New from Overlook Press: The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What You Can Do About It by M. Gigi Durham.About the book, from the publisher:
Americans are bombarded with perplexing and alarming media images: brand name thong underwear for ten-year-olds with the slogans “Wink Wink” and “Eye Candy” written on them; oversexed and underdressed celebrities gone wild; Bratz dolls and their “sexy” clothing line for preteen girls. How do we raise sexually healthy young women in this kind of environment?
In The Lolita Effect, University of Iowa professor and journalist M. Gigi Durham offers new insight into media myths and spectacles of sexuality. Using examples from popular TV shows, fashion and beauty magazines, movies, and Web sites, Durham shows for the first time all the ways in which sexuality is rigidly and restrictively defined in media—often in ways detrimental to girls’ healthy development. The Lolita Effect offers parents, teachers, counselors, and other concerned adults effective and progressive strategies for resisting the violations and repressions that render girls sexually subordinate. Durham provides us with the tools to navigate this media world effectively without censorship or moralizing, and then to help our girls to do so in strong and empowering ways.