February 23, 2007
Girls! Girls! Girls!
As the father of three daughters, my eye naturally strayed to Mona Charen's column today on the increasing sexualization of children and the apparent dichotome in liberal and conservative attitudes toward how to deal with it:
It’s interesting that this subject, the sexualization of children, is condemned by both the Left and Right. But not surprisingly, we blame different agents. Liberal parents who detest the tart culture tend to blame business. The Post quotes a writer who blames the deregulation of children’s television in the mid-1980s. Additionally, liberals point to clothes manufacturers, music purveyors, and teen-magazine publishers. The APA seems to think the answer is more feminism: “Girls and girls’ groups can also work toward change. Alternative media such as ‘zines’ . . . ‘blogs’ . . . and feminist magazines, books, and Web sites encourage girls to become activists who speak out and develop their own alternatives. Girl empowerment groups also support girls in a variety of ways and provide important counterexamples to sexualization.”Well good luck with that, but perhaps a more traditional approach would work better. Fathers and mothers, protect your girls’ innocence. Take the TV out of their rooms. Monitor what they watch. Don’t purchase the racy clothes or music or movies. And try a dose of what Bill Bennett and Joe Lieberman attempted to do more than a decade ago — shame the purveyors of smut. Here we come to the conservative perspective. Popular culture, in all its crudeness, is the output of liberals. It is liberalism that for decades has rejected any protest as “censorship” or “McCarthyism.”
It's needless for me to tell you in which direction the child-rearing policies of Orgle Manor lie. (Can I let you in on a little secret? All the stuff about limiting tee vee time, regulating clothes and the rest? It's really not all that difficult.) But I think there's another technique that even Mona overlooks and that is teaching by example. Mom and Dad are the two most important role models the young'uns are going to have during their formative years. If you're a parent and you're still trying to act like a teenager (as so many Baby-Boomer and Gen-X types seem to do), you can bet your next Botox injection, gangsta rap CD or alimony check that your child is going to pick up on that and internalize it. If, on the other hand, you take the responsibility to be sober, mature and civilized, it is far easier to deal with the outside influences that they're bound to encounter with a curt, "That's all very well for so-and-so, but We (or alternatively, Nice People) don't do that sort of thing."
No "Girl Empowerment Groups" required.
Are any of your girls in High School yet? I think not. You simply cannot imagine the full court press that awaits you.
I am the mother of two sons. I could not believe the pressure they were under while in High School. I am sure it is much worse for girls.
Let's talk about gardening. A much easier topic to approach. Got any new seeds lately?
Posted by: Babs at February 23, 2007 10:00 AMThe article is about children, not teens, and the ever-diminishing age at which all this stuff is coming up. There is no conceivable reason whatever why a parent should not be able to stop a six, seven or eight year old girl from wearing "sexy" clothes or watching soft-core pron music videos.
My point is that you have to do everything in your power to establish an anchor before they hit the high school years. Sure, they'll get battered, but they'll have a better chance of not going on the rocks.
Posted by: Robbo the LB at February 23, 2007 10:10 AMMy own morbid thoughts on the matter:
I have been troubled for some time by the notion that the Devil is afoot in the world in an almost open manner. I do not mean this in a metaphorical or symbolic way, either. I mean exactly what I say -- the Devil is afoot in the world.
The sexualization of children is to me always a clear manifestation of the presence of evil. Our culture is becoming, virtually, a hymn to evil. I actually try to shut it out whenever I can, and prefer the culture of either my youth, or of times before I was born, as being healthier.
The cure is, of course, simple. It is to return to the tried and true. But people have to believe in a cure in order to take the medicine.
Posted by: The Colossus at February 23, 2007 10:27 AMThat article seems silly.
Yes, it is all us liberals that want to sex up your children. It has nothing to do with money and big business. Liberals are just big pervs.
A responsible parent could both protect and (in the case of girls) empower. They are not mutually exclusive.
Posted by: LB Buddy at February 23, 2007 03:59 PMAs a former educator and someone who does a lot of volunteer work at my son's school (he's in 2nd grade) I cannot believe how some of these young girls dress on class trips or school functions - at age 7 and 8 they dress.. well, like tramps! And you are right, ever single one of their mothers dresses like one too and that's catholic school!
Posted by: michele at February 23, 2007 04:09 PMHow did I get here? Oh, yeah, blogroll from Wizbang. ;-)
I don't blame business or television or anyone else for sexualizing children. It's really not that hard not to participate. From before my children were born I heard about how kids today grow up so much faster than when we were kids. Bull pucky. More often than not we are actually prohibiting maturity, refusing to let children take on responsiblity and perform tasks that matter.
We also sexualize them. WE do that. Children don't purchase the clothes they wear or toys they play with (no Bratz in this house!) their parents do. It's mothers who coo about 3 year old Suzy's "boyfriend" and how cute they are playing together not little Suzy and her playmate.
Children, todays or yesterdays, tend to become very body shy at about age 7 and even more-so at puberty. There are always exceptions but that is the usual way it works. So what happens to that natural body shyness?
I have four children, all allowed to be happy naked babies and streaking toddlers and they *all* discovered the concept of privacy within a few years of age seven, the boy and all three girls who range from determined tom-boy to pink and frilly girly-girl. Body shy at age 7 and times it by 2 at puberty.
It's *not* the kids putting the sexy on.
Yes, it is all us liberals that want to sex up your children. It has nothing to do with money and big business. Liberals are just big pervs.
Do you ever NOT resort to hyperbole?
Posted by: Boy Named Sous at February 24, 2007 12:19 AM
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