My
first reaction to excerpt for the book “So Sexy, So Soon”, was Wow. Sexualization is a very important issue amongst children and
adolescences. In this is something I had
no idea about until I became a teacher in an early childhood center, and experienced
children as young as one displaying sexual activity. You hear about these types
of things but it is something that you do not want to believe because children
are so innocent, and many times their innocence is stripped away from them.
Media and television is one of the biggest reasons why. “Sex sales”, is one of
the biggest phrases that I hear too often, and not once have these people stop
to think how this is affecting our children.
In
2016 it is not uncommon to her that children ages one and over having a tablet.
Most if the time these tablets are not child proof, giving children access to
the world wide web, without supervision.
Toddler girls are now in to play make up and this gives them a sense of
thinking that they look prettier. Boys are told not to cry or not play with girl
toys, this instill a sense of masculinity or that women are supposed to be the
ones to do certain things. “boys, who
get a very narrow definition of masculinity
that promotes insensitivity and macho behavior,
are taught to judge
girls based on how
close they come to an artificial, impossible, and shallow ideal”(Levin &
Kilbourne 2009).
Sexualization
can have a huge impact on children’s health development. It can cause
depression, social issues and identity problems. “ The sexualization of
childhood is having a profoundly disturbing impact on children’s understanding
of gender, sexuality, and relationships” ”(Levin & Kilbourne 2009).
This
week has been a real eye opener for me on sexualization. I am not sure why it
has surprised me so much because I see it every day. I have twin cousins that
are 3 years old and my daughter is 2 years. The twins are allowed to watch
adult movies and know too much about adult things and I am scared that they may
share the information that they know with my child. After reading the excerpt
for the book “So Sexy, So Soon”, I would like to purchase the book and other materials
from the authors.
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
Brittany,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Like you I have experienced conversations with my peers about young children knowing a little too much about sex. A fellow police officer friend of mine was surprise to know how much a six grader knows about sex, after telling them we deal with this issue from pre-k, it shock his beliefs even more.
I realize that if john public is so surprised about young children being exposed to sex, a number of parents are also ignorant to the fact that their young children are exposed to sex. Through television (cartoon), songs, movies, etc. I am thankful for social media because it allow me to reach and see place I never knew exist and it allowed a number of people to be found alive or find love ones.
The freedom of speech or publicize whatever we want I think has gone too far in today’s world. On some radio stations any song can be played and some television stations are allowed to show profanity at any time of the day. I think this is one reason why children are so expose to sexual activity at increasingly young age.