The Sexualization of Early Childhood

Share your reaction to the topic of the sexualization of early childhood.

Provide three or more examples, from your personal or professional experience, that further illustrate the exposure of young children to a highly sexualized environment.

While reading the article by Levin & Kilbourne (2009) I didn’t have too much of a reaction. This is something that I have talked about in the past and have heard stories of. It seems as time goes on, children younger and younger start knowing about sexualization even if they don’t know how to explain it.

One example that I can give from my professional experience is a story that I was told when I started working in my preschool classroom. The teacher before me had been written up for an event that happened in the classroom because she was not circulating the room but only watching the children’s heads. When the teacher finally got up to walk around the room she found two children playing doctor. The boy had stuck one of the toy instruments in the girl’s private area. The fact that they knew what to do, shows how quickly children are learning about sex.

Another example I have comes from my personal life which involves my best friend and her little sister. My best friend loves to listen to all types of music and would teach her sister parts of songs and dance moves to go with it. The one incident I remember the most is when the sister was five years old and was walking around shaking her hips and butt singing “shake your money maker” by Ludacris (Williams & Bridges, 2006). My best friend found this to be so funny and kept teaching her sister different songs and different moves.

The final example I have comes from my own experience. When I was five years old my mother would let me watch rated “R” movies that involved sex, like Pretty Woman (Milchan, Reuther, & Goldstein, 1990). Watching that movie I remember trying to act out scenes with one of the kids at my babysitters. I remember that clothes were always on but we would pretend to do stuff.

Explain the implications this may have on children’s healthy development. Include ideas you might have, as an early childhood professional, to best respond to these concerns and to reduce the negative impact on children.

These experiences are things that I know made me grow up faster than I should have. I think that with all of these experiences I can see how girls and boys will feel like they have to be sexy or have to be in a relationship to prove something. I feel like we are constantly trying to get our children to grow up but when they do we try to make them kids again. This cannot be healthy on a child’s development. They are being forced to grow up faster and try to understand concepts that they shouldn’t be ready to learn about. I think the best thing that we can do as professionals is to remind parents that their child is young and that they should hold onto those years. We can also teach content and concepts that are age appropriate.

Describe the ways in which your awareness of the sexualization of early childhood has been influenced and/or modified by studying the topic this week.

By learning about this topic this week, I think I will be more aware of what children are exposed to in my care. Due to our reading this week, I am also very curious about the rest of the book. It seems like it will have great ideas and resources to help us feel more confident about talking to parents and our students about what is appropriate and not.

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

Williams, P. & Bridges, C. (2006). Money maker [Recorded by Ludacris featuring Pharrel] On Release therapy [CD]. Atlanta, Georgia: DTP, Def Jam.

Milchan, A., Reuther, S., & Goldstein, G. (Producer), & Marshall, G. (Director). (1990). Pretty Woman [Motion Picture]. United States: Silver Screen Partners IV & Touchstone Pictures.