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Living Dolls and real girls
Posted by Ursula Doyle in Editorial
In February, Virago published Living Dolls, Natasha Walter’s account of the return of sexism, which included an evisceration of the ways in which little girls are sold an airbrushed and highly sexual version of femininity. Here is an interesting take on the phenomenon from Laurie Penny in the Guardian, whose blog Penny Red has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. Penny makes the point that campaigners against unsuitable clothes, toys and accessories for children often accuse manufacturers and retailers of ‘sexualising’ children (usually girls), when what they actually mean is ‘sexually objectifying’ them. It might seem like a fine distinction, but Penny believes it’s an important one. The former implies that the development of girls’ sexuality is something to be resisted for as long as possible; the latter names the syndrome for what it is: the imposition of a repellent lads-mag idea of adult female sexuality on to children.
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