Week 6 Blog

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

 

Everywhere we look today we see sexualization in early childhood from what the children say to their toys, and what they watch each day on television. Over the years I have seen this issue go from something not talked about or even seen in many of my classes/preschools to being an everyday occurrence that many times needs to be addressed in some way. When we turn the television on our children are bombarded by ads for sexually explicit materials and of course they are going to ask questions and when they don’t get a good answer at home they come and ask us the next adult they can talk too.

In my personal or professional experience I have had many times where I have seen young children exposed to this type of an environment and my examples are listed below.

The first example is when I worked at our local before and after program and it was time for our annual boat regatta and the children wanted to wear very short shorts and tube tops (the top that barely covers a girls chest) for the team outfit and my young co-worker said it was fine but being the oldest member of the staff I put my foot down and stated that it was totally inappropriate for children of 9-11 to be wearing something like this for the whole community to see. I felt they should wear at least a t-shirt that covered everything.

Second, I have had children in my three to five year old class come to school wearing make-up and outfits that I would expect a young girl to wear if the parent’s decided it was okay. Some of the outfits barely cover their bottoms and make-up is that no child needs to wear in my opinion.

Lastly, I have had children in my class talk about what their parents are doing at home and I even had a little boy tell me about an operation his father had on his private area and that he was doing much better and he said this in front of the dad. I have to say we just looked at each other and then he took his son out of the room to talk to him in private. It was a very uncomfortable situation, but I think the father handled it better that I would have because I was speechless.

Everywhere I look today I see young children (mainly girls) wearing clothes that should not be made for someone as young as two or three and I feel the parents are setting the children up for trouble when they buy these types of things for their children because we have so many people in the world that will take advantage of a child for the simple fact that they are preying on someone that doesn’t understand why it’s wrong. Today’s movies and cartoons that are made for children are not really safe for them to watch because of the content and many parents don’t know what they are getting into or simply give in to the children when they say they want to see something.

“Girls and boys constantly encounter sexual messages and images that they cannot understand and that can confuse and even frighten them. They learn that sex is the defining activity in relationships, to the exclusion of love and friendship” (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). When it comes to my concerns with sexualization of young children and how to lessen the negative impact on them would be to start with having parents find a way to really focus on what their children are watching, listening to in music, clothes they wear and the toys they are asking for. We as the adults that spend the most time with these young children need to find a way to help them understand the differing views they see everywhere. Children can learn that by accepting the views they see around them it can sometimes lead to sexual abuse, pedophila or prostitution in extreme cases (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). It is necessary for the adults to take time to talk with children about safety with their bodies and about how we are the same but different in many different ways. We need to be ready to talk and answer questions in a simple way to help children understand their identities and to help keep them safe from all the hype they see everywhere they look.