The Sexualization of Early Childhood

Week 6 of this course, Strategies for Working with Diverse Children, was another informative and enlightening week of learning. This week's topics included race and ethnicity and sexualization of children in the field of Early Childhood Education. We spent our discussion and application paper dissecting and discussing the issues and implications of race and ethnicity in ECE, especially the negative impacts when anti-bias education is not utilized. In our blogs, we are to address the issues of sexualization of Early Childhood. In all honesty, this is not a concept I had considered in such depth and concern prior to this week. While I had previously heard of this possible issue, I had not considered it and learned about it in such detail to truly understand the ramifications of this issue. 

First of all, it is important to consider the words of Levin & Kilbourne (2009) when they explain, "The sexualization of childhood is having a profoundly disturbing impact on children's understanding of gender, sexuality, and relationships" (p. 3). When the authors refer to sexualization of childhood, they are stating that children in today's society are exposed to and bombarded by images and messages about sexual behavior through media, toys, clothing, and more. "Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture" (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 2). Disgustingly enough, there are a wide variety of organizations and industries in this society today that knowingly markets items to children with sexualized and violent notions! This issue of sexualization can have long lasting, damaging effects on a child's development from a very young age, negatively impacting their development of a sexual and self-identity, as well as creating problematic sexual behaviors resulting in part from the focus of sexualization they are presented with constantly. As disturbing and troubling as this is to learn, the evidence to support the truth in such concerns is readily available from a simple web search! Songs from many popular singers, dialogue in popular children's television shows and movies, toys and video games, and clothing and costumes advertised are just a few concrete example of the sexualization of childhood. Therefore, I am completely floored at just how deep this issue runs within our society. It is not something that can easily change or dissipate due to the corporations and industries who will ignore the negativity to continue to make money for their companies. It is completely unsettling and it makes me extremely nervous to have children of my own someday in a society such as this one we live in today, with so much angst,  sexualization, negativity, and bias. 

After pondering this issue in depth, I have come to realize that I have noticed examples of children acting out due to sexualization so young. I have been working as a fourth grade teacher for four years now and have been continually surprised and shocked by stories shared between the fourth grades and things I have experienced with my own students. Four years ago, my first year in fourth grade, I was told by another teacher that some of the fourth grade students were caught behaving "inappropriately" in and out of the building on school grounds and school time. In the classrooms at the other elementary school, there is a dividing wall and doors to separate the storage area/coat closet for the teacher and students to hang their things. Students were meeting in this area to "fool around" with their "boyfriends and girlfriends" as other children later explained. Additionally, they would leave school to go to their safety post and instead hide on the side of the building to once again "make out and fool around" with their "boyfriends and girlfriends". I could not be more terrified or shocked! To make matters worse, some of the parents were not startled, surprised, or concerned, and had been organizing "dates" for the children outside of school! These children are 9 and 10 years old and, in my opinion, entirely too young for anything of this nature. 

Another example in my fourth grade experience has been during inside recess days. When the weather is inclement, the students will gather in the gym and we will do movement or brain breaks, in which we play "Just Dance" songs for them to exercise and dance along to. They LOVE this and so do we! Of course, it is crucial to make sure the songs chosen and played are appropriate both lyrically and physically. Last year, when on duty for inside recess with the three fourth grade classes, another teacher had played the song "Timber" by request from a student, without knowing the song at all. The words (you can go to this link to read them if you do not know them already: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pitbull/timber.html - refer to the first verse by Pitbull) were not appropriate and neither were the dance moves. This led to a group of students to begin their own discussion and dance moves, attempting to twerk in the middle of the gym, led by one student who claimed he was the "best twerker" and could teach the girls lessons. Yet another unsettling example of sexualization of childhood through media.  

A third example comes to memory when thinking of the many trick-or-treaters that came to visit on Halloween this year. Living in the same town that I teach in is always an adventure at Halloween as many students from the school recognize me when knocking for treats. This year, a group of girls who attended the elementary school a few years ago and I formerly taught, came to the door. I couldn't help but overhear their conversation as they walked up about their costumes and how they needed to "fix them up" for the Halloween Dance that night so "they looked good" because of certain boys that would be there. In their minds, their costumes weren't "pretty enough" or "sexy enough" compared to other girls that they go to school with and the boys would not like them or notice them because of it. It absolutely broke my heart! Again, they are far too young to be concerned with such things in 6th and 7th grade. This is such a negative mindset that will be detrimental to their continuing development of self-identity and sexual-identity. 

Lastly, when I was working in preschool a few years ago, I always found it interesting to see how children dressed in the dramatic play area during centers. There were some who would dress like a career person (i.e. police officer, fire fighter, nurse, etc.); others would dress as someone they knew from a television show or movie; more would dress like a parent or family member who was important to them. The most interesting is when I observed an interaction between a boy and a girl in the dramatic play area acting as the mom and dad getting ready to go out to a fancy dinner. The boy commented, so sweetly, "Wow, you look SOOOO pretty!" and the girl simply looked in the mirror with a questioning look, hiked up the skirt shorter, did a little booty shake, and said "NOW I look pretty!" I continued to observe to see their reactions before asking why she felt the need to fix her skirt and she said, "Well, that's what ALL the pretty girls do in the movies. They wear skirts like this (adjusted skirt again) and beautifullllll high heels!" I continued discussing things with her but tried to hide the shock from my face. I could not believe a four year old child was already exposed to, noticing, and reacting in this manner!

Each of the aforementioned examples clearly show that the sexualization of childhood is causing children to act in ways that are way beyond their years. They do not even fully understand the reasoning or meaning of what they do but because they see it happening in media they think that is what they have to do. This completely undermines a child's innocence! As an educator, we must continually be aware of the ways in which children speak, act, and respond to varying issues and concerns in our society. Just as we would with issues of gender, race, or culture, we need to respond to issues of sexualization in anti-bias ways. Having a conversation with children about the reasons why they act in such a way when we witness such examples of sexualization will allow them to share what they know, how they feel, and what this means to them. This also allows us, as educators, to take that learned information and counter it in positive ways through examples of appropriate relationships, etc. By doing so, I am hopeful we could return the children to innocence. 

This week's learning has truly been eye-opening. As I mentioned previously, I had not considered the true impact or weight of the issue of sexualization of childhood. Reflecting on my own experiences with working with children has proven this is a major concern for children in today's world. I plan to add this to my growing list of items to learn more about in order to find strategies to overcome or counter such influences in a child's life within the classroom, as well as ways to share with parents and families to help at home, if wanted. On this journey of anti-bias education, I have learned a great deal of information and strategies. I have no doubt those skills and strategies will help me to create and overcome another obstacle or challenge such as this in my future endeavors. 

Reference:

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