In today’s culture, a near omnipresent media plays more of a role in the socialization of children than ever before. As the values and standards of pornography and the sex industry become mainstreamed, these are the images and ideals that our teens draw from as they come to understand what it means to be men and women and how they should treat themselves and each other. Socially acceptable and socially desirable behaviors have been redefined, particularly in the realm of sexuality. There are many facets of teen culture that reflect these changes.
Some of the most obvious demonstrations of the sexual socialization of today’s teens can be found in their closets. Clothing is an important part of teen culture. It serves as a means of self-expression or a sign of affiliation with a particular social group or set of values, functioning as a social marker.
And what is it that teens hope to be socially marked as? They want to be ‘hot’, according to Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at npd.com, of the NPD Group, which is a Port Washington, N.Y.-based sales and marketing research company, reported Terri Goldberg for MSNBC on August 9, 2004.
Who is it that determines what is ‘hot’? Cohen tells us that the media is the primary influence upon youth in defining that elusive quality. Teens and preteens are expected to spend $884 million of their own money to achieve this goal, according to the results of a survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retailers Federation..."
more of the article via: obscenity crimes.org
~Well researched article for parents who seemingly provided everything for their teenagers except compassion, empathy, self-reliance and self-esteem. For people who wake-up one day and realize their values can't compete with those of the free-market. Ironically the people often disturbed by these revelations are those who diligently work for and profit from the corporate mind-set that doesn't find anything wrong with advertising using and targeting children.