FEMINISM: Are Our Teenagers for Sale?

Today, teens are facing a different and more powerful demand with regard to their appearance and popularity. Marketing campaigns have become more intense and messages involving image, health, and lifestyle, which are usually concerns of adults, are now fair-game for teens.

A book called Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers by Alissa Quart dissects various marketing techniques of some of the biggest corporations and studies their impact on lifestyles of teenagers in recent American history. Quart believes "Marketers discovered, or invented, the American teen market during World War II and the early postwar era. They argued that teens would be spending their parent's money on movies, cosmetics, and records." She continues to discuss how marketing to children "kicked off" in the 1980's when movies geared towards children (such as Jaws and Star Wars) were released. Quart discusses how these films spurred a boom in memorabilia related products and how corporations jumped to sell items that were helped marketed by films. Perhaps the corporations felt they could transfer the special connection and feeling from the film to the product directly related to certain characters.

Something to ponder is the psychology and how corporations try to identify the ways in which people are predictable and harness it to sell a product. It's so fascinating to think about the process on how young teens are affected by these marketers. Quart states in her book "In 1945, Seventeen wrote memos to advertisers promising that teens were 'copy cats' who could be trusted to imitate one another by wearing the same clothes and eating the same food." What a powerful statement. Some might be offended by this. The magazine viewed women to be so gullible and lacking free will and originality. However, did they have a point?

Was the same notion was still present among similar publications? After some investigating, it was discovered that Teen published headlines such as “Learn how to get Popular” and a whole section dedicated to “New Body – New You” was seen on Teen Magazine's website (teenmag.com). It became clear that messages being sent to teen girls are not only about the exterior presentations, but also include suggestions on behavior and eating habits. This information is quite disturbing especially since the magazine markets to girls well before their teenage years. There are several 10-11 year old girls who might read Teen magazine and it seems like their parents would have little problem buying the it for them because they feel the “Teen” title will mean politically correct content. Do parents really know what their getting themselves into when they purchase a magazine for their 13 year old child? The material in these magazines is not something that 13 year old girls should be reading; the pressure put on these girls to worry about being popular or about weight at such a young age is not something they should be thinking about. What happened to running toward ice cream trucks and enjoying childhood for what it was; carefree.

Would you want your 13 year old girl to visit teenmag.com and see this in the “Why me?” section of the website where girls recant embarrassing situations?

"Me and my boyfriend have been going out for 7 months. I'm a cheerleader, and he's the head jock. So we are pretty popular. We were making-out behind the school, when all of a sudden I was getting really cold. It turns out that there was a loose nail, and it caught my shirt right around my chest. My boyfriend saw and never really paid attention, because it's not like he hasn't seen it before. We were making out. I have 3 older brothers (all popular) They videotaped it, and now to make sure they don't show my parents. Well, we were having sex. I have to do what ever they tell me to for the next 2 months. I was so embarrassed they showed the whole school for the talent show. I pretty much got suspended for a week. But hey my boyfriend enjoyed it!" (from teenmag.com August 3, 2007) Visit the Why Me Section: http://www.teenmag.com/seen-in-teen/why-me/

Any sociologist would have a field day with this girls need to mention popularity more than once. This is a pretty racy topic for a girl to be discussing so openly on a magazine that’s supposed to be dedicated to an age group between 13-18. Arguably, this website is a marketing tool. Teen magazine at the very least hopes that girls will visit the website and be more inclined to purchase the magazine. It is highly irresponsible for those who monitor the website’s content to allow such obscene material for young girls to see.

When thinking back to what Quart said about how marketers viewed teenagers in the 1940's, the same theory seems prevalent in today's society and marketers will take advantage if they can. But the real question is, can we blame them for merely doing their jobs? This gets into an ethical discussion, because we really should be asking what their limits are in how they affect the lives of young women in today's society. If they are just "doing their job", can they be blamed for influencing women's lifestyles? At the very least, it’s the parent’s responsibility to monitor what their children are consuming.

Today’s marketing campaigns, advertisements and their content, that are geared towards teens and seem to be forcing our children to grow up too quickly. If parents set good examples at home and begin to teach their children right from wrong at a young age, perhaps they can weaken the negative affects of these marketing campaigns and childhood can be carefree once again.

Cosima