Events

with Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. and Kate Price, M.A.

Media messages about sex and sexuality often exploit women's bodies and glamorize sexual violence. Girls are encouraged to objectify themselves and to obsess about their sex appeal and appearance at absurdly young ages, while boys get the message that they should seek sex but avoid intimacy. Widespread sexualized images of children normalize sexual abuse and exploitation, leaving victims at risk of being viewed as seductive and in control rather than dominated and controlled. Using illustrations of these sexual images and personal experiences of their consequences, the presenters examine the real-life repercussions of mainstreaming and marketing "pornified" ideals of children and suggest strategies for change.

Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on the image of women in advertising. She is the creator of several films, including "Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women" and the author of two books, most recently So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids.

Kate Price is Kate is a project associate at the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute as well as a social scientist specializing in U.S. commercial sexual exploitation of children and children's advocacy. She authored the chapter, "Collapsing This Hushed House: Deconstructing Cultural Images of Child Prostitution in the U.S.," in Global Perspectives on Prostitution and Sex Trafficking, and she has lectured at Georgetown University, Suffolk University, University of Toledo, and many advocacy organizations.