"Bad girls rule": an interdisciplinary feminist commentary on the report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls.
Feminist, critical, and postmodern scholars have long recognized sexuality as a site of power relations. The recently released Report of the APA (American Psychological Association) Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls is a welcome addition to ongoing feminist and activist conversations on how to intervene on issues of sexuality in the name of girls' and women's health. This article offers a critical interdisciplinary analysis of this influential APA report, expanding on and challenging several of its main claims. This article critiques the report as over-determining the negative impact of sexualization; offers other literatures as critical additions including feminist literature on media, consumer culture, gender, and the body, and earlier "pro-desire" feminist psychology scholarship; and critiques the task force's conflations of objectification and sexualization. The article concludes with a call for broadening feminist scholarship and activism across disciplinary boundaries to emphasize girls' and women's sexual agency and resistance, as well as sexual health and rights.
Lerum
Kari
K
Department of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, University of Washington, Bothell, WA 98011-1713, USA. klerum@uwb.edu
Dworkin
Shari L
SL
D026683:Advisory Committees; D001294:Attitude to Health; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D019513:Feminism; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007989:Libido; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012922:Social Change; D012938:Social Perception; D013240:Stereotyping; D014481:United States; D016387:Women's Health; D014933:Women's Rights