Dare to Know: Deborah Tolman SPARKs a Revolution

[image error]An advertisement featuring a scantily clad woman is hardly usual. We’re so used to being bombarded with this type of advertising that we often accept it without question...but have we forgotten the effects that these ads have on the sexual development of young girls?

Deborah Tolman sure hasn’t—and SPARK, the organization she co-founded with Dr. Lyn Mikel Brown, wants to change our willingness to take sexualized advertising at face value. “We’re trying to get people to think,” Deborah says. “Our motto is ‘We’re taking sexy back.’”

A psychologist and professor at Hunter College, Deborah worked on a task force convened by the American Psychological Association (APA) to evaluate the existing knowledge regarding the sexualization of girls. The resulting report has been downloaded more than a million times from the APA website—more than anything else on the site. “We made a number of recommendations, one of which was that people raise their awareness,” Deborah explains. “Sexualization is everywhere. The report shows that it’s really problematic for girls and women, as well as boys and men. It’s getting in the way of healthy sexual development.”

Deborah's commitment to raising awareness only grew after the report’s release. She and Lyn Brown, a colleague and friend from grad school, came up with the idea to hold a summit. They invited over 30 academic and activist organizations, such as the Women’s Media Center and the Ms. Foundation, to a planning convention. To their surprise, everyone showed up.

“We didn’t want the summit to be a bunch of grownups sitting in chairs listening to other grownups talk,” Deborah recalls. “We wanted it to be girl-focused and girl-fueled from the start. We envisioned half of the attendees as girls who could bring adult women with them, and we developed a program accordingly.”

Neither did Deborah want the summit to become just a one-time (or even annual) event. “We wanted to start something bigger. We think of ourselves more fluidly as a social movement with the ongoing goal of challenging the sexualization of girls,” Deborah proclaims. SPARK enacts this mission through its web and social media presence, as well as its outreach initiatives. One such initiative is a series of downloadable “SPARKits,” do-it-yourself media blitz kits that can be used to spread positive messages in any academic or organizational setting.

Outside of her work with SPARK, Deborah teaches research and sexuality theory at Hunter College’s School of Social Work. Her book, Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk about Sexuality - a book she says “should be sitting on a shelf collecting dust” due to its 2002 publication date - is still relevant today, underscoring the degree to which activist organizations like SPARK are needed. “Much of my work has dealt with trying to frame sexual development as normative, and I think we have made tremendous progress,” she affirms. “But girls are still struggling.”

A big part of helping girls is educating boys. SPARK has worked with the Male Allies street harrassment awareness group, and Deborah incorporates SPARK’s message into her own family values. “My sons have been a part of an ongoing conversation about human sexuality. The understand what it means to live in a healthy way and to be connected to yourself,” she relates. “The reality that girls have a sexuality of their own is just part of the air for them.”

Promoting SPARK’s mission also means challenging the messages sent to us by advertisers. “Express how you feel with your pocketbook. Ultimately, that’s what’s going to change things,” Deborah says, encouraging women to refrain from supporting brands and publications who sexualize women.

The biggest changes, however, must come from within. “Sexualization pushes women to look at their bodies rather than to feel them,” says Deborah . “We’re so consumed with appearance that it gets in the way of our emotions.” Ultimately, SPARK's message is designed not to wave a distant flame, but to inspire a fire inside. Here's to taking sexy back.