Content area
Full Text
Sexuality & Culture (2014) 18:3955 DOI 10.1007/s12119-013-9172-7
ORIGINAL PAPER
Laurie Schick
Published online: 2 April 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract This language socialization study integrates ethnographic and intertextual methods of data collection and analysis to examine how one middle school drama classs performance of Britney Spearss rst hit song, originally titled Hit Me Baby One More Time, exemplies not only how sexually charged media can contribute to the normalization of sexist, abusive, and thus also violent behavior toward women, but also how local caretaking adults can contribute to these socialization practices even within the context of ofcial educational activities. Prior studies related to the socialization of gender equality and sexual abuse prevention in educational institutions have focused on whether and how adult intervention may prevent or stop gender and thus also sexually related abuse. This study indicates that further research into adult complicity and the need for intervention into adult behavior may also be called for. The ethnographic eldwork for this paper was conducted during a larger language socialization study at a middle school in the western United States. This included the videotaping of rehearsals and performances by middle school students of popular songs. The intertextual data chosen for analysis is based on these ethnographic observations. The conclusion that some adults are actively socializing female sexual objectication and male dominance during school-based activities is based on observations of these locally occurring interactions.
Keywords Language socialization Sexualization of girls Violence against
girls Intertextuality Popular media Middle school theater arts
Introduction
In this paper I am connecting the concepts of sexual objectication and sexualization with that of the socialization of violence against women and girls.
L. Schick (&)
Oklahoma State University, Tulsa, OK, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Hit Me Baby: From Britney Spearsto the Socialization of Sexual Objectication of Girls in a Middle School Drama Program
123
40 L. Schick
In order to explain this connection, I begin with how I am dening the sexualization of girls and follow with how I am dening violence against women.
Dening the Sexualization of Girls
Here I am not dening the sexualization of girls broadly, as, for example, the development of sexuality in girls on their way to becoming women. Rather, I am dening the term according to...