THE SEXUALIZATION OF EARLY CHILDHOOD

 

Sexualization in early childhood is actually a very tough topic for me to discuss because of my background which was more of religious, principled and strict. My parents always had this notion that children should be allowed to be children and this has to reflect in their dressing, hairdo, play routines/activities, social gatherings and so many other areas where children are visible. I remember as a child, make-up and long hair extensions for me, was a no for my mum. Skimpy dresses, bump short and other outfits that promotes nudity were not meant for me, even though some parents thought otherwise. When children are young, they should be having positive, age-appropriate experiences that lay the foundation for healthy sexual relationships in the future (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). But today, it is a different ball game. Children are growing up in a highly sexualized environment which has adverse effects on the lessons and morals they learn a daily basis.

All these issues of sexualization begins even before the child is born. It still beats me how parents attributes a particular colour for boys and the other for girls (blue for boys and pink for girls). Some particular toys for boys and others for girls. You can tell the sex of a child by just the colour of the pre-birth baby shoot or decoration of the baby's room. Active toys are for boys to showcase their strength as boys and the girls need softer toys as the weaker ones. So as the children develop, they keep looking for ways to validate who they think they are or stand for in the contemporary society.

In the recent years, children are exposed to lots of contents on media as a result of increased access to gadgets and unlimited internet. There are lots of sexual contents flying around on the internet. “Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media in popular culture." (Kilbourne, J & Levin, D, 2009). This could actually be scary to them and detrimental to their social wellbeing. There are lots of comic books and shows that depicts all shades of sexualization.  I recently saw a comic advert on BBC that portrayed the new superman to be a bisexual with a picture of two boys kissing themselves. For me, it is just inappropriate even when we are trying to be anti-bias and and also trying to erase all the -isms as much as possible.

Girls learn that their value is determined by how sexy they look, rather than by who they are or what they achieve (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). No wonder all the fakeness we try to attach to their appearances just to validate their beauty. At the end of day, we end up producing girls who feel inferior, girls who are mediocre and with low self esteem. Instead of sexualizing them in terms of beauty, we should teach them that they are more than pretty faces. I think this will also go a long way to stop the way girls as seen as shallow-minded. 

But for about a century now, we have understood that children are not miniature adults capable of fending entirely for themselves and we recognize that they do not have the cognitive, emotional, mental or physical skills to negotiate the increasingly complicated terrain of adulthood, and that they need the care, protection, and guidance of supportive adults in order to grow into healthy and competent members of society, so that is where we adults come in. Children should not be left all by themselves to figure out how the world works. They need to be guided to deal with the issues of early sexualization. They don't have to be blamed for the behaviours they have learned already because that is the society we live in. All they need is a caring and affectionate intimate relationships in their families and also in the setting where they find themselves. They need to feel safe with us so se can help them clear their doubts about  early sexualization.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D. C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids. New York: Ballantine Books