Sexualized social and dress codes of girl performers in the West

Abstract The mainstream media, especially in the west, increasingly portrays girl performers as objectified sexual beings, from movies, TV programs, music videos, magazines, videogames, beauty pageants, and fashion shows, to social media platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok that amplify these depictions of girlhood, reaching millions of young people at any time of day and night. This article conducts a semiotic analysis of “sexualized social and dress codes,” i.e., codes promoted by the mainstream and social media that oversexualize and objectify girl child performers as commodities, foster unhealthy beauty ideals, and glorify the practices of online pornography and even prostitution involving girl and young women performers as “girl empowerment.” The article employs Victoria Welby’s Significs theory to explore the philosophical and sociological ramifications of these codes for both girl children and western society. For this purpose, it applies the Meaning Triad to examine the sense, meaning, and significance of sexualized social and dress codes. It analyses the sense of these codes, their ultimate significance, and questions the meaning-intention behind their widespread promotion on all platforms.