Jugendgefährdung durch sexualisierte Gesellschaft?

[Aoife]

Ein IMHO wundeschöner Artikel von Ludi Valentine, leider mal wieder auf English.

Deshalb hier eine kurze deutsche Zusammenfassung:

Ausgehend von der Beobachtung, dass in einem globalisierten Kapitalismus alles und jeder, also auch unsere Sexualität kommerzialisiert wird, wird dies konkret dargestellt und an den Beispielen Schönheits- und Partnerschaftsindustrie belegt.

Es werden immer individualisiertere Bedürfnisse geschaffen um dann kostenpflichtig befriedigt zu werden. Medien dienen dazu den Glauben an natürliche Schönheit und natürliche Beziehungsfähigkeit auszurotten.

Eben diese Medien verbreiten jetzt verstärkt die Besorgnis, "die Jugend" sei durch diese Umwelt unangemessen sexualisiert, übermäßig durch Glanz und Konsumdenken beeinflußt und somit unfähig unabhängige und vernünftige sexuelle Entscheidungen zu treffen.

Die Autorin ist in dem britischen anti-cuts-movement engagiert und hat dadurch Kontakt zu vielen Jugendlichen. Dabei hat sie die Feststellung gemacht, dass diese Zuschreibung den Tatsachen nicht gerecht wird, zumindest die politisch engagierte Jugend sei gut informiert, vernünftig und sozial verantwortungsvoll.

Selbst wenn die Jugendgefährdung stimmen würde, wäre ja fraglich, wie ausgerechnet Erwachsene, die dieser kommerzliell sexualisierten Gesellschaft bereits erlegen sind, die Jugend vor dieren Gefahren schützen könnten. Anhand der tatsächlich beobachteten Zustände drängt sich jedoch der Schluß auf, dass die Jugend nicht nur nicht gefährdet ist, sondern dass wir Erwachsenen im Gegenteil viel von der Jugend lernen können, was das Hinterfragen der Situation angeht.

Sexualization

In a world dominated by global capitalism, even our sexualities are up for sale

Sex has been commodified. The idea of sexuality being something we can work out and learn ourselves, the idea that it can be straightforward, simple and instinctive, has been replaced by an industry that sets up mystique and misinformation, then sells solutions. Let’s talk about the mechanics at work here.

The process of commodification works by identifying discrete categories of people (or defining new ones through the media), then creating categories of goods to match, assigning these goods prices, stimulating demand and then fulfilling that new, self-made demand. Markets quickly become saturated and prices drop: new markets are always needed, so new areas of demand are constantly being created. People are categorized into increasingly specialized areas, which offers businesses an advantage because their ‘needs’ can be more specifically and aggressively targeted.

A classic example of this process at work is what author Naomi Wolf has called ‘the beauty myth’. The beauty industry creates and maintains its own ideals: the current concepts of beauty, as defined by the industry, did not exist until there became ways to spend money on them. Today, hundreds of companies target goods to a myriad of different consumer needs, many arising directly from mainstream beauty ideals: Lynx sell men deodorant by offering sexually available women, and Fair and Lovely offer employment and romance to Indian women who use their skin-lightening creams. Cynically, even the backlash has been commodified: Dove criticise the mainstream and successfully use their ‘Campaign For Real Beauty’ to sell soap. All these brands are owned by the same company: Unilever.

More recently, a relationship industry has appeared around what I’ll call the Mars-Venus myth. Gender differences are exaggerated in the media to reinforce the popular belief that communication between genders is impossible without guidance. External insight and expertise are marketed as essential for heterosexual fulfilment and partnership. In practice, much of this involves teaching heterosexual women to sell themselves to men. It’s also interesting to note the heavy use of economic terms in the dating scene: people speak of ‘being in the market’, of ‘getting’ a partner, ‘keeping’ them and ‘upgrading’ if they can. A glance at a magazine shelf will show a dozen different ways to market these myths. Nuts, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health and Good Housekeeping all sell heterosexual fulfilment in various ways to people of different ages and social classes.

Nowadays, there are popular media claims that young people are inappropriately sexualized, overly affected by the clamour of consumerism and unable to make independent, informed sexual choices. It’s important to remember that this is the same media that propagates the above myths – newspapers must be sold, too.

Personally, I’ve collaborated with many young people in the anti-cuts movement. Despite media alarmism, my experience is that many young people are questioning these aggressively marketed myths and are educating themselves and their peers in more balanced, straightforward views of sexuality as part of their attack on capitalism as a whole.

The kids are fine: they’re well-informed, sensible and socially conscious. They’re increasingly open to alternative ideas and actively work to expand their worldviews. In the anti-cuts movement in particular, I’ve seen conversations spanning different classes and backgrounds, and many young people simply seem too busy making history to concern themselves with appearance or consuming prepackaged romance. In these spaces, capitalism seems to be losing its grip.

I’ve wondered before whether adults can protect young people from the harmful effects of sexualization while we ourselves are entangled in the beauty myth and besieged by the relationship industry. It may be that we instead have a great deal to learn from the ways in which young people are already questioning and challenging their world.

Ludi Valentine is an anti-cuts activist and aspiring sexuality educator. She’ll soon be informally blogging about sex toys, the commodification of sexuality and other geekery at siliconevalley.tumblr.com.

Source: http://www.onscenity.org/sexualization/

[ehemaliger_User]

"Die Jugend" ist bestimmt nicht gefährdet weil es sie nicht gibt.

Meine Beobachtungen (unter anderem als Ehrenamtler in einem Jugendhilfeverein): Es gibt Jugendliche, die gefährdet sind. Aber nicht durch die "Übersexualisierung" der Gesellschaft sondern das sind diese Jugendliche, die schon anderweitig vorgeschädigt sind.