This column is about two young girls, one murdered at the hands of a monster whose mind was warped, and another being exploited in a music video that could warp more men’s minds.
In order not to be offensive to the family of the deceased, and in order not to traumatise a young teenage girl by referencing her pseudonym in the newspapers, this column will not directly reference the names of the two girls. However, anyone who has read the newspapers in the last few weeks will understand the context.
As the nation collectively mourns the murder of a 12-year-old girl, we now hear news of a young teen girl singing about being Tight and Pretty in a music video with very suggestive dance moves that can be described as pornographic.
As a society, we questioned what kind of monster would kill an innocent 12-year-old, but the answer, in my opinion, seems to have been handed to us in a most unfortunate form. The same society that is willing to videotape a 13-year-old singing sexually charged lyrics is also sick enough to produce child rapists and child killers.
To clarify, I am not blaming the song for the murder, rather the malicious culture kept in secret that encourages the rape of young children, boys and girls. Having interviewed a woman who narrowly escaped being trafficked as a teen for the Guardian years ago, I know there is a demand for underage girls in the local sex trade.
The danger of this music video is that it normalises a culture where girls who have barely started puberty are sexualised by adult men.
In addition to hypersexualised music, T&T is known to have a high level of pornography consumption, with an Express article by Joel Julien reporting, “T&T tops in Internet porn again: When you look at statistics on Google Trends for the highest number of Internet searches for pornography per capita in the world, T&T comes first. Nepal comes second.”
The dance moves in the Tight and Pretty video can be described as borderline pornographic in my view, and I would argue that the video’s producers and choreographers were influenced by the porn industry.
There is hard evidence to suggest that certain types of pornography can be linked to higher rates of sex crimes. In a report for the US Department of Justice by Susan Faupel, MSW, and Roger Przybylski, it was stated as follows:
Evidence suggests that repeated exposure to sexually aggressive pornography contributes to increased hostility toward women, acceptance of rape myths, decreased empathy and compassion for victims and an increased acceptance of physical violence toward women. (Check & Guloien, 1989; Knudsen, 1988).
From a social learning perspective, the likelihood that these views will lead to abusive behaviour depends on the reinforcement in the learning process. One such reinforcer is a core feature of much pornography: the portrayal of women as desiring and enjoying both the sexual activity and degradation involved in the images.”(Check & Guloien, 1989; Knudsen, 1988; Norris, 1991;)
Another reinforcer lies in social cues from others—both the participants in the pornography and other viewers. If the participants in the pornographic material seem to be enjoying it and watching it appears to be socially acceptable based on the reaction of others, the viewer is more apt to see the sexually aggressive content as positive and desirable to imitate. (Norris, 1991; Sinclair, Lee & Johnson, 1995).
Another type of pornography believed to play a role in the etiology of socially learned sexual aggression is child pornography; material that uses either children or technology that makes the participants appear to be children. Social learning theory suggests that individuals use child pornography, internalise this behaviour as acceptable and adopt it into their own behaviour. Since child pornography is illegal, research on the role of child pornography is somewhat limited.
Nonetheless, it is known that child molesters report increased use of pornography prior to sexually abusing children (Howitt, 1995; Marshall, 1988).
More recent research has suggested the use of child pornography as a reliable indicator of sexual interest in children (Seto, Cantor & Blanchard, 2006).
Across multiple studies, offenders have reported the use of pornography to desensitize and arouse them so they can engage in abusive behaviours with children (Knudsen, 1988; Marshall, 1988).
Child pornography also appears to reduce empathy toward child victims (Knudsen, 1988). Portrayals of enjoyment on the part of the children and lack of negative consequences may serve as reinforcers of these behaviours.
The model of socially learned sexual aggression can be used to explain the prevalence of rape , sexual abuse and even murder in our society. It is socially learned and perpetuated by men who encourage other men to target underage girls for sexual conquest. The sharing of child pornography and the production of highly sexualised music videos further contribute to socially learned sexual aggression.
Parents, civil society and the government need to work together to end this abominable culture of sexualising children before it costs us more lives.
