A few years ago, the now former editor-in-chief of Vogue France published a photographic report in which girls of about eight years appeared, dressed in a suggestive way (like adult women) and posing as the models we are used to seeing in the famous magazine . This report was the reason for the dismissal of the editor-in-chief who had been in charge of the French edition of Vogue since 2001, the reason? Carine roitfeld scandalized all of France with this report that touched the excessive and put everyone's debate on the childhood hypersexualization.
What is children's hypersexualization?
In 2001, the British Government Ministry of Education of David Cameron commissioned a study on the sexualization and commercialization of childhood to Greg Bailey first male executive director of the Mother's union, a subject that has generated a great debate in England, whose result was known as the Bailey Report where the concept of hypersexualization is explained and defined as “the sexualization of expressions, postures or dress codes considered too early”, in addition this report of almost two hundred pages alert of the large number of sexual images that constantly surround children.
Today's society is full of sexualized images, according to the Bailey Report, parents are aware of this fact, but at the same time they are unable to act against this because they have nowhere to complain.
This hypersexualization It has many sources: advertising, which often shows girls posing and acting as adults, giving the image of small Lolitas (as in the cover image of the Marc Jacobs advertising campaign starring Dakota Fanning who was removed from Britain), the fashion industry that promotes and sells inappropriate clothing for a certain age (miniskirts, tops and even lingerie or heels), TV series and children's programs kind monster High, which broadcast in a children's chain on a schedule for all audiences, where the protagonists are excessively made up and dressed in an exaggerated way which causes many girls to want to imitate them at an early age or some suggestive video clips that should not be seen by minors, although sometimes they are starred by their idols.
He Bailey Report also alert to the dangers of the fact that childhood is increasingly eroticized and where main victims are usually girls since this sexualization is related to the role of women as a sexual object and the age at which girls become it is advanced since they adopt stereotyped roles and behaviors that also do not correspond to their early age.
In addition, this hypersexualization It makes the transition from childhood to adolescence more and more accelerated: early intrusion into sexuality can cause irreversible damage since children are not physically or mentally prepared to take that step.
We have a problem, let's look for the solution
Suri Cruise has unleashed many controversies by wearing heels at his young age.To solve this problem there must be a consensus among several actors. First is the government from each country who must take measures to protect minors by acting as regulators of sexual content that may appear in advertising, television programs and video clips.
Two other interesting measures have already been taken in FranceOne of them is a ban on children under 16 years of posing for a fashion brand to prevent them from being transformed into adults, another is also a ban on children under 16 to participate in beauty pageants.
Since United Kingdom Other measures are proposed, such as covering the covers of erotic magazines that can be easily seen by the little ones, reducing the ads with sexual content that are within a time that children can see, regulating the dissemination of content Erotic on TV or raising parents' awareness about the use of the Internet including practical guides so they can protect their children.
Protecting children's childhood is everyone's job: starting at home and reaching advertising, the fashion industry and the Government.
Some worrying cases
In U.S there is reality show called Toddlers & Tiaras, just google it To scandalize and wonder if in North America social services work correctly: Toddlers & Tiaras It is a program of FTA which will shortly premiere its fifth season, in each episode the camera follows three girls of approximately three, seven and twelve years while rehearsing and presenting themselves to a beauty contest.
The grotesque of Toddlers & Tiaras It is the arduous path that these girls make to achieve their dream (or that of their mothers): to become beauty queens. This road goes through hard rehearsals (once a mother, proud before the camera says: “My daughter rehearses late, sometimes until she can no longer and falls asleep, crying“) Until you reach the total transformation of the girl through makeup, wigs, bronzer and even uncomfortable false eyelashes, there are girls who are on a diet despite their early age.
In addition to the physical and mental problems that the contestants may suffer, the sad thing is the message that is transmitted: a society that values first and foremost the importance of the physical, where girls live for and for those contests , to be the most beautiful of the place.
In Babies and More Some barbarities of this reality have emerged as the mother who forces her five-year-old daughter to shave her eyebrows or the case of Eden Wood ... one of the stars of the reality.
But there is more and to find it it is not necessary to cross the puddle, a while ago in Babies and More my partner Armando told us about Princelandia: a beauty center for girls, where a four-year-old girl can get a manicure, comb and make up like an adult As we talked before, making her grow fast and worry about issues she shouldn't worry about, such as her physical appearance.
We could also see how the supply and demand of babies and children to work on television increased with everything that entails: incompatible schedules with the school or the decrease of their social relationships with the rest of children, making them mature faster by immersing them in A world of adults.
These are some examples of this hypersexualization of childhood, unfortunately there are many more. Childhood is one of our greatest treasures, being a child is only once in a lifetime and the truth is that you only realize this when you are already an adult. That is why you have to protect childhood, let children be children for as long as they have to be because they will have the rest of their life to be adults.
