TV Shows Sexualize Images of Teenage Girls, Study Says

Television shows are featuring teenage girls involved in sexual situations a lot more often than adult women.  

Out of the sexual incidents young girls were portrayed in, 98 percent of them occurred outside of a committed relationship and 73 percent were presented in a humorous manner, such as a punch line to a joke.

This data comes from a study conducted by the Parents Television Council. The study, called Sexualized Teen Girls: Tinseltown’s New Target, looked at the top 25 primetime shows aimed at teenagers in the 2009-2010 season.

The study targets popular shows such as Glee, Gossip Girl and 90210. Here are some other findings:

  • 47% of sexual situations featured teenagers while only 29% featured adult women.
  • Although an older female character is more likely to have sexual dialogue in a scene, a younger female character is more likely portrayed in sexual behaviors onscreen.
  • Out of all the sexualized scenes showing underage females, 86% of the characters were high school age.
  • Only 5% of the teen girl characters expressed any form of dislike for being sexualized.

The Council calls for parents and television networks to get  involved to positively change the sexual images of girls on TV.

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