This article presents a critical analysis of how the issue of childhood "sexualization"--and the role of consumer culture within it--has been defined and framed, both within the public debate and in the academic research literature. It counterposes this with some evidence taken from a study conducted in Scotland in 2009/10 about the…

Studying imagery, irrespective of the kind, must focus equally upon its aesthetic attractiveness, its sensory lures, and its oftentimes dubious social ideology. The terms "aesthetic" and "ideology" are addressed as problematic and are defined in current, ordinary language terms: aesthetics as visual appearances and their effects and ideology as a…

In an appeal before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the author pleaded for governmental action to restrain national advertisers from "unscrupulous and erroneous advertising pitches aimed at children." Citing the principal media for child-targeted advertising, (comic books, youth magazines, school displays and radio and television), the speaker…