(wow, my first backroom thread all to myself)

In my university's Humanities & Human Rights class, the topic of tonight was on sexuality and sexual education. The problem arose of why sexual education is not effective and/or why teens choose to be sexually active. The problem is not the lack of sexual education, but rather the capitalist need to market to any consumer base anything that will generate profit. Being part Marxist and part Fascist (a contradiction, I know), I tend to see the bad side of capitalism and the effects on society. Because of this, I have long since read several articles relating to this one subject.

Three articles which are required reading for any concerned parent or soon-to-be parent are So Sexy, So Soon: The Sexualization of Childhood in Commercial Culture, The Pornification of a Generation, and the report of the American Psychiatric Association's Sexualization of Girls. These articles argue that girls, as young as four to five, are exposed to sexual themes in every day living, from the slogans on the clothes they wear ("So Many Boys, So Little Time"), to the toys they play with (Bratz), to the cultural influences on TV (Madonna, Britney Spears, Hannah Montana), to the websites they visit (MySpace and Facebook).

Remember this when you go into the local Wal-Mart next time. Stop and look around, and try to find all the little things that work toward the sexualization of children. Now ask yourself, "Should my child even own this?" Or an even better question is, "Have I become desensitized to this to the point where I haven't even noticed it until now?"


The Pornification of a Generation: http://www.newsweek.com/id/162792/output/print
So Sexy, So Soon: The Sexualization of Childhood in Commercial Culture: http://www.tellinitlikeitis.net/2008...l-culture.html
Report of the APA Task Force of the Sexualization of Girls: http://www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html
The Porning of America (book): http://www.amazon.com/Porning-Americ...6631319&sr=1-1
So Sexy, So Soon (book): http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/d...345505064.html