Toward an Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Youth, Sexualization, and Health

Abstract

The commentaries in this issue of the Journal of Sex Research by Vanwesenbeeck and Else-Quest and Hyde on “Bad Girls Rule” are connected to two larger conversations concerning (a) the intersections of sexuality, objectification, culture, health, and power; and (b) academics as public scholars. Vanwesenbeeck makes the case for considering both the risks and the rights associated with sexualization. Else-Quest and Hyde argue for the need to use a developmental lens when discussing girlhood and sexuality. This response recognizes the need for a developmental approach; elaborates on previous critiques about over-reliance on epidemiological terms in the American Psychological Association task force report on the sexualization of girls; and rearticulates the value of placing feminist, cross-disciplinary, and cross-national scholarship at the center, rather than the margins, of this dialogue. Were such a dialogue to occur, evidence of cultural and personal variations of childhood and youth should be considered along with evidence of human personality development. Although scholars in psychology have been leaders in public scholarship on sexualization and girlhood, it is an ethical and intellectual obligation for scholars from other disciplines (e.g., public health, women's studies, sociology, cultural studies, and epidemiology) to also contribute to this conversation.