I’m glad you’re focusing on young women, since they bear the brunt of most relentless advertising campaigns that, like you said, emphasize their physical appearance, their stuff, and/or their popularity. As a brief aside, it’s interesting how this translates into Second Life. I don’t know if this is entirely true, but in my experience there seems to be exponentially more choices to accessorize a female avatar. Don’t know if there’s really a connection there, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

To answer your question, as best as I can, I definitely think men have a responsibility to not serve as an audience for such behavior. But to avoid patronizing young women and likening them to misbehaving children, I think an approach much like what you are taking with teaching and discussing responsible online-behavior is absolutely necessary, at least at this point in time, in fleshing out this new terrain. Men and women alike need to familiarize themselves with these and related problems.

Binge drinking is becoming very popular among young women. In fact, it’s become an epidemic in the UK. My concern is, like yours, coming from a place of concern – not judgment. Like you and everybody else I’ve had my share of great times.

We’re all entitled to have some fun in life. Especially when we’re young. But there’s a difference between having fun and self destructive behaviour. Young women are more likely to engage in attention seeking behaviours that are sexualised – as a direct result of living in a culture that tells them they’re more valued for their bodies than their ideas. And the current microfame trend isn’t helping. For many, the quickest route to online celebrity is exhibitionism and risk behaviour. And they’ll soon find themselves with an audience.
http://nymag.com/news/media/47958/

Just go into YLive or Seesmic and you’ll find young women posting flirty, intoxicated content for large numbers of, almost entirely, male subscribers. Audiences I regard as entirely and questionably complicit in their self harm. To be an audience to someone else’s pathology and self destruction is to enable it.

I don’t blame the internet or technology for this. I blame a corporate culture that has indoctrinated young people with a socialisation of insecurity, fear, materialism, narcissism and aggressively competitive behaviour. With little sense of their value beyond their physical appearance, their *stuff* or their popularity.

I intend to write a longer post about this in my own blog.

Here’s my question for you: As a guy do you think men have a role to play here in terms of how you respond to this kind of content? As potential allies v. enablers? As long as young women think there is an audience – and source of attention – for this behaviour, it will persist.