Sexualization of Early Childhood

This week I had the opportunity to read the article, So Sexy So Soon and it was very eye opening to me due to the fact that it was true. Children are forced to grow up to fast because of society and influence. The media exposes children to sex and violence through movies, music, toys, and ads. Levin and Kilbourne (2009) said, children are surrounded by a sexualized environment, which shows children they have to be beautiful and willing to make it in this world. However, in my opinion media is not the only thing to blame. Children learn a great deal from family and others in their lives. Think about it who is buying their clothes and letting them go out looking like they are older than they are, who is letting them put tons of make-up on, letting them listen to music that shows women as sex objects, or watch movies they are not for their viewing-the parents! I think they should have to take some of the blame because they are teaching these young girls that looks are what matters and that is very harmful to young children.

There are so much emphasis put on young girls looks and how boys have to be "macho" and how they judge and treat girls (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). Children are being devalued and their innocence taken away from them and for what reason. Sexualization in early childhood is a big issue because children are still developing themselves and some much pressure is put on their looks and their bodies, so what are we teaching our children.


My little cousin was forced to grow up to fast due to the influence of her family. Her older cousins would dress her up and put make-up on her, have her nails done, and have her hair all done up because they thought it was cute, but it wasn't. She just turned thirteen and she wears belly shirts, short skirts, skin tight jeans, her nails done, spray tans and so forth and I blame no one but her parents.. They let her do all of this and they paid to let her do it. She has never really had a childhood and now she acts well beyond her age and doing things well beyond her age.




Parents are putting their children in beauty pageants to display how beautiful their girls are. My friend at work is obsessed with putting her two little girls in pageants all the time and she gets upset if they don't win and she goes as far as talking about the other little girls in them. I ask her why she does that to her girls and she says because they like it. They are 3 and 1 year old. I don't think they can say I like to be in pageants please put me in one. Parents are forcing their children to grow up to fast, making them look older than they are, and putting to much pressure on them to be beautiful. This picture above shows a little girl dressed up as Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman "a prostitute". What kind of message is that sending to people.

Last I hear little children singing songs that is first to old for them to even be listening to, but for them to know the words to them. These songs are degrading to women and so much is put on their looks, their body, and the things they do for their men.

I think it is so important for professionals to have meeting with parents to discuss with them the importance of letting children be children. Share this article with them to shed some light on the situation at hand. I also think they should be a dress code for children to follow to help cut back on the older looking clothes. We need to advocate to let children be children. To grow, laugh, and learn at their own pace and let them have the time to just be a child.


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.