Underdressed and Overexposed: Sexual Celebrities and the Creation of Prostitots

The presence of celebrity is inescapable. The world’s favorite starlets are perpetually plastered across any and all media outlets one can imagine: magazines, television shows, and web pages name only a few. But the media coverage these women receive is usually far from positive (and oftentimes sexual). Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan (all pictured below) have each been photographed while accidentally exposing themselves in one way or another, the images captured by paparazzi on film and subsequently made available to anyone with an internet connection within minutes. However, even more startling than the recent celebrity tendency to go without undergarments is the fact that these stories, intended for a far older audience, do not go unnoticed by young viewers today. Girls as young as 1st grade view these over-sexualized Hollywood celebrities as role models without comprehending what these figures truly stand for. Many argue that this innocent naivety has the potential to turn little girls into what has been referred to as “prostitots."




Prostitots, according to urbandictionary.com, are “children who dress in revealing, adult type fashion.” The cultural cues these children pick up on which create the desire to dress like miniature prostitutes stem from the media and their glorification of wild behavior and skimpy clothing. The legendary “Girls Gone Wild” videos, VH1’s “The Surreal Life,” and almost any rap video attest to this. When wild celebrity antics are repeatedly shown in the pages of Star Magazine and are features on E! News, they become normalized and accepted. And even if such behavior is not replicated to a t, the influence still definitely exists. Young people especially have difficulty understanding the extent of which culture shapes all aspects of our lives. Says Christian Smith, professor of sociology at Notre Dame in a Newsweek Health article by Kathleen Deveny with Raina Kelley entitled “Girls Gone Bad”, "They don't have enough perspective on how they are being formed by the world around them—and when they don't realize it, it can be more powerful." The appeal of young celebrity women to regular girl admirers is simple: celebrity lives look glamorous, cool, and regularly without consequence. "They've got great clothes and boyfriends,” says Emma Boyce, a 17 year-old high school junior from the Newsweek article, “They seem to have a lot of fun."

However, this is not to say that any young girls who admire a Lindsay or Britney character from afar are doomed to become the next ladies of the night. The most important cultural values are taught by parents in the home beginning very early in life. And although girls ages 12 to 14 are typically the most likely to want to emulate a particular celebrity (Girls Gone Bad), this fascination is transitory. In addition, even if the crazy activities of celebrity darlings are followed closely, this does not automatically mean that these escapades will be viewed positively. Britney’s downward spiral has been fascinating for most viewers to observe—many of my blogs refer to her as the world’s favorite train wreck—but this does not translate into acceptance of her behavior. "My friends and I look at them to laugh at them," says Boyce. "Our lives seem pretty good by comparison. We're not going to rehab like Lindsay."

Nevertheless, studies have shown that sexual activity among youngsters can be linked to overexposure to sexual content in the media. A study published in 2006 in the journal “Pediatrics” found that “for white teens, repeated exposure to sexual content in television, movies and music increases the likelihood of becoming sexually active at an earlier age” (Girls Gone Bad). In a Fox News online article entitled “Girl Culture Begets Backlash,” Susan N. Wilson, director of the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University, says that today’s youth is "sexualized at an earlier and earlier age.”

This sexualization is what creates the age-inappropriate prostitot behavior in young girls that is so alarming. And although the media does not have a hypodermic needle effect on its audience, the over sexualized content can indeed have an influence on young viewers. What can have a greater influence, however, is guidance received from a respectable adult figure. Parents must become involved in the media their children consume and use wild celebrity moments as teaching opportunities that will hopefully curb this recent trend.