Hypersexualization Of Young Girls On Social Media

In the second edition of SheThePeople’s Online Safety Summit for Women, the summit attempts to get all stakeholders together and explore a consolidated approach for the online safety of women and children. The summit talked about the hypersexualization of young girls online and how we can equip our youth to have a better online experience.

This particular panel titled 'Hypersexualization Of Young Girls On Social Media' features three prominent personalities who shared their experience and suggestions on how to improve things with respect to the hypersexualization of young girls online. The members of this panel included Dr Ranjana Kumari, a renowned social activist, the director of the Centre For Social Research, and the chairperson of Women Power Connect. The second panellist, Sujata Parashar is an award-winning novelist, writer, poet and founder of the Chalk It out Express(a talk therapy-based platform which addresses emotional health). Dr Aditi Paswan, an assistant professor at Delhi University and ex-ICSSR doctor and fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University, was the third panellist for this session.

Hypersexualization Of Young Girls On Social Media

The summit attempts to get all stakeholders together and explore a consolidated approach for the online safety of women and children. The summit talked about the hypersexualization of young girls online and how we can equip our youth to have a better online experience.

On asked about how the female body is scrutinized on social media, Dr Kumari said, "The most important thing to understand is that when you are looking at the other person as an instrument for your own pleasure or to fulfil your own sexual goals, then you are objectifying that person. That's where the whole problem comes in because women, by and large, are represented, traditionally through the patriarchal framework of looking at women as a pleasure for men. This means that she doesn't have her own agency. She is not really someone who is very capable and who has a lot of potential to do other things. She is not an individual or a person. Just like when you like something, you want to own it, you want to preserve it with you and you also control it."

Sujata Parashar said that not just women but men too are nowadays very conscious about their physical appearances. She said, "The pressure to conform to an ideal body type or a physical image is found more in women."She further shared an example from her conversation with a Gujrati woman stand-up comedian who told her about her childhood experiences of how she used to be selected for the character of King always in her school plays because of being dark-skinned.

Issues Faced By The Youth

Dr Aditi Paswan too extended the discrimination based on colour and shared how people in Bihar are overapplying the bleaching agent to fit into particular desired standards and in turn suffering from skin cancer. She also told about how students are uploading their pictures online and not receiving enough likes, they get depressed and resort to nudity. The students feel that the maximum skin show they do, the maximum likes they are going to get. Dr Paswan also talked about cyberbullying and how every girl is becoming a victim of it.

Women and Girls Shy Away From Reporting Cyber Bullying

According to Dr Kumari, there are several reasons why women and girls don't report cyberbullying. One of the reasons according to her is being reprimanded for their actions and immediately being declared wrong for posting the stuff online in the first place.

Issues To Discuss With Youth

The Chalk It Out Express founder talked about the importance of discussing the concept of content with the youth of society. She said, "Teaching the child to say no to something that he or she doesn't want and accept it without feeling offended. If the child doesn't want to be hugged by an adult, allow him or her the opportunity to say no. And for the other person also to accept it as such."

On asked about how young girls should use social media positively, Dr Paswan said, "The younger girls are at a very vulnerable stage of their lives. They need to be very careful while sharing anything on social media. Once it is there, it is there."

Watch the full panel discussion ">here.

Suggested Reading: How Parents Can Deal With Inhibitions, Challenges About Online Safety