"Many parents, family members, and early childhood professionals today express concerns about raising children in a highly sexualized culture. According to the ideas presented in the book excerpt, So sexy so soon, children are being bombarded with messages in the advertising and media industries linking physical beauty and sexual attractiveness with happiness. The authors assert that young children’s exposure to an overly sexualized environment plays a significant role in undermining their healthy gender and sexual development and negatively impacts their sense of self worth" (Walden University).
For this Blog assignment, I must share my thoughts about this topic of the sexualization of early childhood and provide some personal insights about the implications it may have for children and early childhood professionals.
"The definition of the sexualization of young girls or boys means to “make sexual in character or quality”, and sexualized images suggest “sexual availability to the exclusion of other personal characteristics and qualities”, which is inappropriate, obscene, and harmful for young children" (Lin, 2009) . In a nut shell...make our babies grow up way to soon by making them look sexier and sexier at earlier and earlier ages. For example, one day when I was shopping, I was shocked to see "hooker boots" in the shoe store when I was shopping for little niece...mind you she was TWO at the time! Another, personal example - as I was going underwear shopping for children I decided to pick up some underwear for my niece and nephew as well...and wouldn't you know there were some bikini cut type panties there for five year old]s and instead of saying the days of the week it said "sweet". I'm sorry, the word sweet on a pair of panties does not refer to your character. It's not just little girls either, our little boys are also targeted. Another personal example I can provide is hearing my seven year old son repeat the lyrics to a rap he heard his uncle play, to his female cousin. She was getting on his nerves and he told her to "suck my dragon-balls b*tch...". The sad thing is he didn't know what he was really saying, he just knows he likes dragon ball z. None-the-less he was still punished.
The sexualization of our children is disgusting. And quite frankly, I feel the parents who don't see it as anything wrong need a nice slap across the face. Why does a 9 month old need a bikini? Why does a two year old need 'hooker boots'? Why are they selling provocative underwear for 5 year olds? why is it okay for beauty pageant kids to have more makeup on that a street walker....i'm just saying. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm entitled to my opinion. Quite frankly I think media is hinting that it is okay for our kids to look more "appetizing to the eye" (sexy) at earlier ages and we're just going along with it. Keeping quiet or saying..."not my kids", but we aren't doing much to stop it.
Many different industries make their money nowadays by targeting our youth by using sex and violence to market their products to our children. And it doesn't matter their race, ethnic group, economic status, or gender, our children are deeply affected (Levin, & Kilbourne, 2009). There are so many negative implications this can have on our children’s healthy development. Not only do our boys think a girl must look sexy and it's okay for her to "suck his dragon balls", our little girls are growing up more and more concerned about their self image and are trying harder and harder to stay skinny, look sexy and the worst part is, they are experiencing sex earlier and earlier too. I caught my friends 11year old daughter "sexting" a little boy from my cell phone. She didn't realize to delete the messages. What is happening to our children? Why are we sitting back and allowing this?
"When a girl has learned early on that what matters most is how sexy she is, then by the time she hits the tween years, the message is already deep in her psyche and it just becomes louder and more harmful. Sex gets speeded up — 12- and 13-year-olds are doing what 16-year-olds used to do, and by the time they're 16, many are already blasé about casual sex. That's when you hear about "friends with benefits" and kids thinking about sex as being separate from a relationship. This not only puts them at physical risk for STDs, unwanted pregnancy, or even date rape, but they also lose the chance to develop the empathy and compassion that are necessary to make intimate relationships work later on" (Cohen, n.d.).The best we as parents, adults and early childhood professionals can do to stop this epidemic and reduce the negative impact is to stay forever vigilant and monitor our children the best we can. We may not be able to control every thing they see and do but we can limit it a great deal and be a 'strong force' in what we allow our children to participate in. Also it ca not hurt to continue to tell our kids what we expect from them and what is right and what is wrong.
I encourage you to study more about this topic on the sexualization of early childhood. I know it will affect you in some type of way. My own awareness of this topic was heightened even more this week because of the research I did about it. The things you will find out will not only shock you but disgust you. And I'm hoping if we can get enough people on the same page...maybe....just maybe...we can start to make a change.
REFERENCE:
Cohen, M. (n.d). Too Sexy Too Soon. In Red Book Magazine. Retrieved Feb. 11,2012 from: http://www.redbookmag.com/kids-family/advice/society-hypersexualizing-children
Laureate Education. (n.d.). Walden University. Retrieved Feb. 11, 2012 from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com
Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1–8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf
Lin, X. (March 7, 2009). The Sexualization of Children and Adolescents Epidemic. Retrieved Feb. 11, 2012, from http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net
