The Sexualization of Early Childhood

Wow! The article was very interesting and not very surprising. Today’s children are exposed to way too much sexualization. When my eleven year old son is watching television, I often have to ask him what channel he is viewing due to the language, music, and what the screen is showing. Nine time out of ten, the station is a child friendly channel that has gone way over board. Just the other night I was passing through the living room and a Carls’ Jr hamburger restaurant commercial was playing and there was this half naked woman wearing a bra and panties biting down on a burger. I had to call my husband to come to see the commercial for himself. I thought to myself what is this world coming to. They are tying sex in with food just to sell a burger. How awful!  

I can remember when I was child and television was clean and family orientated. With time, values and beliefs have changed within the media world. Now days on any given channel, sex, violence, and even pornography is displayed before all ages of children. Today’s cultural environment bombards children with inappropriate and harmful messages (Levin Kilbourne, 2009). Today’s dolls have large breast, large butts, lots of make-up, and provocative clothing on. To a young girl, the message that she receives is that in order to be beautiful as a doll she has to have large breast and wear provocative clothing to be considered beautiful. These are not the messages that we want for our children to receive.

When my brothers were younger, they played with cars, trucks, army figures, blocks and many other child friendly toys to keep them entertained. Now day’s boys are locked down to computers, ipads, cell phones, and game systems that promote sex, violence, and the killing of others. Boys hardly ever go outside and play anymore for all that technology has to offer them right in the comfort of their homes. Many industries make an obscene amount of money using sex and violence to market their products to children (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). This even goes for the movie theaters. I’ve heard my husbands friends say that a movie isn’t a movie unless there is some action (violence) involved. This goes to show how confused society is. I believe that these industries are aware of the likes of the people and feed right into it by providing movies, games, commercials, and toys that involve sex and violence.

Again, children are exposed to sex and violence by way of toys, games, television programs, cartoons, and definitely music. I kid you not; just today I had at least four of my students singing this song about the “Base”. I had to ask my daughter about the song and she played it for me and the song is about a girl who is proud of her body size but at the end of her lyrics she says “It’s all about that base”. After hearing this song, I had to wonder how these children were able to listen to the song. As parents, we have to supervise what our children are watching and listening to. There are hidden messages within music, television programs, and games. These messages can be very harmful to children of all ages. Girls and boys constantly encounter sexual messages and images that they cannot understand and that can confuse and even frighten them (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). Just as the nine year old girl who wrote the letter to the boy, she received a message regarding self that left her in doubt about her appearance. She says, “I know I am not the prettiest girl or the thinnest girl but I love you and I just want you to love me” (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). This type of confusion leads young girls who have low self-esteem into a world that can be very harmful to their lives. A 2003 Newsweek story on the rapid rise in teen prostitution in the United States reported that girls as young as nine are becoming involved (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). This is very alarming to my knowledge! Nine year old girls are to be playing with their dolls and friends and not being involved with neither boys nor men.

The messages that children receive can affect them throughout their lives which causes damage to their overall development. She showed how the harmful lessons by the younger children often lead to serious problems in later years, such as increasing objectification of women (by both women and men), eating disorders and depression, and even sexual violence (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). It can even have children of ages degrading the value of self and excepting whatever comes their way in life. As a mother and educator, I believe that parents have to take a stand against what the world/media is feeding their children. Parents are their children’s first educators and must teach their children right from wrong. I know that at a certain age children do not like to talk with their parents but making sure that there is someone available that the child can trust to help the child process the negativity regarding sex that is displayed. Children have always been curious about sex and sexuality from an early age, and it is good for parents and schools to give them honest and age appropriate information (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009).

This article along with this week’s resources, have only re-opened my eyes to understand how children are influenced with negativity by way of television, media, games, and toys. As an educator, I want to encourage my families to be more involved with what their children are doing. Parents need to be their children’s first educators regarding sex and sexulization. Children should not have to depend on the outside world and their environment to figure what sex is. This is such an intimate subject that should be shared amongst a child’s parents in the most age appropriate way.

Reference

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