Pornification describes the adaptation of content and styles within the sex industry into mainstream culture. The continuing prevalence of this style of content has led to it influencing expectations of women and girls in real life. This content is so widespread and easy to find, that younger children are often exposed to it and may glorify certain aspects.
Teenagers who are exposed to highly sexual content are more likely to act older than their age. While media that approaches topics of sexuality with an educational perspective can lead to practicing safer sex and being more informed on healthy relationship dynamics. Pornographic content commodifying female sexuality could be detrimental and lead to unsafe boundaries.
One way this type of content is shown is through celebrity culture. Sexualised trends are often pushed through celebrities and influencers. However, there can be pushback from this, especially from younger artists, trying to reclaim their own identity and sexuality. One example of this is Billie Eilish. She has claimed she wears baggy clothes to avoid being judged and sexualised in same way teen celebrities often are. In contrast other celebrities lean into the sexualised idea of femininity such as the Kardashian’s, with part of their images centring around their bodies, even setting trends in body types.
As the popularity of user generated content on the internet increases, people can share their own sexual content to a wide audience, with platforms catered towards this content such as OnlyFans. This platform is also used by celebrities and influencer to share more explicit content to their fans which could be seen as a way of glamorising sex work and promoting the over sexualisation of women to young people who are fans.
For girls this can negatively affect their self-image and healthy development. Additionally, these problems are worsened by the sexualisation of girls, examples of this are seen in advertising, including dressing them up in the style of an adult woman as well as using young adolescent celebrities to promote products in sexual ways. The result of this is that young girls view themselves as sex objects and if they fail to meet the sexualised ideal body type and styles it can lead to emotional problems as well as a further risk of developing inappropriate relationships and having sexuality inappropriately imposed on them.
