I don't see adolescent sexuality being the result of marketing ploys. Sexuality will happen with or without marketing ploys. The trouble arises when an adolescent has not yet begun to feel natures tug towards procreation but is immersed in the artificially created images of what is considered to be "normal" sexuality. Those artificial images are misleading, confusing and can be damaging to the adolescent that is uncertain of their sexuality and what it all means. Those market-driven concepts of sexuality serve as quasi-role models for adolescent society. They provide the markers for what is normal and acceptable in society and what is not. They are false and distorted images of normalcy driven only by the need for profit. Essentially, the marketing of sexuality creates a new paradigm in which society mirrors the market. It becomes a case of the tail wagging the dog. It which case, those that are not ready to embrace the sexuality portrayed in the mass media come to believe that something is wrong with them... Because, just look at the images they are surrounded with and immersed in! Those manipulative and misleading images are the things that are informing them of what's normal... and that they don't measure up unless they conform with the new paradigm.

Dan