The Sexualization of Early Childhood

Quotes: A four-year-old girl, in the dramatic play area of her preschool, begins swaying her hips and singing, “Baby, I’m your slave. I’ll let you whip me if I misbehave.” When her teacher goes over to talk to her about it, she volunteers that she learned the song from her eight-year-old sister. After doing a bit of research, the teacher discovers that the words are from a highly popular Justin Timberlake song.

Halloween costumes for young girls are so suggestive and risqué these days that Newsweek runs a story titled “Eye Candy: Little Girls’ Halloween Costumes Are Looking More Like They Were Designed by Victoria’s Secret Every Year. Are We Prudes or Is This Practically Kiddie Porn?”(Levine & Kilbourne, 2009)

Share your reaction to the topic of the sexualization of early childhood.

Children are paying an enormous price for the sexualization of their childhood. Girls and boys constantly encounter sexual messages and images that they cannot understand and that can confuse and even frighten them (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). I feel so strongly about this that I posted the above quotes on my Facebook.  It will be interesting to see what kind of response I get.

Provide three or more examples, from your personal or professional experience, that further illustrate the exposure of young children to a highly sexualized environment.

Personal experiences include my own granddaughters: one five and the other twelve.  The twelve-year-old has been exposed to sexual interplay in the family situation she lives in.  She is beautiful, the woman her dad is living with styles her hair, and buys clothes for her that portrays her little sex queen. 

The five-year-old dances and sways to many of the same kinds of music in the quote.  She also says her favorite actor is Sheldon, from the Big Bang Theory.  Relatives and friends laugh as they think it is so cute. 

The third example is my eleven year old niece.  Her mother allows her to read books that are far above her age and maturity.  She posts things on Facebook that upsets me because of all the sexual implications.  I have spoken to my sister about it but she said she has spoken both to mom and the granddaughter and they neither one see anything wrong.  One example she shared is: My only injection is to marry One Direction.

Explain the implications this may have on children’s healthy development. Include ideas you might have, as an early childhood professional, to best respond to these concerns and to reduce the negative impact on children.

First of all, I would like to say that lack of positive supervision and teaching from the parents is a major cause of my two granddaughters have babies outside of wedlock.  I know that this is not a usual occurrence but that is the problem.  This happens too often.  I feel that the parents are partially responsible from their lack of “parenting”.  I know this is the case of both girls, one is eighteen and the other nineteen.  The first one was called the princess and told how beautiful she was from a young age.  This is not a bad thing if they had not dressed her with the exposure clothes.  The second was exposed unusual adult living styles and sexual approaches in view of the children. 

As an educator of young children, I need to be s aware of play, talk and responses to ways children express themselves.  I would address any issue that arose with the parents, and ask them how they wanted me to talk to the children.   As Levin & Kilbourne says, how children are taught their value is determined by how beautiful, thin, “hot” and sexy they are (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009).

I am aware that when children have too much sex on their minds, their mental development is impaired.  

Describe the ways in which your awareness of the sexualization of early childhood has been influenced and/or modified by studying the topic this week.

I was made aware that others are thinking about the destruction of our children’s purity and innocence by all the sexualization of the media, music, books, iPods, and other sources of media.  I am thankful that there are researchers who are working to protect children from this kind of media.

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