My own summary would be : ‘Middle-aged feminists degrade themselves again by wanting all media portrayals of young sexy women to be banned on the basis of cod science and primiive psychological jealousies’.

Sooner or later feminists are going to try forcing all teenage girls to wear full burqas in public.

I guess objective research into the harmful effects of de-sexualising young women through base motives of sexual jealousy on the part of middle-aged feminists is out of the question?

Meanwhile, in my city of London, teenage black boys continue to murder each other at unprecedented rates because they learn from an early age that showing that you have the biggest and baddest c*** is what turns the girls on….

I would say that anything that the APA writes is legitimate and supported by analyzed data. My peers and I have already noticed a trend, and as a young woman, I can easily see how the article’s findings would be supported. It is nothing new, but it is a disturbing trend that is escalating, and a topic that has to be understood more thoroughly in order to help young children and adults suffering from eating disorders and all other sorts of psychological ailments that can have dire effects not only on the mental health of an individual, but his or her life even, and on a larger scale, society. Children are very vulnerable to media and culture. As the mother who commented above, look at the Bratz dolls for just one example of many.

But it’s still much more prevalent with young women. I have a daughter in elementary school, and she tells me how her friends already pose for the boys on the playground, in positions that mimic the sexualized characters called “Bratz” which are everywhere, on lunchboxes and Valentines, and of course for sale at Wal-Mart. (They’re big-headed puffy-lipped short-skirt-clad Britney wannabes, in case you haven’t seen them.)

It’s more than a little distressing. I’m doing my best to counteract it at home, but it’s not easy.

There’s also the fact, btw, regarding the objectification of women, that it affects the boys, as well. If they’re taught to see girls as objects to be pursued and consumed (prey), then that turns them into predators (which can’t be all that much fun, really, either).

It’s a sickness our society is suffering, largely at the hands of Madison Ave. Of course America laps it up. But that doesn’t mean it’s not poison. And certainly some folks are getting rich on it.

If it’s just as wrong to showcase body images of unreasonable expectations in men as in women, why ignore the men?