Hey ‘Stranger Things’ fans, maybe don’t sexualize kids
UPDATE: Nov. 8, 2017, 8:24 p.m. PST This story has been updated to include Mike Sington's statement and apology about his tweet featuring Millie Bobby Brown.
Millie Bobbie Brown, the 13-year-old actress who plays Eleven on the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, has been on a weeks-long press tour promoting the show's new season.
Everywhere she turns up, whether it's Good Morning America or her show's premier party, Brown looks playful, chic, and glamorous -- just like you'd expect a young teen to dress when she's famous and has access to incredible fashion.
Except some comments about Brown's fashion choices have led to criticism that she's being sexualized when she's just barely a teenager.
Mike Sington, a retired senior NBCUniversal executive, for example, recently shared a photo of Brown at the premiere wearing a black long-sleeve leather dress and sleek hair with the caption "Millie Bobby Brown just grew up in front of our eyes. (She's 13!)"
On Tuesday, Sington issued a statement via Twitter clarifying that he didn't intend to contribute to "the objectification or even sexualization of a minor."
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The Daily Mail obsessed over photos from the premiere, featuring them in a story with the headline "Hello stranger! Millie Bobby Brown, 13, is almost unrecognizable with new longer hair at Stranger Things 2 premiere in LA."
Sington's original tweet caught the attention of former child star Mara Wilson, who didn't hold back with her response, "Knock it the fuck off". She then tweeted about how uncomfortable it can make teen girls to hear "strange men" comment on their physical appearance.
"The people that were mostly a threat to me as a child were not Hollywood insiders, but grown-up male 'fans,'" Wilson, 30, wrote.
Wilson's response went viral, offering a biting reminder of how quick American culture is to sexualize girls, especially when they grow up in the public eye. Just think of the 1999 Rolling Stone cover that featured a 17-year-old Britney Spears wearing a bra and boyshorts while holding a plush Teletubby. Or when Miley Cyrus, then 15, appeared on Vanity Fair wearing a blanket and red lips.
Spears and Cyrus may have been eager and willing participants, but such imagery often points to an intense pressure on adolescent and teen girls to seem sexually available, especially in Hollywood.
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"There's no way to go from child star to adult star without being a sexy adult star," says Sharon Lamb, a professor of counseling and psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
The Daily Mail article, for example, focused on Brown but then commented on the appearance of adult women who also attended the premiere, lumping a 13-year-old in with women decades older than her.
"There's no way to go from child star to adult star without being a sexy adult star."
Lamb, who coauthored a 2007 American Psychological Association report on the sexualization of girls, says young female stars often face pressure from handlers and executives to become more marketable for adult acting roles by embracing their femininity and sexuality.
Meanwhile, adolescent and teen girls are typically interested in exploring their appearance because it's exciting and fun, says Lamb. It can mean looking fashionable and attractive to friends, and yes, maybe even to the public. But there's a big difference between being fully in control of those decisions and being coerced into them.
There's also a stark line between recognizing that a teen is maturing and turning that into commentary or media coverage with undertones about that person's sexuality. That applies to both boys and girls, as a model recently proved when she said on social media that Brown's 14-year-old co-star, Finn Wolfhard, should "hit me up in 4 years."
Lamb says that we might consider treating teen stars similarly to the children of presidents -- certain subjects and commentary are just off limits. She also believes the push to diversify Hollywood behind-the-scenes and create more complex on-screen roles for girls and women can also help stop the sexualization of girls in pop culture.
"This isn’t somebody up for sale. It’s not for you. It’s not for your sexual consumption."
"I think all people want to be sexy at times, and part of sexual development is experimenting with that too, but the message from the Hollywood community is you’re only [valuable] when you’re sexy," says Lamb, who bets that would change with more women writing and producing films and television shows.
The #MeToo movement, which sprung from stories about sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood, also has the potential to shift the subtle and explicit emphasis on sexualizing girls. People are no longer willing to tolerate the culture that makes it possible to see girls and women simply as sex objects.
"We need to retrain the men looking at this to say, 'This isn’t somebody up for sale,'" says Lamb, referring to pictures of Brown. "It’s not for you. It’s not for your sexual consumption."
Anyone who's confused about how to look at a fashionably dressed 13-year-old can make that their mantra.
Rebecca Ruiz is a Senior Reporter at Mashable. She frequently covers mental health, digital culture, and technology. Her areas of expertise include suicide prevention, screen use and mental health, parenting, youth well-being, and meditation and mindfulness. Rebecca's experience prior to Mashable includes working as a staff writer, reporter, and editor at NBC News Digital and as a staff writer at Forbes. Rebecca has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and a masters degree from U.C. Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.
