Only a generation or two ago, childhood in the United States was understood to be a unique and vulnerable stage of development; a time for play and protection from adult preoccupations and responsibilities. In recent decades however, we appear to have jettisoned these norms, and the lines that separate the lifestyles of even very young children from adults are blurring. As widely known experts on the team that created this book explain, children begin formal education now in preschool, dress like adults, listen to the same music, play the same video games, explore the same Internet sites, and watch explicit depictions of sex and violence on TV and in movies. What is the impact of immersing children in a sexualized world? The Sexualization of Childhood first explains the nature of healthy sexual development. It then describes the ways in which children are being sexualized, and the physical and psychological consequences. It then looks at the lower and lower age at which girls are experiencing puberty, that reduction being fueled by the pseudoestrogens in so many of our foods and products, as well as obesity. Finally, it examines what we can do legally, politically, and as caregivers to protect children from developmentally inappropriate sexual experiences.
Author(s): Sharna Olfman
Publisher: Praeger
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 224
Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgments......Page 10
1 The Sexualization of Childhood: Growing Older Younger/Growing Younger Older......Page 12
I: Growing Up in a Sexualized Culture......Page 16
2 Pornography, Lad Mags, Video Games, and Boys: Reviving the Canary in the Cultural Coal Mine......Page 18
3 A Royal Juggernaut: The Disney Princesses and Other Commercialized Threats to Creative Play and the Path to Self-Realization for Young Girls......Page 44
4 Girls Gone Grown-Up: Why Are U.S. Girls Reaching Puberty Earlier and Earlier?......Page 62
5 Something’s Happening Here: Sexual Objectification, Body Image Distress, and Eating Disorders......Page 74
6 So Sexy, So Soon: The Sexualization of Childhood......Page 86
7 Still on the Auction Block: The (S)exploitation of Black Adolescent Girls in Rap(e) Music and Hip-Hop Culture......Page 100
II: Sexualization and Child Sexual Abuse......Page 114
8 The Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth: Redefining Victimization......Page 116
9 Childified Women: How the Mainstream Porn Industry Sells Child Pornography to Men......Page 132
10 Prostitution and the Sexualization of Children......Page 154
Series Afterword......Page 176
Notes......Page 178
B......Page 214
D......Page 215
G......Page 216
M......Page 217
P......Page 218
R......Page 219
S......Page 220
Y......Page 221
About the Editor and Contributors......Page 222
