The sexualization of children and adolescents epidemic has been all over the news and across the internet, partly due to the recent announcement from Mattel, Inc and Nickelodeon that Dora the Explorer is going skank, but also because of the new Tattoo Barbie, Pregnant Barbie and other toys for children and clothes that are sexualizing girls and boys at a very young age.
CNN’s headline report “Dora the Explorer Going Skank, Moms Fear” quickly became a hot topic on various forums and social networking sites including Twitter, with users poking fun at upset moms and dads who fear their children are being targeted by media moguls and marketers to grow up faster than children should.
Sexualizing children is not funny and it’s not a joke, and if parents don’t start paying attention to what the American Psychological Association (APA) report found to be the growing trend to sexualize young girls and boys through video games, television shows, movies, music videos, song lyrics, magazines, clothing styles and toys, you’ll find yourself scratching your head wondering what happened to your little prince or princess well before they reach the teen years.
The definition of the sexualization of young girls or boys means to “make sexual in character or quality”, and sexualized images suggest “sexual availability to the exclusion of other personal characteristics and qualities”, which is inappropriate, obscene, and harmful for young children.
Sexualization of Children – So Sexy, So Soon
If you don’t believe me, just try and go shopping for children’s clothes and underwear that aren’t too tight, body-fitting, low-cut, too short, “sexy”, with messages and sexualized images that say things like “eye candy”, “So many boys, So little time”, “Who needs credit cards”, “Mr. Pimp”, “Mr. Well-Hung”, all while hearing your little prince or princess repeat song lyrics like “Don’t cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me”, “so blow me bitch,” “I rock for topless dancers,” and “I tell hoes all the time, bitch get in my car.”
“Hot Tots” and “Prostitots” are just two of the descriptive urban slang terms being used to describe girls who dress like tarts, as today’s tarted-up society teaches young girls as young as 4 and 5 that body image and looking like sexy lolita’s is important, even before reaching the tween years.
The Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. sees patients as young as six with eating disorders, depression and low self-esteem, as young girls worry and obsess about their weight and physical appearance, expressing increasing dissatisfaction with their bodies at a younger age than ever before.
Young girls who are barely out of diapers are getting a little girl “princess makeover” at kiddy salons, and are being encouraged to wear make-up, skin-tight mini-skirts, push-up bras, thong underwear and high-heeled pumps, to the extent that wanting to look pretty and cute has developed into something sick, demeaning and depraved.
Sadly, some people just don’t “get it”. Some people, including parents, view the sexualization of children as something of minor importance, while the APA report concluded that young boys and girls are growing up to view themselves as sex objects and are more likely to experience poor self-image, eating disorders, depression, academic failure in school, low self-confidence, with increased likelihood of engaging in sexual activity at a very young age, due to the fact that girls who look older tend to attract more attention from boys.
The “Ban Barbie” movement is very real, as is the online petition opposing the new sexy Dora, started by authors of Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes
“We don’t need any more tween dolls teaching girls that growing up means turning into a fashionista, excited about secrets and crushes and going shopping… Please don’t push this version of what it means to be a teenager on young girls. It limits them, narrows their options, and leads them to think that what matters most about themselves is how they look and what they buy.”
Look Like a Barbie Doll? Look Like Bratz?
Young girls, tweens and teen girls are searching the internet for information on “look like Barbie”, “look like a Barbie”, “how to look like Barbie”, “want to look like Barbie”, “look like a doll”, “look like Bratz” and “Barbie look a like” just to name few. Add “look like Dora” to that “look like” list for girls, who try and copy the look and appearance of Bratz dolls, Barbie dolls (and soon the Dora the Explorer Goes Skank doll), and the battle over Barbie vs. Bratz vs. Dora the Explorer will rise to new heights.
Do you really want your daughter growing up thinking she needs to look like a Barbie doll pop tart? What about your young sons? Boys face sexualization too, as has been seen in Calvin Klein ads, where pubescent-looking boys pose provocatively with perfectly sculpted six-pack abs hawking teen fashion clothing lines, to point out one noteworthy example.
If you don’t have daughters but you do have sons, don’t ignore or discount the effects of seeing or being around little girls who dress like little prosti-tot tarts can have on your little boys. Just because the APA report focuses primarily on girls being targeted with sexualized images and products, with 85 percent of ads sexualizing and objectifying girls in some form or fashion, the damage and harmful effects on boys is of great concern to many.
Parents, read the APA report yourself in its entirety and make up your own mind. Protect your children’s innocence. Take the television out of their bedrooms and monitor what your kids watch, and don’t allow your children to have computers in their bedroom where you can’t monitor what they’re doing online.
Don’t buy “sexy”, skanky, racy, inappropriate clothes, toys, games or other products for your children, and don’t accept inappropriate gifts for your kids from others. Learn to say No and mean No! Be the parent, not their friend.
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- So Sexy, So Soon: The Sexualization of Childhood in Commercial Culture
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- The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It
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I have a hard time finding modest clothes for my 7-year old daughter to wear. I even have a hard time finding modest clothes for her Barbie dolls to wear. Parents must speak up to retailers, advertisers and manufacturers and let them know that sexualizing our children is unacceptable.
Mocha Dad, having a hard time finding modest, age appropriate clothes for your daughter is no surprise to me. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear at this point that marketers are paying attention to the reality that children are being sexualized are a very young age and their responsibility of stopping the sexualization of children has been ignored for many years. It’s very sick and disgusting to say the least.
I am not a parent but I find nothing remotely funny about this trend. I am saddened and outraged that more adults are not standing up for children. Have we really deluded ourselves to believe that what children see, hear and play with it has no impact on their esteem and world view? At my nephew’s public elementary school (grades K-6) they had to separate the boys and girls into gender specific classes because the 10 and 11 year old girls were dressing inappropriately and making sexual overtures toward the boys. I was sickened that these pre-pubescent babies already believe that the road to self-worth is through sexuality.
Hi Karen,
What surprises me most about all this is that a lot of parents think this stuff is “cute” and “adorable”. Very young children are being allowed to dress very inappropriately, and then they wonder why young boys are finding themselves attracted and actually sexually stimulated seeing these little girls dressed this way. I want to shake these parents into reality.
Then there’s the sickening reality that perverts, pedophiles and sex offenders are also checking out these kids.
Karen, if you knew how many pedophiles and perverts come to this site because some posts use the words “little boys” or “little girls”, along with a few other keywords I won’t mention, it would blow your mind.
All this happends because of the growing commercialisation of life. The people want to get more money, which means the companies need to produce and sell more products, which in turn means they need to find the new markets to do that. One of those markets are children. It would be good not to allow them to watch TV, not to look at the posters on the streets and not to speak to their friends but that’s impossible, so as children are bombarded with the new ads every day and are forced by society to follow others in order not to be “in the worst condition than others”, parents should also “bombard” the child with the good stuff to equal things out. There are still grannies, who can tell a good story, there are normal clothes, there are good and kind books, there are old naive movies, so everyone can go ahead and teach the child the opposite of the commercial life in the XXI century. The problem here is that majority of people are too busy to do that (XXI century again), so the child is essentially left one-on-one with the world – and that’s very bad.
It is impossible to change the TV, the corporations, the advertisement, but it’s possible to change yourself and spend more time with your kid, so I’d tell all parents to do just that. Or move to the cabin in the woods somewhere at the North of Canada with no TV or motorways around and enjoy commercial-free world there.
I hated to admit it, but the world is being commercialized with all those “Secy” apparels, even my niece starting to make up and dress up like adult, although she’s only four years old right now, Lin…
I would love to say that I don’t have to deal with this subject myself, and even though my kids are all grown, I do have a grandson and a grandchild on the way. So, this sort of thing will be an ongoing battle for years to come. Unfortunately.
hi guys im only 17 years of age myself but i have 4 nieces and 3 nephews and am always going looking for cute little outfits for them i totally disagree with the kids aged as young as 1 year old and even teens so called “fashions” and i have found the clothes that take up 75% of the kids department are excuse my language but slutty and completely inappropriate…im now doing year 12 and am doing an assignment for community and family studies and the topic that i have chosen is the sexualization of children and teens. i have to conduct interviews and questionnaires so if you are interested in being involved in something you truly believe in send me an email titled CAFS and ill send you the questions i need answered my email address is cheyneypoos AT hotmail.com thanks for reading this and if i get a good enough argument i will try and take it further than school!!! im going to do what i can to get rid of this inappropriate childrens clothing!!!!!
Hi Cheyne,
The sexualization of children is an excellent topic for a school assignment, and there is so much information about how the media and marketers have been sexualizing young girls and boys that I’m sure your school report will turn out great! I hope you get an A+! If you’d like, you may contact me through my contact link at the top of the page and I’ll respond to your specific questions.
I really wish that Mattel would go back to the idea of making normal looking Barbies… In real life, Barbie’s figure wouldn’t even be anatomically possible, she wouldn’t be able to support her body upright, but kids still see it as the ideal. I think they should trash the current Barbie doll and rebuild up a new one of a healthy-proportioned Barbie.
Even my sister is obsessed with weight, even though she’s as thin as a stick. I’ve told her repeatedly that even boys don’t like the “ideal woman”, they like women that have figures and eat healthily, but she won’t listen.
This is an issue that unfortunately only a minority of parents seem to care about! My suggestion is that you look at what is handmade in your own country… my suppliers all tell the same story – they couldn’t get something appropriate and unique on the high street!
Thanks for writing this (I realize it was a while ago, but I just came across it now). A real eye-opener. I’m a university student, trying to start a paper about the sexualization of children… Any suggestions on where to start? I had absolutely no idea it was such a big problem until recently, and now I want to show people what is going on… Anyway, if there’s anything you can tell me that may help write a paper, (where should I look for more information?) I’ll really appreciate it.
Thank you.