SEMINAR PROFILE

H31 -
Sex and the City: The Culture's Preoccupation with Sexualization and its Impact on Pre-Adolescent and Adolescent Girls

Everywhere we look we see growing pressure on pre-adolescent and adolescent girls to present in hyper-sexualized ways and in ways that make them into "little women." We will examine a cultural paradox: how sex is featured and sold everywhere yet authentic and honest discussions of it are largely absent. In an age of increasing McDonaldization of society and commercialization of intimacy, we will also analyze technology's relationship with the construction of the self and the resulting mandate on young girls to present a stance as provocateurs. We will also examine this sexualized culture's impact upon pre-adolescent and adolescent girls in terms of how they view their bodies as contested terrain, as war zones, where eating problems, body image, violence, and fears of violence are enacted.

Scholar:

Deborah Cohan

Location:

Harvard Hillel

Dates:

10/27/2010, 11/3/2010

For a complete listing of our courses, download our complete course catalog in PDF format.

H31 -	Sex and the City: The Culture's Preoccupation with Sexualization and its Impact on Pre-Adolescent and Adolescent Girls

	Everywhere we look we see growing pressure on pre-adolescent and adolescent girls to present in hyper-sexualized ways and in ways that make them into "little women." We will examine a cultural paradox: how sex is featured and sold everywhere yet authentic and honest discussions of it are largely absent. In an age of increasing McDonaldization of society and commercialization of intimacy, we will also analyze technology's relationship with the construction of the self and the resulting mandate on young girls to present a stance as provocateurs. We will also examine this sexualized culture's impact upon pre-adolescent and adolescent girls in terms of how they view their bodies as contested terrain, as war zones, where eating problems, body image, violence, and fears of violence are enacted.

		Scholar:	Deborah Cohan
		Location:	Harvard Hillel
		Dates:	10/27/2010, 11/3/2010