An article written by Nancy Gruver, the editor and founder of New Moon Girls, came up on my Facebook feed today. To say that the subject of the article was cringe worthy would be an understatement. In case you don't feel like clicking the link, in her article Nancy describes a new series of French Vogue advertisements that sexualizes the appearance of 6 year old girls. In one of the ads a beautiful young girl is dressed and posed provocatively on an animal skin rug, ala a Penthouse centerfold. Nancy points out in her article how disturbed she is by this advertisement, and Nancy's feelings and concerns over this ad are some that I absolutely share.
Our culture has become one that pushes children to deal with issues that are beyond their scope of understanding. The sexualization of kids is one aspect of this, along with violence in many forms. Too many people today do not see what the problem is in treating kids like miniature adults, which is evidenced by the aforementioned Vogue ads. But if anyone steps up and expresses concern over our children's ability to deal with so many adult issues we are told that kids need to deal with this stuff. That children essentially need to be thrown into the lion's den to learn how to live in our society. You know, the whole growing up in the school of hard knocks spiel.
So, why not dress up a 6 year old girl like a 25 year old woman and use her photo to sell magazines? She's going to be having sex and luring in men with her beauty soon enough anyway, right?
Well, because what if we are wrong? What if the school of hard knocks is actually killing us, both literally and figuratively? What if our society would actually benefit from just allowing children to be kids until they have the ability to deal with the crazy, messed up world that we are setting up for them? What if giving our children a different kind of childhood would mean giving our society the gift of future adults who have the desire and ability to change things for the better? What if our kids did not have to grow up to become adults scarred by their childhood because of the sex and violence that were forced on them too early?
The sexualization of children cannot be ignored. It is a core problem in how we are raising our children; the future of our society. The sexualization of kids has infiltrated nearly every aspect of our lives and there is evidence of this infiltration in any school or mall that you might step foot into. Girls are wearing clothes that would make many porn stars blush. The music that our children listen to and the TV shows that they watch are loaded with sexual innuendo. Children are talking of "dating" as early as kindergarten, and kids of all ages are using words and telling "jokes" that are sexual in nature, many of which they do not understand the meaning behind. The number of children who are becoming sexually active at or near puberty is not only staggering, but the problems seems to be getting worse instead of better as years go by.
To me, this issue is like the bumper sticker that says, "If you are not angry you are not paying attention". We should all be angry. Angry for the sake of our children and our children's children. And angry for our society that has become so lost that we are allowing six year olds to be treated like sex objects.
Nancy Gruver has put out a call for action in the article that I linked above. If you have ideas of what we can do to work towards changing this issue, please post to Nancy on her blog. Talk to your children, your friends, and your family, and brainstorm about what can be done. Nancy is someone with the power to bring a grass-roots movement into the spotlight and if we can get her the ideas she can help us get the movement moving.
~Shana
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