Tuesday, 06 January 2009 00:00
I just finished reading “So Sexy, So Soon,” by Diane Levin and Jean Kilbourne . I've been wanting to read this book ever since it came out last summer and finally found it on the library shelves.
What I expected was a well laid out argument for the ways that our media, marketing, and social programs have shaped our children into sexualized beings at too early an age. What I didn't expect was to find the blame almost entirely placed on the media.
Levin and Kilbourne are both obvious experts in this field. I've read Kilbourne's “Can't Buy My Love” which established her as an expert in the field of media and marketing (especially to women) in my mind. Levin has done extensive work in the field of education and violence in play and media and that effect on children.
There were several main points that this book made:
-
The problem is sexualization not sexuality.
-
Sexualization in American culture begins almost at birth.
-
A bombardment of sexual images and expectation on children evolves them into insecure and overly-sexualized young-adults.
The book called for parental involvement, school programs, and legislation to put up boundaries on advertising to children (or to abolish advertisements focused at children completely.) They also touched on what was named “Compassion Defect Disorder” - where our children do not learn to give and receive compassion because of an overly sexualized childhood filled with sexual and physical violence and pornography (in the media.)
Some of the practical advice that was given to parents included:
-
Protect your children as much as possible from exposure to sexual imagery and related content.
-
Learn about the popular media your child may be watching/seduced by.
-
Establish safe channels for talking about sex and sexual development (the open door policy for your kids)
-
Help your children learn to have positive and caring relationships (so they recognize that violent sexual relationships OR pornographic images are wrong.)
While this book had many interesting surveys and facts, I found it obnoxious that the same “personal testimony” and stories were used several times. I feel like EVERYONE would have a story that involved overt sexualization in or towards children and more of these could have been dissected. And, while I think the book achieved its goal of motivating parents' to take a role in changing the cultural landscape of childhood sexualization in America – it also felt “dumbed down” compared to other, similar, books I've read.
Overall, this is a necessary book to open the dialogue about how much sex is too much for our children's psyches and souls to stand. A detailed statistical survey and study it is not – but a practical advice book and guide for concerned parents it most certainly is. I'd recommend it as an easy read with some incredibly hard-hitting points.