The Sexualization of Early Childhood

While reading the intro to Levin & Kilbourne (2009)’s So sexy so soon, I was disturbed; the thought that kept running through my mind was “I have a two-year old…how can I protect him from this?!” I don’t think any parent wants their child exposed to blatant messages of sexuality at a young age, yet in our society children are bombarded daily by messages about sexuality (mainly through the media) at very young ages. Sexuality includes many factors that children of young ages are simply not ready to comprehend and seeing, hearing, and being exposed to so much sexuality creates confusion and can be undermining to gender and sexuality development. Since our children today are exposed more blatantly and frequently to sexuality than children in the past, different issues are coming up for parents, children, and early childhood professionals.

Some examples of young children being exposed to a highly sexualized environment that I have seen:

1. A 2 ½ -year old boy at the park was singing and dancing to LMFAO’s “I’m Sexy and I Know It” song. After singing it a few times by himself, he wandered over to his caregiver and asked if she could play it for him. She turned on a “child’s” version of the song on her phone (it was sung by Alvin and the Chipmunks I was informed) and he began to sing and dance loudly. She turned to me and said “he just can’t get enough of this song!”

2. While shopping at Target, I went in the clothing section to pick up some socks for my son. I happened to see that they were starting to get in their spring clothes and bathing suits…and saw that apparently you can buy your infant a bikini! Although it may be easier to wrestle an infant or toddler into a two-piece (I am lucky I have a boy!), these were not just two-pieces: they were low-cut and had thin string ties. (I actually saw a blog post similar to this a while back, “17 Kids Fashions we Hope Disappear by2012,” while skimming through this I was shocked to see some of the “sexy” clothing sold for kids-mainly girls-that include lingerie and padded bras for 8-year olds and high heels for toddlers!) 

3. In the Pre-K classroom at my center a 4-year old girl walked into class wearing bright red lipstick and announced “My new lipstick makes me look awesome!” Some other girls in the class agreed with her and proceeded to have a discussion about make-up (comparing the nail polish colors they were wearing, talking about a coveted Hello Kitty make-up set, showing each other their “lip gloss” ie. chapstick, etc.)

What was most saddening and shocking to me about these scenarios was that to many people things like this are seen as “funny” or “cute”; some people are not thinking twice about their 2 ½ year old singing that he is sexy, nor are they thinking about the message they may be passing on to their young daughter by dressing her in a bikini with string ties when she is still wearing a diaper, nor are they thinking about why a 4-year old “needs” lipstick to make her look “awesome.” These may seem like small incidents, but they are just part of the larger picture. The implication of things like this is that a child who is exposed to a highly sexualized environment is going to get unhealthy messages about sexuality, their sense of self-worth, and their body image. This includes thinking that you need to be “sexy,” seeing unrealistic and inappropriate images of what “sexy” is, getting messages of what boys should be like (macho, attracted to “sexy” girls) and of what girls should be like (“sexy” as related to body images and clothing to attract boys).  

Unfortunately, the issue of the sexualization of early childhood is not new to me, if anything this reading was a reminder that this issue is becoming more prominent. As a preschool teacher, I have had incidents and discussions about “boyfriends and girlfriends” with children as young as 3 and have had classroom discussions about who we can kiss because the young children in my class are trying to figure out the messages they are seeing and hearing. Every year at my center we have to take a child abuse prevention course and there is a section on sexual abuse and how it is not just adults abusing children, it is all too likely that another child is acting out sexually with another child. While this is heartbreaking, it is an important issue that we have to deal with. As early childhood professionals, we can counter the messages that children are seeing and hearing with positive ones; teaching that beauty comes in many different forms, showing them positive (and realistic) male and female role models, not allowing inappropriate behavior, language, or clothing in the classroom, and having age-appropriate discussions about gender and sexuality. Reading this article was a reminder that this issue is not going away nor is it one that we can ignore. While I know that I cannot protect my son from everything, I know that as a parent I can set firm boundaries and have honest discussions with him to hopefully lessen the impact of what he will see and hear. As an educator, I can work with parents to help them do the same and make my classroom a healthy environment for gender and sexuality development.  

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