Saturday, August 6, 2016

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

While reading this article, I was somewhat surprise but felt dismay and troubled for the generations to come. When it comes to my grandchildren (son is an adult) I would not want them to believe that they would have to dress enticing, or to walk with a sexy walk just to be popular. When it comes to television especially the ads and magazines with their articles and picture have considered what is sexy. This makes it very hard to make the children understand that is not the norm. Children have a hard enough time to fit in. Children being expose to this at since an early age can cause them to have an unhealthy relationship has they get older. In the article by Levin and Kilborne (2009) it states that when children are taught to focus on physical appearance and sex appeal, it has a negative impact on their development. 
In one of the childcares center where I worked I observe a young girl and boy playing house and the young girl took the boy by the hand and said come on honey I have something I want to show you. I went over and told them they were too young and it was not right for them to talk and act that way. Last year in my class I had a young girl that would dress in tight clothes and would do things to get the boys to like her and to be her boyfriend.  It came to the point that when she came to school dress like that we would put her in proper clothes. At the end of the day at school we let the kids dance to music and there were a couple of young girls that would gyrate to the music even songs in which they shouldn’t I ask where they learn to dance like that and they said watching music videos.
 We has educators need to make sure that we watch what the children are doing and then sit and talk to them and help them to understand that is not the proper way to behave. As educators we need to guide and help the children to having the self-confidence to make the right decisions on how to act. We need to continue to guide them on not to be in a hurry to be grow up and enjoy their childhood.


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

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