Children as young as preschoolers are brainwashed by the institutional and cultural socialization they encounter such as media, language, and song lyrics. The media culture has become an educational force playing a significant role as “teaching machines” in influencing young children on the institutional and cultural expectation about normalized race and sexuality. Today’s media and commercial culture bombard children with graphic sexual images and information that they may not even understand.
Just a couple of days back a 3 year old child in my class was signing ‘oppa gangnam style, hey sexy lady” and doing the gangnam style dance steps. Another 4 year old child was singing, Scream and Shout by Britney Spears “…..you gotta turn the shit up… All eyes on us…” They may have been just singing a song that they found catchy, without knowing what the lyrics meant. Observing how these children as young as three years pick such songs is quite alarming.
It may be cute to see my 2 year old niece flaunt a dress, swirling around pretending to be a princess. This is what most of the little girls want to be ‘a princess’, ‘the prettiest of them all’ because of the influence of the animated movies. But when she refuses to wear any other clothes and insists on wearing only frocks that she can swirl around in, it can be disturbing. What is observed is that even at an older age of 5 years, girls are still obsessed at being ‘lovely’. My colleague’s daughter wears only pink frocks. After she gets dressed, she parades before her parents tossing her head, and waving her hair asking “am I not lovely?” This emphasis on beauty can push them from being the prettiest little girl to being the being the hottest little girl.
It was quite shocking to see how my Lebanese colleague’s 9 year old daughter walks out the house in micro mini shorts, high heels, and tiny tops that expose midriff. My colleague does not seem to mind her daughter walking out the door looking like that. Somehow letting a young girl dress like that has become Ok, part of their culture. As a result of such thinking we find clothing these days outright sexy.
Children think listening to secular songs is ‘cool’ and they idolize the artists. I see around how boys as small as 6 year olds imitate the current popular boy band – ‘one direction’ in their hair styles and clothing.
The authors of the book ‘So sexy so soon’ (Levin, & Kilbourne, 2009) has rightly asserted how young children’s exposure to an overly sexualized environment plays a significant role in undermining their healthy gender and sexual development and negatively impact their sense of self worth. Children learn narrow definitions of gender and sexuality that focus primarily on appearance.
When children adopt the values that dominate commercial culture—materialism, self-indulgence, conformity, impulse buying, and unthinking brand loyalty—the health of democracy and sustainability of our planet are threatened (CCFC). Therefore as early childhood educators, we need to partner with parents and provide positive age-appropriate experiences that can help children begin to sort out their ideas and feelings about themselves and others, deal with issues of sexualization that would support the healthy sexual development of children.
Reference
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC). Retrieved from http://commercialfreechildhood.org/actions/home.html
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
Deepa,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the self-absorbed, consumer driven culture that dominates society has taken us down a path away from self-respect and independent thinking. And, since (unfortunately) appearance has always been a standard for acceptance, now the measure is based on how sexy the child looks. Unless parents start taking time to monitor and talk to their children about self-respect and the qualities that need to be developed within, children will lose that window of innocence. Good post, Deepa!
Deepa,
ReplyDeleteRecently I got into a huge aruguement with my education specialist about the song Gandham Style in the classroom. I play it on Fridays in the classroom along with Party Rock as we celebrate Fridays in the classroom with dancing to Kid Bop versions of the songs for the first 15 minutes of circle time. Needless, to say I lost the war as I was told that children mimic the words of the song and it is not appropriate. I say based on the creative curriculum that chidlren need to be exposed to all different types of music and that Kids Bop is an appropraite way of expressing themselves when children say hey hey lady instead of hey sexy lady. We listen to the songs for the beat and dancing, the meaning behind it for us is to celebrate Friday and to be quite honest the children really loved it. I understand the sexualization and its meaning, but do you think banning Kids Bop in the classroom is going to far especially when the lyrics are change to be appropriate for children. What do you think? I would love to hear your opinion on the topic.
Hi Michele.
DeleteI know children love listening to songs with peppy beat and dancing to it. I usually play songs like ‘agadoo’ or songs by Hi5 or by Lazy Town and children enjoy it. I agree songs like Kids Bop may be a good alternative for the original version, as these are songs sung by kids for kids. However I am also concerned, when the children recognize songs outside the classroom, will they realize it is the ‘inappropriate’ version and ignore it. They probably will give it more attention thinking ‘my teacher plays this song in the classroom’. Either, as teachers we need to tell children why we chose the kids bop version and why it is important to not use the words used in the original version. Or, protect children from popular culture as far as possible in order to preserve their innocence as much as we can. This is my opinion. I may not be making sense. I don’t have an absolute answer. I really would like to know what others think as well.