Yet another Super Bowl has come and gone, this one void of the sexual tension that outraged millions last year. Now that we’re contemplating a new level of decency in the media, it is only right that we attempt to raise other slipping standards: those regarding the rapid decline in the age of today’s performers – and their increasingly sexual images.

No one can deny our society’s emphasis on youth. Models as young as twelve sashay down runways, elementary school kids casually handle cell phones, and the word botox becomes commonplace. Our culture is growing impatient with the image of maturity. In a world where sex sells well and youth is immortalized, a barely “legal” demographic is dealing with the resulting ideal.

Flip through the pages of Seventeen (a magazine geared toward girls quite younger than said title) and in it you’ll find “What Turns Guys On” and “How to Find Your Pose.” Junior departments everywhere stock and sell increasingly tighter, trendier styles. The young pop icons who have morphed into adolescent role models must consistently lean on their sex appeals to maintain success – a trick that worked for Britney Spears and has now caught on to an armada of barely legal, overdone performers.

The newest successful bombshell appears to be Lindsay Lohan – whom some of you might recognize as the cute kid from “The Parent Trap.” Others know her as the 18-year-old starlet presumed to have had breast implants. It’s hard to avoid the aggressive marketing of her new album or her racy music videos, both in which she happens to be scantily clad and wearing heavily-applied makeup. This imagery may seem indecent to some. But for many girls Lohan’s age, it is perfectly acceptable.

In a letter to the editor in the aforementioned Seventeen magazine, a 16-year-old girl responds to another girl’s comment regarding the subject of an inappropriately short skirt:

“Shouldn’t a woman be allowed to wear a short skirt without fearing that a man will try to look up it?” she wrote. “Don’t we have that right? I suggest you keep your rude comments to yourself before you force us all back into corsets and petticoats.”

This common attitude perpetuates that sexually-suggestive clothing that seems to be a harmless trend among young girls is really anything but. Little girls in tight tops and miniskirts may not seem to be a particularly disconcerting problem, but the motivation behind this trend should be.

Not only are kids these days given a skewed idea of what it means to be sexy, they are short-circuited through puberty before they’re old enough to know what it’s about.

Women of all ages already deal with escalating ideals of sexiness and are constantly reminded of how important it is to be sexy. This pressure has caused a lot of women to value themselves based on how they look, which can be seriously damaging to a woman’s well-being. So what sense does it make to let this superficial influence catch on to girls who are in the process of developing themselves – on the inside and out?

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.