The Sexualization of Early Childhood Week 6 EDUC 6358

 The Sexualization of Early Childhood

While reading the book excerpt, So sexy so soon (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009), there were many things that I found alarming even though I am aware that the various types of media use sex to sell products to even the youngest of consumers. Even with the realization that companies use sex to sell their products, it was still shocking to read the examples of how it has affected our children and how young it occurs. “Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture” (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 2).

I have observed sexualization of early childhood in my own personal and professional experiences. I have raised four girls and now have three young adults and one still living at home. I have witnessed the progression of sexualization and how it has affected my own children. My oldest child is now 23 and went through the Bratz doll stage. She also liked Britney Spears. Luckily, we had open communication and often had talks, mostly about how body-conscious she was compared to her friends. Because she felt safe to talk to me, I was able to guide and support her through the confusing world she lived in. Fast forward to my youngest and I can see a huge difference especially in how much younger she was exposed to sexual messages. We contributed some of this due to having three older sisters and we would have family talks about what they were allowed to do and say in front of our youngest. I feel having the early experiences with our older girls and seeing what I have seen in my professional life has helped me to raise our children to see sex and violence so prevalent in popular culture. In my professional life, I have seen girls as young as 4 have their hair highlighted and wearing clothes that are not age appropriate. I did not witness boys expressing any negative views but I did witness other girls idolizing or looking up to the girls who had highlighted hair and “sexy” clothes.

“Gender roles modeled for children have become increasingly polarized and rigid” (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 2). Like the example above where the two girls dressed and accessorized their hair as a teenager or adult might do, girls learn that the way they look and dress equals to success (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). Boys learn to judge girls based on this ideal and become insensitive (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). The messages they receive about their gender roles and the sexualization related to these roles deeply affects later relationships, attitudes, and identity (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). Without proper nurturance and guidance, children grow up lacking “healthy attitudes about themselves and their bodies, and to have caring relationships in which sex is an important part” (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 4). After reading this, I can remember examples from my youngest daughter that she tells me about friends at school being sexually active or wanting that type of attention from boys. These kids are around 11 to 12 years old. I am happy that she talks to us about what she hears so we can help her understand what she hears and why it is unhealthy. We also let her know that we are saddened to hear what her friends are going through. It is really difficult to tell her what to do or to tell her that it is unhealthy for her to maintain close relationships with friends who exhibit sexual behaviors. We also tell her how important it is to report things that seem unsafe or abusive to school officials.

Another thing I have noticed in my professional life is how young children seem to become attracted to others by saying things like “he/she is cute” and “I like him/her”, or wanting to kiss another child. I have never looked at this as harmless and have done what I can to curtail such behavior by letting children know that these things are not appropriate for them to say and do. After reading So sexy so soon (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009), I have a deeper understanding that they are repeating what they hear from popular culture, advertisements, television, and movies.

 Curious about what more I could do besides having honest conversations with my own children, making my classroom environment safe, and having honest conversations with families in my program, I looked on the So sexy so soon website for more ideas. While the suggestions are for parents, I feel some of them could apply to teachers in early childhood programs. What I found to be most important is to go beyond saying no because it can be harsh, does not tell them why it is wrong and can cause harm through shaming them (So Sexy So Soon, 2010). Their tips to help parents and teachers to work together include, “Build parent-teacher relationships based on mutual respect and collaboration, share concerns with each other when problems come up in the classroom with individual children or a larger group, work to create a school-wide community that makes dealing with the sexualization of childhood a community-wide affair, and to ask your children’s teachers and school to keep parents informed about issues that come up in school related to the sexualized culture and what is being done about them” (So Sexy So Soon, 2010).

My views about the effects of sexualization presented in media and popular culture have broadened because while I did understand that the issues I raised in the blog are troublesome, I did not fully understand the complexity and severity of such issues. I also have a better understanding of how to deal with issues that arise in an early childhood setting. Just like any other issue in the classroom, we cannot brush them off because we are unsure of how to deal with it in the classroom or how to handle later conversations with the families. We need to be able to provide our families with resources on this topic just like we do with many other topics.

References

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

So Sexy So Soon (2010) Proactive Parenting Tips for Counteracting the Sexualization of Children and Teenagers. Retrieved from: http://sosexysosoon.com/tips.html