Is Paedogeddon a lie?

This started off as a bit of "ho! ho! light-hearted abuse of statistics", but after I read it, I was a bit taken aback. The ultimate conclusion, for which there is some actual statistical evidence, is that we are less likely to sexualise young girls today than we were in the 50's and 60's.

This young lady was 16 when she was Playboy's Playmate of the Month... in January 1958!

Moving on a little, we look at the average age of Miss America winners, there is an apparent upward trend:



The same is true of Playboy Playmates of the Month.



Porn stars entering the one-handed movie biz show no significant age trend:

Finally, we examine the popularity of beauty pageants specifically for teenage contestants. While I don't have datasets to analyze, such as the annual TV ratings, there is enough information on them to get a rough picture. First, there is Miss Teen USA, the adolescent version of Miss Universe. It was created in 1983, reached its peak for ratings in 1988, and has declined in popularity afterward, to the point where it may not even be televised anymore. And second, there is Miss Teenage America, which was created in 1962 and was last televised in 1977. Judging by its corporate sponsorship and celebrity hosts, it must have been somewhat popular. There are other beauty pageants for teenagers, but they are not even televised, and so do not count as evidence of an obsession with youth. Rather, we see a shift away from throwing young girls into the purely sexual spotlight.

Since there are no huge long-term swings up and down in these data, as opposed to the cases of sluttiness and violence, all generations can say that they've improved over previous generations, or at least done no worse. If any generation is to be accused of sexualizing younger girls in popular culture, though, it is surely the older ones. It is true that the current culture does not value women over 30, but that has never been the case -- just the opposite.

As with sluttiness, part of the declinists' misperception may be due to fashion trends, such as even prepubescent girls wearing adult-inspired clothing. That's hardly evidence of their being sexualized, though -- no guy is actually looking at them as a sex object, and dressing like an adult doesn't make you behave like one sexually. While it may be a bizarre fashion trend -- though more bizarre than when pre-pubescents started wearing two-piece bathing suits? -- it doesn't reflect a sexualization of the young.

I've felt for a long time that media hype about this was seriously misguided, it seems that there is some statistical evidence to support this.