Meenakshi Gigi Durham, PhD (Professor and Collegiate Scholar, University of Iowa), reviews research on the impacts to girls from exposure to sexualized media at #AskTheExperts webinar “Mirror, Mirror, in My Palm: Girls and Media” on September 7, 2022.

[Dr. Meenakshi Gigi Durham]: So actually, there’s quite a bit of research that shows that exposure to sexual media does in fact affect girls’ own perceptions of their own sexuality. First of all, how to represent themselves sexually, which is very much in terms of these narrowly defined, very restrictive and very, very oppressive in some ways models of, you know, the body and so on. But also, there is research that shows that exposures to sexualized media actually leads to, it accelerates sexual activity. There was a study of more than a thousand young, well, actually, girls from different racial backgrounds, different class backgrounds. And, there’s a very clear correlation there.

View the full webinar

Ask the Experts—Webinar

Mirror, Mirror, in My Palm: Girls and Media

How does online media affect girls' mental and physical health as they navigate through the increasingly tricky waters of social media and digital interactions?

Gender
Body Image
Sexual Content
Social Media
Speakers