MHM Magazine

Issue 3 | 2022 | MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS | 25 MHM differently over the years, but sexualisation in the media is nothing new either. Think back to the 1980s and 1990s — the age of the size 0 model. And at the same time, pornography and adult content became widely accessible. With the boom of the digital era and social media, we’re bound to see some drastic changes in society. WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT THE MEDIA TODAY? While sexualisation is just as prevalent in the media today, there’s one essential difference — media is now handed to children on a silver platter in the form of social media networks. And like all media, it’s not immune to sexualisation. Teens as young as 13 (and even younger, as some children lie about their age) are drawn to these social apps like moths to a flame and are exposed to the deepest, darkest corners of the media that no child should see. We’re seeing that inside popular culture, from a very early age, children are encouraged to show as much skin as possible, be as provocative as possible — in their movements, gestures, content and more. Children are pressured into showing themselves off, focusing on their exterior self and silencing their inner identity. HOW DOES SEXUALITY FIT INTO ALL OF THIS? So what are we missing? Well, we’re missing an essential piece of the puzzle, namely sexuality — we can’t talk about sexualisation without talking about sexuality. We seem to have forgotten that sexuality is not a purely outward gesture, it doesn’t just focus on the exterior self. Sexuality is largely inward — built of a brilliant mosaic of defined and interlinking parts, namely: • Orientation: Where do you identify on the gender spectrum? • Sexual preference: Who are you attracted to, what are your sexual preferences, what type of things are you into? • More importantly, what your sexuality represents: Who are you in this world? This fundamental view of sexuality lends itself to the idea that each and every one of us arrives in this world with, at least to some degree, some sort of purpose or opportunity to discover, embrace and share our true selves with the world. These essential aspects of sexuality are completely and utterly overlooked, leading to an entirely misconstrued conception of sexuality and sexualisation brought upon our youth. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR OUR CHILDREN ON SOCIAL MEDIA? Instead of gaining a deeper, balanced view of sexuality, focusing on orientation, preference, purpose; our children are: • Trained by sexualised media into thinking that this is how they should be, this is what makes them successful, this is what makes them attractive • Taught that they are only who they appear on social media • Judge and evaluate themselves against an outward, superficial metric If we’re only invested in these perceptions of sexuality, it