Preserve children’s innocence

:: Nazmin Chowdhury ::

Childhood innocence in this context has a particular meaning: not sexually aware. Therefore, it is worrying that there is a increasingly growing perception that a mixture of clever marketing, explicit lyrics and music videos, together with a general coarsening of culture, are ‘sexualising’ young people.  ‘Sexualisation’ in this context in this discussion is not referring to children discovering their own bodies which they do in their own time and therefore it can’t be ‘premature’. However, what ‘sexualisation’ in this context is about is focusing on  exposing children to media images which promote the ideas that they are objects for the sexual gratification of others or that they can treat others as sexual objects. In the modern world media acts like a mirror that children look in to see the world they inhabit, this is also the case for many adults too so it’s no surprise at what that they reflect back to us again.I agree with feminist’s argument about the abuse of sexuality by commercial interests in our society. Clothing is a part of creative expression and personal identity as much as it is about sensuality. Sexuality is an adult concept that children have no tools to truly understand, that’s exactly why they need to be protected by their elders. For generations every parent has been in conflict with their children over clothing and attire, nothing new in that. If adults freely accept young women looking like soft porn superstars in all the media surrounding us, then why should we be surprised that children try to emulate it? The problem is, as adults in the modern day have become brutalised and numb to the false realities of what is actually being represented as acceptable.  Far too many mothers want to re- live their fading youth through their children. It’s not the media getting children piercings and dressing them like teenagers when they are young kids, it’s their mothers.  Unless 8 years olds are working and buying their own clothes we can stop pretending these children are being pressured into anything. It’s just weak and misguided parenting.  Parents appear to be influenced by the media too and lost their conception of protecting children’s innocence. They have a problem saying no and they dress the child like they dress, creating a ‘mini me’. The difference was in the past the when mums dressed the child like they dressed they dressed the child sensibly because they dressed sensibly. Now because many dress in sexy and tight clothes they are dressing their kids in similar clothes. The only brakes on this relentless downhill progression are tighter parental controls. The fact is that commercially, sex sells. That is the root of the problem, and as long as we encourage the market, it will only get worse. How many girls and women, of all ages, have their confidence knocked by photo-shopped images of perfect women? How many boys and men develop a completely unrealistic expectation of women’s sexuality, through the marketing of images of sexual availability? Simple solution to this problem is to stop watching, buying,  indulging and promoting shiny photo-shopped fantasies.  I doubt that will happen anytime soon and it may create a moral backlash that denies human sensual and creative expression, but we could start to control or ban sexualised advertising and marketing to children. Advertising and glossy women’s magazines are the prime influence on the general population.