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"Do any of you like to shop?" my economics professor asked, scanning the room of students. Several students raised their hands, but none higher than a scantily clad blonde in the fifth row. "Really?" the professor asked, his full attention now focused on the girl. Whatever his initial point had been, it was long gone. "Do you like shopping for clothes?"
"Yes!" she gushed in response.
"Then why don't you wear more of them?" he growled.
Clothing has caused strong feelings almost since people started wearing it. As far back as the book of Genesis, Joseph's brothers were jealous of the coat their father gave to him. Marie Antoinette, the 18th-century French queen, was hated for her lavish wardrobe (among other things) and eventually beheaded by her own subjects during the French Revolution. Today, countless blogs mercilessly criticize celebrities' more unfortunate apparel choices.
Since clothing has always been controversial, it's easy to dismiss criticism from people like my economics professor as mere opinion. He's just an old-fashioned prude, right? Or perhaps he's missed too many issues of InStyle or Lucky. Not according to the experts.
The effect of clothing on women
The constant parade of sexualized images of young girls and women in the media is harmful to girls' self-image and healthy development, the American Psychological Association (APA) determined following a recent study.
The Feb. 19, 2007, report from the APA's Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls gave the results of its research on the content and effects of media, including television, music videos and lyrics, magazines, movies, video games and the Internet. The task force defined sexualization as basing a person's value predominantly on sexual appeal or behavior.
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