Notities bij boeken

Debra MERSKIN
"Reviving Lolita? - A Media Literacy Examination of Sexual Portrayals of Girls in Fashion Advertising"
in: American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 48 No. 1, September 2004, 119-129

Over Nabokovs boek en de twee films die op basis van dat boek gemaakt werden:

"Simultaneously repulsive and fascinating mediated portrayals of young girls as inviting and willing participants in their own sexual exploitation have fueled many a male fantasy."(119)

[Als iemand werkelijk 'inviting' en 'willing' is, hoe kun je het dan nog 'exploitatie' noemen? Hier lopen twee perspectieven door elkaar, met als laatste haar waardeoordeel. En waarom alleen 'male fantasy'? Hebben vrouwen geen fantasieën over jongens dan? O nee, hoe kan ik dat zelfs maar denken ...]

"The message from advertisers and the mass media to girls (as eventual women) is they should always be sexually available, always have sex on their minds, be willing to be dominated and even sexually aggressed against, and they will be gazed on as sexual objects. The increasing sexualization of children, in particular girls, in fashion advertising is a disturbing phenomenon (Kilbourne, 1999a)." [mijn nadruk] (120)

[Idem. Is dat wat die advertenties aan kinderen willen overbrengen? Lijkt me niet. Lijkt me meer een interpretatie van iemand die vindt dat het 'onschuldige kind' beschermd moet worden tegen al die geile mannen.]

"In the following sections, I briefly discuss the sociological and cultural context within which girls are sexualized, explore ideas about the use of adolescent girls’ bodies in fashion advertising, apply Galician’s (2004) seven-part media analysis framework, and reflect on the potential consequences of sexual images of girls in the advertisements. (...) The findings are important to scholars, parents, and policy makers who, when armed with knowledge and skills of media literacy, can work to disillusion the sexualized images of girls in popular culture." [mijn nadruk] (120)

['To disillusion' = 'cause (someone) to realize that a belief or an ideal is false'. Haar normatieve standpunt is dus inderdaad bij voorbaat duidelijk.]

"The “pornographication of the American girl” (Junod, 2001, p. 133) is found in television programs, movies, video games, music videos, magazines, and popular culture. A plethora of “erotically coded” images of adolescent girls pervades American popular culture (Walkerdine, 1997, p. 3). Mohr (1996) described society as saturated with “pedophilic images” that are “surprisingly common” considering how we “careen from hysteria to hysteria over the possible sexiness of children” (p. 64). Before directing Britney Spears’s videos, Gregory Dark directed pornographic films." [mijn nadruk] (121)

[Lekker suggestief, nietwaar?]

Ze komt ook met de bekende voorbeelden uit de filmwereld (o.a. Taxi Driver en Pretty Baby), voorbeelden uit tijdschriften, van advertenties.

"Thus, sexualized representations of girls in advertising fuel the “ideology of girl as sexual agent in the imaginary relations between men and girls provided by these images” (Albright, 2002, para. 4). The willingness, passivity, and availability suggested by these images have the potential to fuel pedophilic desires." [mijn nadruk] (123)

[Ah, suggesties ... Ja, alles suggereert wel iets, maar of het 'willingness, passivity, and availability' suggereert is nog maar de vraag. En wat zijn eigenlijk 'pedophilic desires'? O, dat spreekt toch vanzelf! Nou, nee. ]

Volgt een analyse van vier advertenties. Die worden niet weergegeven maar beschreven.

[Om een indruk te geven van het vage interpreterende taalgebruik:]

"She stares directly at the spectator with a seductive, come-and-get-me kind of look that communicates, “When I look like this I always get what I want, and I know it’s what you want. Look at me, what are you waiting for?”
The third advertisement is for a Gucci swimming suit. The image is of a very thin, pubescent-bodied blond White model posed floating on her back with her right arm positioned behind her head. She is seen directly from above, affirming her availability and vulnerability."(124)

[Dus als je iemand van boven ziet dan is die persoon kwetsbaar en zo?]

"Using images of prepubescent and pubescent girls (or grown women made to look that way) in advertising activates and facilitates voyeuristic fantasies about what is appropriate, inappropriate, possessable, and safe. Although there are some variations, taboos against sexual predation on children are nearly universal. Yet there remains a level of curiosity about children as sexual beings, even if that thought is simultaneously expunged."(125)

[Ook al weer zo'n stelling.]

"A symbolic reading of adolescent girl bodies in fashion advertisements reveals that what is being procured, offered, and sold is a point of view that supports an ideology that sexualizes girls and infantilizes women to control them and to legitimize that control.
The implications, discussed further in the conclusion, of these representations are serious and far reaching. Three stand out: (a) soft porn portrayals encourage the sexual exploitation of girls, (b) sexual portrayals contribute to the fetishization of girls and women in the media, and (c) passive and eroticized images foster an overall climate that does not value girls’and women’s voices or contributions to society." [mijn nadruk] (126)

"Several questions need to be examined in future work. These include (a) What message(s) do images like these send to young girls about sex? (b) What message(s) do images like these send to young boys about sex? (c) What do images like these suggest to older men about girls? (d) In what ways might this be dangerous? (e) Are there connections between how young models are portrayed in fashion magazines and child pornography? and (f) What are the political economics of adolescent erotics? As parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, citizens, and scholars, we should be concerned about this."(127)

[De antwoorden heeft ze natuurlijk al ... ]

Ze heeft het ook nog over de vermoorde JonBenet Ramsey die aan schoonheidswedstrijden meedeed en er op haar zesde uitzag als haar twaalfde.

[Maar ze heeft het niet over al die moeders die hun kinderen daarheen meeslepen. Vrouwen zijn immers nergens verantwoordelijk voor ...]

"Similar to content that is regarded as “kiddie porn,” sexualized images of girls in advertisements have the potential to contribute to the ongoing and increasing problem of child sexual abuse. These kinds of representations indirectly condone use of children in inappropriate sexual contexts and “not only focus and allow desire but also erase various social and political complications” (Kincaid, 1998, p. 20)." [mijn nadruk] (127)

"What is important to note is the lack of agency little girls have in the process of becoming desirable."(128)