Too Risqué?
Is the oversexualizing of young girls in dance affecting their development?
By: Taylor Barton
What do the songs “My Humps”, “Lady Marmalade”, “Hey Big Spender” have in common? They are all popular dance recital songs and not just for teenagers. Girls (and boys) anywhere from the ages of 8 to 18 are dancing to songs like this every year in dance recitals across the country. Now these are all very sexual songs to begin with, then if you add in tight, revealing costumes, as well as more and more inappropriate dance moves (like the world famous “twerk”) and you get oversexualized, provocative tween girls.
Dance has been a part of society and culture since the earliest times, used for rituals, celebrations, and ceremonies, it has now shifted into a recreational hobby appealing to many far and wide. Children get into dance as early as the age of two, and some continue to not only major in dance at college, but pursue careers in the dance industry. As the dancers develop in age, physique, and in maturity they can handle dances with more serious, hard, even sexual subject matters. More intense subject matters are becoming more and more popular among choreographers, and not just for teens and twenty-something year old, but kids and tweens are faced with dances well beyond their age at an alarming rate.
The argument could be made that the increase in overly mature content stemmed from the hit television reality show Dance Moms, in which head choreographer a Company, Abby Lee Miller, has been known to choreograph intense dances for young girls, that may be as young as 7 and continue onto the age of 13/14 (the studio has older girls, but the show focuses on girls of these ages). Some of Miller’s more inappropriate dances include the young girls being featured as topless Vegas showgirls (an episode that caused so much public outrage, that Lifetime had to pull the episode from air shortly after initial air date). Other oversexualized dances include “Electricity” (Season 1 Episode 2), or “Snapshot” (Season 1 Episode 8) in which the pre-teen group all came out in bikinis and swimsuits.
choreographer and owner of the Abby Lee Dance Company, Abby Lee Miller, has been known to choreograph intense dances for young girls, who may be as young as 7 and continue onto the age of 13/14 (the studio has older girls, but the show focuses on girls of these ages). Some of Miller’s more inappropriate dances include the young girls being featured as topless Vegas showgirls (an episode that caused so much public outrage, that Lifetime had to pull the episode from air shortly after initial air date). Other oversexualized dances include “Electricity” (Season 1 Episode 2), or “Snapshot” (Season 1 Episode 8) in which the pre-teen group all came out in bikinis and swimsuits.
Regardless of whether or not the increase of inappropriate dances in recent years is due to Dance Moms, it is obviously apparent that the shift is occurring. Here we have to stop and think; what effects do these over sexualized dances have on the young girls and their psychological development? According to Freudian psychology, emphasis on Freud’s psychosexual stages, girls of the ages 10-14 are either going to be in the latency or genital stage of sexual development, which if Freudian psychology was still practiced, if something hindered or effected the girl’s development in the latency stage, she would never fully be able to develop sexually. The latency stage focuses on the cognitive and social development of the individual, particularly the repression of sexual feelings. If these girls are being encouraged to be oversexualized, with tight costumes with cutaways and fish nets, as well as “stripper-like” moves, there may never be this latency stage, meaning girls will not truly know how to act in future sexual situations. Now by no means does this mean this will able to all girls, the fact of the matter is that many psychologists do not even acknowledge Freudian psychology as valid or logically anymore, but the possibility is there that girls not only exposed to this kind of dance, but have been participating in it, may be more likely to act in more sexual ways during high school.