Sexualization

I was shocked when I read the stories that are shared in the article. I did not have that extreme experiences yet, but I can imagine the reality of sexualization in nowadays. I think the whole society has the responsibility to protect children from being exposed too early to sexualization, as I do no think it has positive impact on children’s development in their lives. Media, toys, posters on the streets, those are the things that we cannot control to be part of our children’s lives, especially right now children growing up are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture(Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). However, if the toys, movies, books are meant for children will contain something about sex in them. I should say if it is meant for children to watch, to use, or to read, it should make sure that it is age appropriate.

One of the stories that I would like to share here is about three German children (two boys and one girl) in the class. They were five, when the story happened. They lived in the same compound and were neighbors. One morning, when two boys were talking and doing their morning routine jobs, one of them stood up like a rocket from his chair. He shouted to the other boy who was still drawing, “ No, you did not, you did not kiss her.” He was angry when he let those words out of his mouth. The other boy was sitting there, relaxed, saying, “ Yes, I did, I did kiss her under the tree in her garden. She liked me.” I did not response to that situation, as I did not know what I was supposed to do. They were talking like to men who were fighting for a beautiful young lady.    Apparently, they knew that kissing is part of love or likeness. If the boy got the chance to kiss a girl, and the girl did not get angry. This love can be mutual. They probably got this message from the movies, or books. However, I did ask them individually later if they liked the girl and why. They gave me the similar answers “ She has long hair, beautiful and thin, just like the princesses in the movies, and I am the prince.” Thinking of that comment, it proved what was stated by Kevin & Kibourne (2009) that children can learn at a very young age about their value which can be about how beautiful, thin, hot and sexy they are. No wonder, why another German girl was not that popular among the German children community in the class, it probably because she is a little bit chubbier than other girls. It made me feel sad, because children at such an young age, they start to judge friends by how they look.

Another story that I remember was also about a child who was five. It was school’s sports day, and all the kindergardeners went to watch the middle school students’ relay races. All of a sudden, a boy said “ whoa, she is sexy, she has big boobs.” We were shocked by his judgement. Children who sat next to him looking at him. He was trying to tell other children that girls with big boobs are beautiful. We stopped him, and asked him to focus on the game itself. I do not know who to blame for, as I do not believe it is healthy for children at this age to expose to sex so soon.

The last story that I want to share here is about a 4 years old girl who was adopted and chubby. She was sweet and caring, and she loved to run. However, she did not have any chance to play with boys in the class, because they told her that they did not want to play with her. She was resilient, and tried to show boys that she could ran as fast as they could. She did it, but it did not make a change at all. Boys still did not allow her to play with them. She was sad and did not know why. I went to ask a couple of boys why they did not want to play with her. It turned out to be that a boy in that group was telling everyone that she is fat. If someone plays with that girl, it means he likes her. Boys did not like that rumors, so nobody played with that girl. 

Children are easily convinced and biased from what they are exposed to. If they expose to early to sex and related topics, they will lose the happiness of their childhood. As sex is often liked to violence, it cannot be good for children’s development (Kevin & Kibourne, 2009). If children are exposed to sex and violence, it is a robbery of their valuable time for age-appropriate development tasks, and they may begin to engage in precocious sexual behavior (Kevin & Kibourne, 2009). As early childhood teachers, we have the responsibility to work closely with families to help children grow in a healthy way to eliminate the negative impact of sexualization in their childhood.

Sexualization is happening earlier and earlier each year with the high development of technology and media. We cannot control what children see, as most of them will have older siblings. Parents can control what babies are watching and exposing to, but it is hard to tell if children will absorb information from other tunnels. As teachers in early childhood field, we need to know that children today are different children from the old days. They can be more open and relaxed about certain topics that we cannot imagine of. They probably do not know exactly what they are saying, and they bring the topics up to show how cool they are. However, once we figure that out, we need to work with families to see what we can do to help children develop in an age -appropriate way.

References

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