'America the Beautiful 3: The Sexualization of Our Youth'
By: Matt Tamanini Sep. 16, 2014
Award-winning filmmaker Darryl Roberts takes an unflinching look at the insidious effects of our culture's preoccupation with sex in "America the Beautiful 3: The Sexualization of Our Youth" premiering this fall across the United States.
"America the Beautiful 3: The Sexualization of Our Youth," is an important yet disconcerting film that both informs and warns viewers that our fixation with sex is adversely affecting our culture, leading to a public health crisis and even worse, the escalation of violence against women and children.
Using interviews and storylines while weaving a personal narrative, Roberts deals with taboo topics, drawing his subjects out by being himself: curious, concerned and approachable. Roberts exposes the images and messages that desensitize OUR CHILDREN to sex and the ultimate price our society pays through unlimited and uncensored access to sexually explicit material by increasingly younger audiences.
Roberts covers topics including:
- How the Internet has made pornography affordable, accessible and anonymous
- How body image ideals and being "perfect" is shaped by the media
- The toddler pageant circuit
- One teenager's campaign aimed at Abercrombie & Fitch, and the surprising outcome of her efforts
- Aspiring actresses/models and what they will do to be famous
- How addiction to porn is changing expectations of sex for young men
- The mixed messages of safe sex versus abstinence
- Rape on college campuses: how universities have been ignoring the epidemic
- One in five women have been sexually assaulted, yet often little is done about it.
"I did the first film on the beauty myth as a personal journey of understanding, but then I realized exploring issues that affect our youth is my real purpose. The objectification of our youth creates such serious mental health issues and our desensitization to these issues, especially to violence towards women, may be impossible to reverse if we don't change how images are presented in the media and advertising. I want to shed light on these issues and bring organizations together to help eradicate the problem," Roberts said.
Monte Nido & Affiliates Eating Disorder Treatment Centers, is the sponsor of the theatrical release and Carolyn Costin, founder/chief clinical officer, has partnered with Darryl Roberts on all three films: "Each documentary explores how our culture objectifies females and undermines their self esteem, leading to serious psychological and social consequences. His first film explored our culture's obsession with beauty, his second focused on our relentless pursuit of thinness, and now his third examines our fixation with sex. Darryl exposes how our cultural obsessions take an insidious toll on our health and well being," Costin said.
Costin's life's work has focused on how to help change the conversation about and our relationship to our bodies, to help people feel empowered rather than objectified or victimized by a culture that promotes image over substance resulting in body shaming: "The series is a wake-up call urging us to speak out and make changes in the things we have come to accept as unchangeable. There are many things we can do, and the young female HEROINE in "America the Beautiful 3" is EVIDENCE that we can turn adversity into activism," Costin said.
"America the Beautiful 3" premieres in cities across the country and includes local and national outreach campaigns in collaboration with public advocacy groups, universities and health organizations. A Q&A with Roberts and Costin or fellow clinical directors Keesha Broome and Anna Kowalski, will follow each screening:
Washington DC ~ September 30
New York, NY ~ October 10
Los Angeles, CA ~ October 19
Dallas, TX ~ October 20
Houston, TX ~ October 22
East Lansing, MI ~ October 27
Chicago, IL ~ October 28
San Francisco, CA ~ November 3
Portland, OR ~ November 4
Seattle, WA ~ November 6
Boston, MA ~ November 10
Philadelphia, PA ~ November 12
Atlanta, GA ~ November 17
Miami, FL ~ November 19
About Darryl Roberts: President of Harley Boy Entertainment, Roberts is a writer, producer, and director. Best known for his 2008 "America the Beautiful," documentary, Roberts received media attention from The Today Show, Good MORNING America and CNN Headline News.
Inspired by the people and events from his films, Roberts started the "Are You An Ally?" Anti-Bullying Campaign. The effort, spurred by work on the third film, was sponsored by Abercrombie & Fitch is now being extended to 10,000 high schools in October 2014 for National Anti-Bullying Month.
About Carolyn Costin: Author, psychotherapist and founder and chief clinical officer of Monte Nido & Affiliates, Costin recovered from anorexia in the early 1970s and has specialized in treating body image disturbance and eating disorders since 1979. In 1996, Costin opened Monte Nido in Malibu, CA, the first-of-its-kind residential treatment facility. The success of this program led to four more residential facilities with a fifth to open in New York, October 6, 2014. Monte Nido also runs four day-treatment programs and two transitional living houses.
Monte Nido and Affiliates' programs are known as premier treatment facilities in the U.S. and abroad. Carolyn's books, The Eating Disorder Sourcebook, Your Dieting Daughter, 100 Questions and Answers About Eating Disorders and 8 Keys to Recovery From an Eating Disorder are highly acclaimed by professionals, sufferers and the public.
Media Contact:
Shannon Grosswiler
Project Manager
America the Beautiful
(503) 803-4234
shannongrosswiler@montenido.com
SOURCE Monte Nido & Affiliates
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