“So sexy so soon” was very shocking to me but it also made me realize that today’s environments
make children develop sexuality so early. I agree that early sexualization is a
big issue because it is related to how they use their precious time, how they
develop self-esteem and how they have relationships with others.
My six-year-old daughter does not
show much sexuality yet. However, I recently felt that media is not so healthy
and it is so hard to avoid while benefiting from fun parts of it. My daughter loves
the song “Die Young”. Since she and I can’t catch exactly what the words say
and liked the tune, I liked her to have a favorite song. However, when I thought
about showing her the music video of the song, I was shocked how sexual it was.
I used to think her trying to sing the song with music was good because she can
practice her English but I found out that she was trying to learn what I do not
want her to know yet.
I think that the messages impact
children by indicating a sexual relationship is how a man and woman have relationships,
using sexual appeal is a good thing and being sexy is a scale of evaluating
people.
I think that early childhood professionals
can raise awareness for parents of the negative impacts of the media in regards
to early sexualization and recommend that they avoid inappropriate ones to
reduce the negative effects. Another thing we can do is when we hear
inappropriate words from children who are just mimicking what they heard from
media, we should teach them appropriate ways. If we heard “Baby, I’m your slave. I’ll let you whip me if I misbehave,” we can explain
that when we love somebody, the way to show love is not becoming a slave but
understanding, caring and doing nice things for the person. And you deserve the
same back too.
Resource
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
Hi Ayako,
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty scary how the music videos portray a very different scenario of what a songs actually means. I wish that our society would start thinking about how sexuality is affecting even our youngest children.
Lori
It is amazing how much the media does have an impact on our children. My daughter is 11 years old and watching her dance while listening to the radio has raised some concern with my husband and I. When I asked her and her brothers where they learned to dance like that they said from MTV and BET. Music videos are impacting our children is such a negative manner now days. Even lyrics to songs are exploiting women sexually or making sexual references. Children are being exposed to sexual messages that they may not understand and are being exposed routinely to sexual encounters that have no connections to love or friendship (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009).
ReplyDeleteReference:
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