Sexualised sexism: popular culture, sexualisation and violence against women and girls

Coy, Maddy (2014) Sexualised sexism: popular culture, sexualisation and violence against women and girls. Discussion Paper. London Metropolitan University, London.

Abstract

As of July 2014, there have been a slew of campaigns, two Westminster government reviews and countless papers and books which have catapulted the issue of sexualisation into public, policy and academic arenas. The result is a range of perspectives which speak to differing priorities: much current policy concern is about ‘contamination’ of childhood; for some commentators, sexualised popular culture is evidence of progressive liberalisation of social attitudes; critical feminist analysis views the sexualisation of women and girls’ bodies in public space as part of ongoing social inequalities between women and men. Women’s organisations which are experts on violence against women and girls (VAWG) see similar patterns in sexualised popular culture as those that underpin the perpetration of VAWG: masculinity equated with sexual conquest, representations of women and girls as perpetually sexually available.

This briefing makes a case for understanding and naming sexualisation as ‘sexualised sexism’ in order to make clear its gendered dynamics and role as a conducive context for violence against women and girls. A final section outlines how international human rights approaches support this analysis.

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