are just reading too much into these photographs when there is nothing to be read…
But then again…
The girl is TEN. She has barely left the single digits.
^ I love Jezebel’s comment about this photo: This, for example, is what’s known as an “implied nude.” I really don’t think a 10-year-old should be shot for one.
I love fashion, but we all know that the industry as a whole is one fucked up monkey.
