Publication Date
Spring 2014
Degree Level
B.A.
Program
Honors
First Advisor
Hill, Heather
Second Advisor
Uhlig, Paul
Document Type
Thesis
Medium
Manuscript
Abstract
The clothes people choose to wear can be the first thing that other people notice. Today, young girls can become susceptible to the images presented by the media, which may lead to self-objectification and the desire to use clothing to appeal to society's standards. The purpose of this study was to expand a previous research study conducted to evaluate the extent to which sexualizing clothing is available for young girls. This study focused on fall clothing and was later expanded to spring clothing, as opposed to summer clothing as was evaluated previously. A sample of 435 tops available for girls (sizes 4-16) was collected from the websites of 15 popular stores for the fall 2011 season and a sample of 450 tops available for girls (sizes 4-16) was collected from the same websites for the Spring 2014 season. The clothing was coded for the following categories: childlike, definitely sexualizing, ambiguously sexualizing, and adultlike. Only 3 items of clothing were categorized as definitely sexualizing in the fall and six in the spring. Although the majority of the clothing was classified as childlike, adult-like clothing also had a strong representation. A small selection of the items was ambiguously sexualizing in the fall with more sexualized characteristics being found in the spring. The classification of clothing across categories of sexualization varied among type of store. Other items of clothing from the same stores should be considered in further research.
Keywords : children, sexuality, clothing, identity
Recommended Citation
Estrada, Melisa, "Availability of Sexualized Clothing Among Diverse Stores and its Possible Effect on Self-Objectification" (2014). Honors Program Theses and Research Projects. 69.
https://commons.stmarytx.edu/honorstheses/69
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Developmental Psychology Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons