It is not unknown that we live in an inherently patriarchal and sexist society where women are expected to mould themselves as per the wishes and wants of a man. One of these wants is for adult women to look like children. This is known as infantilization of women.
The line between childlike and feminine is growing blurrier by the day, to the point where femininity is described as ‘Innocent, submissive, petite, with smooth skin and no body hair’. The problem is that this description is of a child! All these are traits that naturally are noticed in children, and it is simply unrealistic and unreasonable to expect these in adult women. One of the most widespread expectations are that women should have a hairless body. Such an expectation didn’t even exist till before the 1940s, when shaving products were being heavily advertised towards women. Since then, hair on a woman’s body has been considered ‘unhygienic’ and ‘un-feminine’.[1] It has been confirmed that the preference for a hairless body stems from heavily pedophilic ideals.[2]
The other childlike attributes that are idealized in an adult woman include ‘large eyes, high cheekbones, small nose, small chin, full lips, and short eye-chin distance’,[3] all of which are used to describe a child’s face. Women all over the world alter their natural faces either temporarily, through makeup, or permanently through surgery, to achieve these childlike features. Recently, many women have been using makeup to make their cheeks look fuller, eyes look bigger and nose looks smaller to mimic a child’s face.
All of the above described desires are embedded in the inherent patriarchal structure of society, which is currently consciously or unconsciously promoting a form of pedophilia. The media only shows these hairless, “young” women who have skin as clear as glass and fit into the ‘male gaze ‘in an attempt to represent the female population as a whole. Do the women who don’t satisfy the above criteria have any representation in the mainstream media? Yes, except they are depicted as ugly, unhygienic and more often than not poor.
Men also expect women to be extremely submissive, this is also reiterated in Catherine A. MacKinnon’s work where she states that men want to assert their dominance on the less ‘powerful’,[4] which children are and by having women conform to their problematic standards of childlike beauty, they are in a way asserting such dominance. It is also problematic, as engaging in sexual activity with these childlike, submissive women, they emphasize their dominance and the subordination of the women.
This infantilization of adult women is quite ironic as there is another issue that is just as, if not more, problematic i.e. the sexualization of young girls. These young girls are portrayed in the media as sexual beings who dress provocatively and look nothing close to their own age. This has a lot to do with the psychological effects of social media, which, needless to say, is one of the biggest contributors to such a phenomenon. Social media portrays women in general through a very sexualized lens which inspires young girls to aspire to look and dress very sensually. Young teens and tweens are beginning to dress like adults and do their make up to look more mature and ‘sexy’. It is important to bear in mind that this maturity is also subject to the previously mentioned childlike standards. This is done in an effort to be more popular and be more liked by people.[5] The most dire consequence of this hyper sexualization is millions of young girls hating their bodies and never being satisfied with their bodies leading to acute body dysmorphia, eating disorders and many other grave mental disorders.[6]
Pornography is also a medium that propagates and promotes childlike or youthful demeanor of women. Women in pornographic content usually look unrealistically ‘perfect’ and set unrealistic body and beauty standards. They have smooth skin, with no stretch marks, scars, hair around their bikini line, etc. that a normal body typically may have. This leads women to set such unrealistic and unachievable standards for themselves and further worsens their body dysmorphia. It also causes the constant fear of not being able to please a man or satisfy the ‘male gaze’. One of the main issues that is associated with the infantilisation of women in pornography is the trivialization of pedophilia in society.[7] The whole pornographic industry revolves around the subordination and infantilization of women. Most pornographic content shows women either acting scared, vulnerable or like children.[8] This sets an assumption, either consciously or unconsciously, in women that they are to either be subordinate to men and are to prioritize the pleasure of the man in all sexual activity and reinforces the patriarchy and the ‘male gaze’.
In conclusion, the childlike beauty standards we see today are a result of the patriarchal societal structure and are enforced upon women by men. It is an extremely toxic cycle of women trying to alter their appearances to seek validation from men. Additionally, it also causes mental strain and a plethora of mental disorders in women of all ages who nearly kill themselves to merely appease a man and fit in the ‘male gaze’. In order to break-free from this cycle it is important that women start embracing their natural and aged features and stop conforming to such standards of beauty with the sole intention of attracting a man.
Authored by: Bhavya Jasti
Jindal Global Law School
[1] Katie Jgln, ‘No, There Isn’t a Fine Line Between Childlike and Feminine’ (Medium, 16 December 2016) <https://medium.com/the-noösphere/no-there-isnt-a-fine-line-between-childlike-and-feminine-ee8c2dd25a74> accessed 7th May 2023 [2] Caitlin R. Rechdan ‘The Phenomenon of the Infantilization of Women’ (Honors Undergraduate Theses, University of Central Florida 2022) [3] Ibid. [4] Catherine A. MacKinnon ‘Sexuality, Pornography, and Method: "Pleasure under Patriarchy’ (1989) 99 Ethics 314 <https://www.jstor.org/stable/2381437> accessed 7th May 2023 [5] Karen Sidani, ‘The Hypersexualization of Young Girls and the Infantilization of Adult Women’ (2023) 7 AJHSSR 193 <https://www.ajhssr.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/X22701193197.pdf> accessed 7th May 2023 [6] Ibid. [7] Camille Cottais and Manon Louvet, ‘The dangers of the hypersexualisation of young girls: a stolen childhood’ (Grow- Generation For Rights Over the World, 6 January 2021) <https://www.growthinktank.org/en/the-dangers-of-the-hypersexualisation-of-young-girls-a-stolen-childhood/> accessed 8th May 2023 [8] Ibid.
