The Best Raged Filled Moments of that Alex Jones video: A Dissection

That Coffee Was Lukewarm at best

Sunday. The day of rest. A day of the Prosecco headached Facebook routines of "Where's the best Sunday dinner delivery?" and quotes about it being 5'oclock somewhere in front of a sepia picture of Marilyn Monroe. Sunday clubs, accumulators, walks in overpriced National Trust sites and Maureen from Stockport averaging a 6 for her Come Dine With Me night because although her entertainment was good, her homemade basil ice cream didn't set. This is the way it has, should and will be until the imminent day we are set on fire by a powerful reality star turn sex predator. I want jokes on twitter about Harry Kane's slobbering chin or related information regarding the similarity in height between Charizard and Beyonce. I do not require Alex Jones's sporadically furry nipples. 

Once more we have been allowed to dip our toes into the gay frog infested waters that is the existence of right-wing romancer, conspiracy theorist and all-round fucking batshit skin silhouette Alex Jones. He is almost a convincing human shot out a glitch in the matrix to fill the ham shaped right-wing media void we don't deserve. Despite spreading hate and selling expensive pharmaceutical products for a living he looks like he has been put together with sellotape, pipe cleaners and gammon. But probably the most dangerous gammon I've witnessed. 

I've been promising myself over the last year or so to keep more of an open mind when it comes to opposing political views, mainly to avoid awkward Wednesday afternoons at my grandparent's where it's cooler to say cunt than Corbyn. But this guy is heinous. He isn't just your average drunk uncle at a wedding who displays shades of aubergine when discussing anything about immigration or 'the loony left'. This chap is much more calculated. This chap is the face of the right, spreading lies and fear in the hope you will buy something. It is almost that simple. He is Trump's Purple Princess.

His 4-hour long weekly show on the self-described "#1 Independent Liberty Show in the World"; Infowars is where you will have most likely have witnessed his frenzied hyperbole. It's difficult to sufficiently put into words how ludicrous his ideas are and even more ludicrous how sensible he believes such to be. He speaks with absolute conviction that after too long you actually start questioning yourself. I've experienced first-hand how intoxicating it could be to catch the sugar-laden conspiracy virus that helps Jones to gain the traction of 6 million people each week. I have friends who have perhaps wandered through the forest of too much weed and too many Netflix documentaries that they have automatically ordered The Cowspiracy Cookbook. It's seemingly laughable David Icke puns eventually shared across a cheese board and then brushed off as whimsy. A light-hearted slice of escapism away from the usual everyday experiences of that annoyingly loud woman who is always on your bus and VLOOKUP's. 

But Jones is anything but light-hearted. If anything, I have him odds on my deadpool considering it looks like he has been going through a heart attack in slow motion for the last decade. He is a calculated cluster of angry atoms asking you to line his pockets by selling you 'anti-cancer' chicken milkshakes and wet wipes. The Alex Jones Show has once even been described as the QVC for conspiracy. His foaming tantrum targets take the usual forms of his peers. You can include any organism breathing oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide alongside some inanimate objects on this fiery rock aside from: 

Most Males

Most White Males

Most Straight White Males

Most White Male Christians

Most White Males with Guns

Some White Males with Naff Hair

Some White Males with Gold Shit 

Some White Males in Ill-Fitting Black Shirts

White Males Holding the Right Kind of Flag

Jesus

Some of Jesus's Mates

Sometimes Satan (varies) 

If you are none of the above  - Congratulations! You have joined Jihad and your son is a gay frog. 

So when you are only used to witnessing such a twisted background of brainwash and sludge from Mr Jones usually on a Sunday afternoon, it is wonderful that, amongst a myriad of tweets about the way Gemma Collins says 'Girls', an opportunity arose to witness him with a shirt on a least, losing his shit and ending up damp and we damn well embraced it. There are so many nuggets of fuckery in just 3 minutes and 14 seconds that I felt the need to dissect his moments of mania: 


THAT RUN. LIKE PROPERLY THAT FUCKING RUN. LIKE THAT RUN ON THE SIMS WHEN YOUR CHARACTER NEEDS TO PISS & YOU'VE LOCKED THEM IN A 12X12 ROOM WITH NO TOILET.

Have you ever seen a specimen go from 0-100 so quickly? Nobody legit runs like this, it's almost subhuman. But by me speculating that he isn't actually human and that he dripped in through a seeping crack in the stratosphere like Ivan Ooze sounds quintessentially Alex Jones but I believe that to understand Alex Jones you must think like Alex Jones. Firstly, the cognitive dynamism he must contain in order for his arms to move like an infected traction engine is like something David Lynch couldn't even muster in narrative. I'm sure he must sleep in a skip of brine at night in order to keep his oblong torso prepared to 'Fight For Freedom'. THIS SHOULD NOT BE PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE.

Secondly - what is he even running in? Is he even wearing socks? One can only assume he once saw a Jewish guy wearing socks and therefore believes that Jewish socks are a false flag operation that will leave society a morally bankrupt, virtue signalling, cat-shit eating, feminised shell. Whatever dude but I have already had to witness your pork scratching udders so I would like to formally decline an invitation to see your flappy trotters after wearing stiff shoes and no socks.

Finally - the double finger point before his gills start working is majestic. Have you ever witnessed a man get so angry like this in real life? I have worked in bars for a number of years and I have felt that peculiar adrenaline when you really don't know what someone is going to do next. This usually ends in "It's not worth it mate!" met with deep, consistent intakes of breath or having to ring the police because a patron has got so shitfaced, had his head kicked in and has now pooed on your parquet floor. That double point is fairly commonplace. The double point and the calm-but-not-really chin scratch. In opposition with the previous viewpoint that he is actually a laboratory lizard, it shows he has some elements of human characteristics by attempting to restrain himself from that run, but like most examples of such,the run cometh. This is usually  seen in 'ye dar getting knocked out of his accumulator by one last minute goal' types.



INTELLECTUALLY WHO YOU ARE? I'M YOUR MAMA 

The foundations of The United States of America live and die on Yo' Mama. Keep your amendments, constitutions, bills and 'Do You Even Lift Bro?' Eagles - If you're playing the Yo' Mama card THERE ARE NO RULES LEFT. This could go either way at this point - If this works you become a part of the Yo' Mama Elite (See the kid who when asked if he was twelve that he was twelve inches deep in your MOM). You could be described as giving a DANK AF response that YOU WON'T BELIEVE!! on Buzzfeed. But as previously mentioned, 6 million people watch The Alex Jones Show every week. Even if you're getting this right expect a ton of lit bags of shit on your doorstep and a 9/11 was an inside job bumper sticker. It isn't the most damning Yo' Mama granted but when you are playing a game of linguistics with a vindaloo poo you're going to always end up with shit on your hands. That's the funny thing with bigots, they all really fucking love their mam's despite the arrogant bile they pedal. 


THE GUY IN THE KHAKI BEANIE WHO KIND OF WANTS TO GET INVOLVED BUT HE'S GOT AN EARLY MEETING, A HOT LATTE AND A CHEESE & TOMATO CROISSANT TO GET TO. 

Have you ever had one of those tomato and cheese croissants from Pret A Manger? Like holy balls they are amazing. I know there's only a handful of Pret's in America but if you knew you had the option of that hot piece of hybrid french pastry ass or getting involved in a ruction with a bacon eared Texan ass I know which one I would pick. I don't think Alex Jones really comprehends that these people are on their way to work in order to contribute to society, he genuinely believes that these people have risen from their vapid, one-dimensional slumber with the sole intention of "Crushing Conservative Skulls". In reality they want the buttery flaky sustenance and to get through the working day without train delays, pushy high-street promotion staff or some grown-up gobshite filming himself shouting SLAVE within 10 feet of them.

THE GUY WHO KEEPS FLIPPING ALEX JONES OFF KEEPS FLIPPING ALEX JONES OFF 

This is a lesson in why one middle finger flip is sometimes never enough. Add in a wee jig and some Get To Fuck loose arms and you are on to a winner because surely no one saw that run coming. Just some plaid-shirted gaming vlogger who only works in the Lego store ironically, on his way to eat the shit out of some ramen gets such an 'intellectual' heated enough to burn a hole in the thighs of his smart casual jeans. This guy probably has a tattoo of Cartman on his leg and dressed as The Matrix for Halloween once but he got Jones so so pissed off. This guy is a treasure, he performed everything I would like to think I would do if I ever came across such a bum but definitely wouldn't or would probably only do after too many wines. I once told my mother-in-law, after too many wines also, that if I ever saw Tommy Robinson I would spit on his child-like trainers knowing fine well I never would. I would probably just raise a concerned eyebrow and hide in a bin. But backpack guy, upon being called a fake and a fraud, told him to fuck off. So on behalf of many of us, praise to backpack guy and Alex Jones: YOU FUCK OFF. 

THAT'S WHY BIPARTISANLY...

He doesn't know what bipartisanly means. NEXT. 


THE SHOTS OF THE BACK OF HIS HEAD IN IT'S FULL GLORY. LIKE A CASUALLY COIFFED FRIAR TUCK THAT NONE OF HIS LAME PRODUCTS CAN SAVE

He had his hair cut by Mama June from Here Come's Honey Boo Boo. The Mama June pre-weight loss but post-Sugar Bear, on a plastic chair in her front yard. If his hairline was receding any further it would be classed as pubic hair. What makes an aggressive man wake up each morning, take swig out of a bottle of organic bbq sauce and think YEAH MAN THIS FRO MAN, I DON'T LOOK LIKE PAUL BLART MALL COP. I'm not sure on Paul Blart's political views but I highly doubt he believes that Sandy Hook was a hoax or that Obama is the global head of Al-Qaeda. Although Kevin James I cannot make heads or tails of. 


THE LUKEWARM CAFFEINE CARNAGE 

The headline act. Of all of this Shakespearean silliness (Tragedy, Romance, Comedy and History rolled into one) this is the final Act. This is the part where DiCaprio drinks poison, Macduff looks smug and there is a man with the head of donkey. "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once" - Julius Caesar Act 2, Scene 2. When Shakespeare was writing Julius Caesar there was something in him that knew he was writing about the guy who threw coffee at Alex Jones just a mere 418 years yonder. Not only has he poured coffee over him but has then attempted to use his reusable travel thermos as a weapon in battle. It is like something out of Assassin's Creed - Ezio Auditore secret blading a Templar with a flat white. LOOK AT THE SLAVE, LOOK AT THE SLAVE. Even though afterwards there has been talk of this guy being a ex-professional wrestler and rumours it was a set-up but lets just take it for what it is - a moist tit. You know that smell when you go to post office and Here To Help counter lady Jane is quite enjoyable company when trying to weigh your 2nd class recorded asymmetric neon top from Topshop bought in 2009 but her morning latte has made her breathe smell like soil. Imagine him going home and having to wash his once clean shirt, sighing and scooping in Lenor like he is scooping skin matter out of his soul. I don't care how gay you think your fish are, stale coffee stain smell must get you down. 


THE LOOK OF A CALCULATED FLAP OF SKIN WHO KNOWS THIS WILL GO VIRAL FOR GOOD AND FOR BAD BUT DOESN'T CARE

Even with me writing about these encounters, I am flexibly meeting Alex Jones's agenda because he is being talked about. By talking about him, I am feeding his need for relevance and need to sell survival food to pay for his false flag Rolex's. Minutes after we all chuckled at a wrinkly ball-head get covered in 'BOILING', 'SCALDING' and 'BURNING' coffee, millions declared war on 'liberal goblins' and began conducting the orchestra with clips describing it as 'Alex Jones Destroys Smack Talking Liberal' and 'Alex Jones Attacked With Boiling Coffee On The Streets Of Seattle'. Alex Jones seems not only relaxed being criticised by his opposition but something his adrenaline desires and craves in order to make money. His presence demands controversy. When celebrities run with such, it probably means they will sell a few more of their biographies on Sunday Brunch, talking about their 'journey'. When you are selling an ideology, the attitudes of the everyday silent or not-so-silent majority becomes immensely malleable. 

TV Dinners

Ah! the gently intoxicating art of telly consumption. The pastime handed down from parents through decades of square eyes, cups of tea and probably that daft bit in Last of The Summer Wine when Compo slides down a hill in a bath.

The humble comedy repeats of the past often shown on hungover bank holidays hark back to not only a forgotten age away from the comedic stylings of young whippersnappers in trendy 90s wine lodges but to a zeitgeist for misfit apparel. It seemed that he who dares gets a wet blue rinse wet set. Here we ponder the panache of paisley ties, pea coats and ey' up Petunia's of the figureheads of British comedy past.

 

Gary Sparrow - Goodnight Sweetheart 

This slightly far-fetched affair of time travel capers conjures up a hybrid of impeccable 40s pea coats, rayon and wool blended suits and delicate tea dresses mixed 90s bleach jeans and pique cotton polo shirts. Set partly in the 90s and partly in the 40s, TV repairman Gary Sparrow ever so miraculously gets transported back to wartime London where he then parts his time between both eras. The less mentioned about the ever so bland mid 90s costuming probably the better. His wartime barmaid sweetheart Phoebe hits the high notes with pageboy hair-sets, shirred polka dot day dresses and military box coats. He particularly woos her when he brings food back from the 90s that were then under ration, perhaps a packet of Quavers or those Hubba Bubba gooey strawberry liquid gum things I suppose? Gary provides classic staples of British menswear of the era, often wearing brown knitted undershirts, muted herringbone suits and fedoras. So many bizarre question marks hang over its comedic output but what does stand strong is much of its costuming. Far be it from me to draw the guidelines of realism in British comedy but it's a pretty batshit experience.

 

Valeria Watt - Carry On Screaming 

The intoxicating beauty of cunning vamp Valeria Watt is enough to make a mans eyeballs pop from his head like something out of a Tex Avery animation. All men want her and all women want to be her as she lays alluringly on chaise longue in a burgundy velvet floor length gown. With a plunging neckline, long sleeved arms and seductive fishtail skirt, she oozes vampirish sex appeal. Combined with her porcelain skin, painted red lips and flash of electric blue eyeshadow, made popular by New Wave actress Anna Karina, she was like an intoxicating English sixties siren leading men to their doom. We certainly don't mind if she smokes.

Bertie Wooster - Jeeves & Wooster

 

The attire of 1930s well-heeled vivant Bertie Wooster proves to be commonly admired by contemporary vintage chaps. Bertram Wilberforce Wooster provides multiple precise looks of the 30s. Taken from the P.G Woodhouse 'Jeeves' novels, Bertie is nonchalantly wealthy and reliant on his subservient valet Jeeves. With such wealth Bertie adorns many different looks dependent on backdrop. Double-breasted waistcoasts and silk pocket squares are rather the regular ticket when attending drinks and larks at The Drones Club, although you also get to admire some wonderful ensembles outside of his regular haunt. When at the beach it's a double breasted nautical navy jacket with cream slacks and matching panama hat. Whereas at golfing establishments it is long tobacco socks and buttoned waistcoats on the menu. Mix this with countryside attire of leathers and pocket watches, snap tab collars and bow ties at dinner before a padded collar silk smoking jacket for slumber.

 

Terry Collier & Bob Ferris - Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads

 

 

Alright Thelma, pet. The Likely Lads were the archetypes of working class apparel in the 1970s. Similar proletariat upbrings but two warring opinions on how one should live their life, something which also transcended into both characters costuming. Tinker Terry Collier's casual labourer silhouette was made up of beige Harrington jackets layered with pique shirts, unstiffened collars and jumpers, resonating with the struggle of laboured unemployment and ex-military servicemen in the North of England at the time. Juxtapose to the perhaps less palatable poseur Bob who's strive to Keep Up With The Joneses shows in his tailored pin-stripe suits, stiff collars and silk autumnal ties. Whilst Bob heeds the requests of his aspirational faux middle-class partner Thelma, hedonistic Terry plays up to his wonderfully entertaining promiscuity, twice being caught by the milkman in ill-fitting duck egg blue gentlemens briefs at various ladies residences. The costuming of The Likely Lads is not only one to admire but to dissect in relation to the backdrop of a glum early 70s North-East England.

 

Mark Lamarr - Shooting Stars

 

In the words of Bobeth of Mortimer - 'Oh He's a Nineteen Fifties Bin Man! Blowin' His Sexual Bugle Up And Down The Countryside'

He was the modestly mocked other half to Ulrika Jonsson on the 90's Vic & Bob panel show Shooting Stars (also see Snootin' Snars). Religiously teased for his likeness to Eddie Cochran or a 1950s conman, his collar loop shirts with breast pockets and yolk pleats could easily sit at home to a Freddies of Pinewood wearer today. Amongst the hyjinks of men dressed as babies and questions about whether Jeremy Irons, Lamarr often exhibited favourable 50s contrast colours of ivory, air-force blue, pistachio, navy and black, made famous by Elvis in King Creole. Not before competing in challenges to withstand the force of large items of taxidermy in order to win a tin of pineapple chunks. Arguably the icon of rockabilly fashion on mainstream television in the 90s.

 

 

Miss Betty Slocombe - Are You Being Served?

 

 

 

The foul mouthed matriarch of Grace Brothers Department Store that makes every geriatric appreciating gal pray for the day it is acceptable to get a blue rinse. Not even just a blue rinse, how about peach, aubergine, apple green, forest green, candyfloss and mermaid. Sod it, perms and colour rinses at any age. YOU GET A BLUE RINSE AND YOU GET A BLUE RINSE, EVERYBODY GETS A BLUE RINSE! With her next-door-neighbour regularly coming round to check on her pussy, her battleaxe posterior and icy stares made her the sassiest and strongest of female characters on British television. It was maximum Edwardian ruffles, tobacco tabards, jewelled cat-eye glasses and foxy fur stoles to counteract the plume of candied creations atop her head.  

 

Granville - Open All Hours

 

 

 

Down-trodden, idealistic and w-w-w-world weary, Granville's woolly and bobbled knitted tank tops always over crisp white shirts and ties was a true example of the staunch internal etiquette of perhaps our own grandparents and parents in order to dress smartly everyday no matter occupation or class. Something perhaps we could all take a leaf out of ourselves. With Granville existing on a Greengrocers apprentice wage, he dreamt of a utopia beyond Arkwright's acrimonious put-downs and dalliances with the erotically charged Nurse Gladys. A coarse apron tied slovenly at the waist, land worker knits and flat caps created a mise-en-scene not dissimilar to the Hovis advert where the young fella nearly goes arse over tit down some cobbles.

Private Helga Geerhart - Allo' Allo'

 

The only daughter of strudel bakers, Helga was the love maiden of the Luftwaffe in 80s World War II comedy Allo' Allo'. Seductive blue eyes, braided golden locks, a sphinx-like smile and fuck-me stockings, she was the sexy slapstick saboteur you were allowed to crush over on a Saturday evening, even if a pillow was required over your lap. Graduating from finishing school in Heidelberg with top marks in mechanics, corset making and with humble 20wpm shorthand experience, she found herself performing secretarial duties for Colonel Kurt Von Strohm and Captain Hans Gruber. Her most significant relationship however manifests in the form of spherically bespectacled and leather clad Herr Otto Flick of the Gestapo, someone who also shares her rapture for corsetry and fishnet stockings. Unbeknownst to Herr Flick, although having to always grant her permission to kiss him, it was Helga who was holding all the cards upon their endeavours to acquire the portrait of "The Fallen Madonna With The Big Boobies". Kim Hartman, who plays Helga, has revealed in the past that Helga, with her Aryan attributes would certainly have had the possibility of wooing Hitler in her crosshairs, being the ultimate sexual conquest for power. Something Allo' Allo' always achieved under such a cloak of possible taboo, alongside the precise costuming, was to use effortless subtly, naivety and innuendo to put audiences at ease whilst assuming a certain level of intelligence. Being a sucker for all things military, it's hard for me not to strive for such an aesthetic. Upon dismantling the social codes of the past, Allo' Allo' successfully aided to preserve an identity of self-ridicule in British comedy.

 





Nice Girls Don't Wear Cha Cha Heels! - Adam Selman AW15

The distorted deviance that defines the idiosyncractic aesthetic of John Waters filmography was almost  unavoidable at Adam Selman's AW15 show. The influence of the so-called Pope Of Trash remained a constant with rockabilly gingham capris, high messy beehives, 50s schoolgirl cat eye glasses and heavy box pleats. The silk headscarves helped to instill waves of the Cry Baby metropolis of Wanda Woodward with the additions of exaggerated primary wet look curls and casually coiffed masses of hair. Whispers of Cry Baby references subtly washed over the collection but it was Water's 1974 bizarre outpouring that is Female Trouble, which was also cited as inspiration for Miu Miu SS15, rendered mainly in Selman's design periphery.

 

 "I'm so fucking beautiful I can't stand it myself! Now, everybody freeze! Who wants to be famous? Who wants to DIE for art? " - Dawn Davenport - Female Troubles

As much as Water's has been christened The Pope of Trash, The Duke of Dirt and The Prince of Puke, I mostly see him as The King Of Counter-Culture. Waters has spent his career turning bad taste into art with Divine straddling the bow of the ship. Female Troubles sees Divine play the matriarch of muck Dawn Davenport, teen mother turned sexual spin doctor turned fame hungry train-wreck. The models attainted the form of the sassy brats of the suberbs, twirling their hair, violently blowing gum and pulling a resting cool-girl face against wire railing in early 1960s Baltimore.  People assume that The Pink Ladies were a moderately tough crowd but Selman's sweethearts are The Pink Ladies on ketamine and bordering of satanic.

"I wouldn't suck your lousy dick if I was suffocating and there was oxygen in your balls!" - Taffy Davenport

Another substantial string that was added to Adam Selman's bow was the appearance of intricate rib knits, a turn away from his weakness for sheer fabrics.

The Water's effect is also heightened by the Dawn like darker tones of the collection with velvet skirts with seductive slits and sheer black fabric dresses and was an irresistible homage to the original queen bee of debauchery. Selman has also commented that bad attitude played a significant role in the design process. Being a John Waters admirer it incited hysteria and nostalgia in me when tasked to dissect some of the original references and being able to revel in them. Rihanna is also a patron of the brand, seen recently wearing Selman's candy pink polyester dress that reads 'SPOILED' on the chest, perfect for a contemporary take on trash.

 "I've DONE everything a mother can do: I've locked her in her room, I've beat her with the car aerial. Nothing changes her. It's HARD being a loving mother!" - Dawn Davenport

So who is the Selman girl? What drives her? Alongside the obvious cinematic maverick stylings is Selman's desire to create a tangible character from his collection. He designed with a person in mind, someone cynical with personality and verve. Bikini Kill's Rebel Girl tends to automatically ring through my ears throughout.

Selman said of the moodboard of the girls made for this collection that "These girls cant wait to get out of this town" and "They're just hanging out, loitering in front of the locker rooms or in the bathroom being nasty". The models were even instructed to act with a playful rotten disposition and to stare into space as if they're stoned.

Although gaining popularity through a fashion icon like Rihanna, I pray he shakes off the fast paced and pungent status as THE RIHANNA DESIGNER and can make a strong impending waves away from the whom what where and whys of the contemporary celebrity obsessed environment that some designers cannnot help but hang their entire ethics/brand aesthetic/dimensions and talent on.

Does consumerism cause the sexualisation of young girls?

                                          What does it mean to grow up female in the UK?

As the definition of gender roles becomes even more blurred and the hyper-sexualised cultural landscape becomes more difficult to escape it's obvious that the sexualisation of young females is a total juxtapose experience to how it affected our mothers.

This topic seems to reoccur in society on a wide scale on a daily basis with multiple scapegoats to put blame on. Young girls dressing provocatively does not justify the laddish rape culture that seems to have plagued the 21st century, with females seen as the supposed problem and never the victim.

As this trend has developed, politicians have shyed away from decisive action and culturally influential companies like Arcadia have only encouraged sexualisation of young females through delectable raunchy slogan t-shirts and citing Miley Cyrus as godlike. The reason for this is because it is in their interest.

Sexualisation is not a new phenomenon. It seems that the panic that surrounds sexualisation, especially of young people, has been a closely observed topic for many years. In the past, religious leaders believed that sexualisation, especially when it came to masturbation, would cause a person severe problems and could even result in insanity and death. During the Victorian Age, it was thought that aggressive sexual activity and normalising of sex would leave the country morally and financially bankrupt. It was seen that exposure to anything sexual would become so seductive an option that not only would people take part in it but they would become obsessed with it, whether that be pornography, masturbation, gay sex or anything seen as unnatural. Even in 1963 - “Mrs Mary Whitehouse began her mission to ‘clear up’ television and purify the nation” This was because “Of her conviction that young people were sexually at risk.”So why in 2015 is it such a poigniant issue!?

It has been said that: “Sexualization is a ubiquitous force infecting the lives of girls”. Although sexualisation has been an ever present force in the past, it has transformed into different meanings for different people over many generations. Sexualisation of girls in 2015 contains different experiences to that of their parents but all still falls under the umbrella term. Egan says that:

 “Each generation is said to be facing and doing something their parents did not, and it is the imminence of peril which often legitimates calls for social and political action.”

It is the fear of the unknown that causes blind panic in parents. Sexualisation can be suitably defined as “The twining of defiled innocence, precocious sexual promiscuity with a clearly defined antagonist – popular culture.” 

A variety of writers in newspapers, Think Tank reports and books have commented on sexualisation over the last number years and have used a range of severe and emotive language available to describe it, warning people of the dangers that sexualisation is having not just on society but on your own sons and daughters. The sensationalising of sexualisation and its dangers has made it the topic on everyone’s lips.

“The combination of girls, sexuality and pathological outcomes grabs our attention, insuring both its newsworthiness and its need for action”

We live in an age where it isn’t abnormal to wake in the morning and read an article that is sending out the panic signals to parents, whether it be a risque t-shirt available on the high-street, a statistic on the percentage of young girls seduced by sexting, being a victim of revenge porn or a celebrity like Rihanna bringing sexualisation to the forefront of conversation. Publications like The Guardian, amongst others, have recently highlighted the issue on a wide scale, enhancing its ‘hot topic’ status. With numerous calls for padded bras for 7-year-olds, playboy bunny motif stationary and slogan t-shirts that read ‘Future Wag’ to be banned, David Cameron 'branded the sale of bikinis at Primark disgraceful’

The key ideal of the market is to get young girls to become obsessed with consumption, which is aided by sexualisation – “The goal is to turn children into shoppers for life, and marketers know a huge amount about how to do it”. Even from a personal point of view, I was seduced as a young teenager to consume products that not only alluded to sexual innuendo but in hindsight, could have possibly made me a possible target of a sex attack or unwanted sexual attention 

A significant difference in sexualisation of girls in 2015 is the level of sexualised coverage and the culture of consumption. 

Papadopoulos says that “Children and young people today are not only exposed to increasing amounts of hyper-sexualised images, they are also sold the idea that they have to look ‘sexy’ and ‘hot’. As such they are facing pressures that children in the past simply did not have to face” 

As the rather horrific picture of myself at 13 and many newspaper articles about sexualisation of girls, it’s seen that consumption could be at the heart of sexualisation in the 21st Century. The amount of disposable income that teenagers have has been on the rise since the 1950s and thus when the idealist sexual aesthetic is marketed and sold to young girls, they will consume it with every penny they can get. 

“Most often authors and activists turn their attention to individual outcomes of the effects of consumption in lieu of an analysis of cultural production.” Activists can easily claim that if the products were not readily available on the shelves then sexualisation would not be an issue. Although forgetting other factors, it is true that a change in consumer habits since the war has ran alongside sexualisation, with the media often concentrating on its power over the young and Egan has said that “This phenomenon is seen as an outcome of a culture bent on enticing unwitting girls into becoming lifelong consumers and ultimately passive female subjects". Consumer obsessed females are often the butt of jokes, regarding their intelligence and synthetic consumer needs, seen as putting buying products and money over everything.  

Young girls seem to be constantly bombarded with sexualised images of airbrushed women and men in the media through dozens of outlets since the beginning of the internet and social media age, alongside that of television, music and influential magazines. A survey in 2013 claims that “96% of girls aged 11-21 use at least one of the main social media sites” and “49% of 11-21 year-olds say they would like to look more like the pictures of girls and women they see in the media”. Even more worryingly, 75% of 11-21 year olds feel boys want them to look like girls and women in the media.

Patriarchy has long played a role in the sexualisation of girls and women. Years of viewing women as decoration and nothing else are not gone, with young girls wanting to conform to the now overtly sexual norm in order to attract men and boys. A woman’s sexuality becomes passive and as Germaine Greer explains - the female is considered as a sexual object for the use and appreciation of other sexual beings, men. Sexual inequality remains to be vast and well documented. The No More Page 3 Campaign highlights the archaic patriarchal driven sentiments of sexual culture that still trivialises what it means to grow up female today when surrounded by salacious and not only accessible but promoted material. Lucy-Anne Holmes, founder of the No More Page 3 Campaign has said:  

“Women are held up to an impossible airbrushed beauty ideal where how their look becomes more important than what they do, think or say. One gender is allowed to be fully clothed, look old and overweight while the other isn’t. The impact this has on girls and young women is sad and unfair.” 

Girls are not told in so many words by cultural influencers that they should conform to the specific ideals they are subjected to, but when shown success through these means on a daily basis, self-sexualisation is fulfilled. Young girls are biologically vulnerable to this conditioning to begin with but there’s argument that the consumer markets are cashing in on the damaged image of forgotten innocence by feeding ‘normative sexy’ down their throats. It's thought that “If girls learn that sexualised behaviour and appearance are approved and rewarded by society and by the people (e.g. peers) whose opinions matter most to them, they are likely to internalize these standards, thus engaging in self-sexualisation.” 

Like anything in life, if you are exposed to a viewpoint enough you will internalise it into your own life. So what does that do to the rigid class system that functioned outside of 21st century sexualisation previously? All young girls from all social classes are susceptible to sexualisation. So is that why the media outlets that criticize sexualised products like padded bras are promoting a feeling of danger and extreme coverage, because it is not just affecting the working class but the middle-class that they tend to represent?  

“The sexualised girl is a sign. She is emblematic of a fractured and corrupted middle-class status as well as an expression of nostalgia for time past when taste, status, age, difference and control were believed to be more transparent and manageable”

Sexualisation of children has made the middle-class vulnerable to doubt and lack of control, something significant of the times and society we are currently in. But research says “Girls are having less partnered sex than they did 20 years ago, are more responsible in terms of birth control when they do have vaginal/penile intercourse and often have strong values and beliefs regarding sex and sexuality.” If this is the case, why the sudden epidemic of sexualisation? and why do these ideas get reproduced with such ease in the western world? That would be the answer to most conundrums, power and politics. Sexual cultures commentator Danielle Egan says that “It is my supposition that the discourse on sexualisation is ultimately a culture defence mechanism” Sex has always been dictated by politics and it is hinted that the extreme coverage of sexualisation could purely just be a political tactic in order to hide wider cultural issues. This could also be why newspapers have fixated on the sudden rise of padophiles regarding the Jimmy Saville case or why the media claims that children are addicted to porn, thus ruining their views of a functioning sexual relationship, in order to mask wider scale economic issues. This is a tactic that is not unknown – “Economic despair and futility often spark populist responses, wherein impotence gets displayed into xenophobia, racism and other forms of discrimination and violence”. 

With sexualisation being a hot topic, as previously discussed, is it possible that it is simply a scapegoat for a society with massive unmanageable cracks in the economy? Is it just the political equivalent of waving a pair of keys in front of a baby to grab attention away from something all the more scary and real, in this case a government trying to hide the painful realisation of its corrupt core? By making an issue of a topic that can be seen to be easily changeable and for a positive outcome, our social anxieties can be deterred- 

“By displacing our impotence onto something more manageable and potent – the cultural and sexual corruption of the girl child – our rage, disgust and anxiety can be voiced and a fantasy of the future free of such defilement can be sought.”

The topic can now touch a raw nerve with every parent who now assumes that their daughter is being forcefully sexualised, through the influence of the media and peers. A key tactic that political figures, including The Prime Minister, have used previously is the imaging of childhood being unfairly stolen and a loss of innocence. This can be seen as something that cannot be re-obtained once taken and it’s seen to rip away the veil of innocence, then, is to rob children of a childhood. Claiming to be as incensed as those threatened by sexualisation of children and promising to vastly change how sexualisation operates in this country by stopping its causes will always sit well politically and will only again exaggerate its supposed epidemic status.

“We need the threat of imminent sexual corruption, because it deflects the unbearable truth of what it means to live in a culture with decreasing social safety nets, joblessness, increasing isolation and insecurity, as well as a shrinking public sphere through which to voice our concerns.”

It seems that the only platform to voice concerns comes from social media, proving how much it has influenced the lives of the 21st century. As seen before, a large percentage of the population use social media which is good in order to voice your opinion to a larger audience but also a disadvantage in terms of how many people will see this opinion. This isn’t to say that sexualisation of girls doesn't exist (because by gum it does!) just that it could perhaps be exaggerated to meet the needs of those in power, 

“This is not to say that the child is never endangered or that capitalism is inert, but rather that the child in the fleshy sense is replaced by the girl, a figure, into which middle-class advocates project the vagaries of postmodern capital and its reluctant social insecurity”. The sexualised girl is used as a scapegoat for middle-class anxieties.

So what actually causes the early sexualisation of young girls when it does occur? It’s impossible for people to claim that sexualisation is purely caused by hyper-sexualised products that are available in high-streets, like some forums have. It could become very easy to blame one individual reason on sexualisation of young girls but it seems that it’s a combination of causes that girls are exposed to that aids sexualisation. Danielle Egan sees it to be classically caused by "consuming sexually salacious materials, playing outside the watchful gaze of parents and interacting with ‘deviant’ and/or socially marginal individuals.”

The rise of social media tends to exacerbate the issue further with all three of the classic causes becoming easier to occur on it. Sexually salacious materials are not only easily available on the internet but in reality, difficult to escape from. Acting outside the watchful gaze of parents can also be happening in their own homes on social networking, alongside the ability to interact with deviants they may not have outside of the internet.

Although the ability to understand how sexualisation of young girls is heavily represented in the media, little is mentioned of how sexualisation can affect young girls, both physically and mentally. The expectations that fall on the shoulders of young girls when surrounded by images of women in porn, page 3, films, music and modelling to name a few, can scar future relationships for girls. Especially with how porn is presented, this can result in an abnormal approach to sex –

“Children are learning lesson’s from today’s sexualised environment that can undermine the very foundations they need in order to grow up to be capable of having caring relationships of any kind, including those relationships in which sex plays a role.”

It’s not just future relationships that could be under jeopardy due to sexualisation – The toxic mix of sexualising media and commodities (e.g Bratz dolls, thongs, tee-shirts) transforms girls between the ages of 8-12 (or ‘tweens’) into self-sexualising subjects at risk for a host of mental, physical, cognitive and relational problems. How girls see themselves against the ruling ideal of what makes women sexually attractive is something that heavily affects the mentality surrounding confidence, weight and their aesthetic as a whole. Depression and eating disorders are heavily represented in young girls and this is often blamed on the sexualisation of the media and marketing companies –

“As children grow older, exposure to this imagery leads to body surveillance, or the constant monitoring of personal appearance. This monitoring can result in body dissatisfaction, a recognised risk factor for poor self-esteem, depression and eating disorders. Indeed, there is a significant amount of evidence that attests to the negative effects of sexualisation on young people in terms of mental and physical health, attitudes and beliefs.”

It could be argued in many ways how, why and to what extent sexualisation of young girls occurs in our society in 2015. One thing that cannot be argued is its constant presence. There is no denying that the sexualisation of girls happens on a daily basis and that its coverage in media has made it a hot topic with Egan describing it as: “As omnipresent as oxygen and as toxic as poison, it seems impossible to escape this phenomenon”

Although sexualisation of young girls has existed through the ages, the newly redefined status of it is a completely different creature. The use of social networking, the internet and easing of censorship gives sexualisation a more powerful platform in 2015 and Papadopoulos believes that its hyper-sexualised content and attitudes is slowly seeping into society: “It’s a drip, drip effect. Look at porn starts, and look how an average girl now looks. It’s seeped into everyday: fake breasts, fuck-me shoes…. We are hyper sexualising girls, telling them that their desirability relies on being desired. They want to please at any cost.”. The costs being to their bank balance, health, mental wellbeing and judgement from others, whether positive or negative.

Questions about class stability, the ideals of the family unit and whether consumerists and political figures are massaging the scale of sexualisation should be considered but no matter, there is still evidence that sexualisation of girls exists. It could be argued that academics have narrowly focussed on white middle-class girls but I think it is a universal issue.


“Sexualisation is said to defile innocence, leaving in its wake a promiscuous, emotionally deficient and culturally bankrupt teenager”

Social class dictates also how the media covers sexualisation and is used in political rhetoric in order to ignite response and in turn using the idea of the sexualised girl as the root of society’s issues – “Underneath the hyperbole lies the desire to defend against the unbearable costs of living in an increasingly fragmented, alienating and unequal cultural landscape.”

Proving how relevant and encompassing sexualisation is shows how vital sex education is to young girls. Being taught about self-confidence, healthy sexual relationships and how the market uses sex to sell will aid in battling the number of girls influenced by the hyper-sexualised society they come into contact with every day.