Barrie Gunter - Media and the Sexualization of Childhood

Media and the Sexualization of Childhood examines the ongoing debates surrounding the prominence of sexual themes in childrens lives, from clothes and accessories, toys and games, to music, entertainment media, advertising, and new media platforms.

Parents, educators and politicians around the developed world have raised concerns about the effects that all these experiences can have on the socialization and psychological development of children, and the extent to which the premature introduction of sexuality into their lives can place them at risk of unwanted attention. This book explores these issues using an evidence-based approach that draws on research findings from around the world, representing the most comprehensive single account of the field.

The book will be invaluable to students studying topics surrounding children and the media and childhood studies, as well as students of communication, media, cultural studies, sociology, psychology and health science.

Barrie Gunter is Professor of Mass Communication, Department of Media and Communication, University of Leicester. His research interests are the psychological effects of the mass media, particularly in areas such as violent and sexual behaviour, health and consumerism. His most recent books include the co-authored Alcohol Advertising and Young Peoples Drinking and the forthcoming Celebrity Capital: Assessing the Value of Fame.

MEDIA AND THE SEXUALIZATION OF CHILDHOOD

First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

And published by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

2014 Barrie Gunter

The right of Barrie Gunter to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Gunter, Barrie.
Media and the sexualization of childhood / Barrie Gunter.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Mass media and children. 2. Sex in mass media. 3. Children and sex.
4. Children- -Sexual behavior. 5. Mass media- -Influence. I. Title.
HQ784.M3G86 2014
302.23083- -dc 3
2013046158

ISBN: 978-1-138-01519-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-02544-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-77430-5 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by Taylor & Francis Books

This book examines the issue of the sexualization of childhood in relation to the role played by mediated experiences in childrens lives. There has been growing concern in different parts of the world about the increased infiltration of sexual themes and attributes into a wide range of child experiences. This debate is multifaceted. It has been articulated within contexts such as consumerism and materialism; feminism and the status of women as citizens; crime and personal security; the status of the economy and the emergence of under classes and poverty ghettoes; and the impact of rapidly evolving communications technologies that have economic, political, social, cultural and psychological implications for the well-being of children.

The debate about sexualization in childhood had adopted a stance that it represents a phenomenon that is characterized by a distortion of childhood socialization. Sex and sexuality are core aspects of human character and their manifestations take different forms in different settings and are linked throughout to gender. The psychological development of children is underpinned by their inherited biological make-up and their learning from their social experiences. Boys and girls learn how to behave in different settings, and expectations about behaviour can take on common forms for both genders as well as being gender specific.

Over time, a sexual aspect to their development becomes increasingly apparent as they approach adulthood. There is nothing abnormal about this process. The rate at which physical and social development takes place can vary from child to child, and this includes the age at which the onset of sexual characteristics emerges.1 Sometimes, adult-like sexual attributes can begin to emerge long before a child reaches his or her teens. The concerns that have been raised about the sexualization of childhood are grounded in a belief that environmental factors can conspire to introduce sexualized themes into a childs life too early. In effect, there is an intervention that might change the natural rate of sexual maturation for most children. Thus, childrens attention is drawn unnecessarily to sexual themes, inviting them to adopt adult-like styles of appearance and behaviour before they have matured sufficiently in a physical and psychological sense to be able to cope with social pressures and risks that might follow on from this intervention.2

The notion of sexualization, which has been adopted with different meanings by various theorists, social commentators and political protagonists, has been extensively debated in the mainstream media in the UK and in a number of other countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia.3 In these countries, a number of major reviews of academic and non-academic research evidence have been carried out and published. The debates and concerns for childrens well-being in these countries have frequently conflated sexualization with commercialization. This conflation reflects the allegedly increased prevalence of commodities targeted at children.

Primarily, the debates and concerns linked to sexualization focus on the premature imposition of sexual themes in the lives of young children. Although it is widely acknowledged that sexual awareness develops as a natural process throughout childhood socialization, it becomes more acute as children enter puberty and reach physical and sexual maturity as a function of normal biological changes. Despite this fact, the concerns that attach specifically to the sexualization of childhood have centred on the very early introduction into a childs life of sexual references that convey social messages about their personal image and identity, norms of sexual behaviour, and other gender-related beliefs and attitudes. Such material has been held responsible for promoting distorted or deviant social learning about self-image, interpersonal relations, and the manifestation of sexuality in everyday life.4

There have been accusations that when marketers tune in childrens minds to consumerism from a very early age by introducing them to brands, there are often sexual themes running through the branding campaigns and the commodities themselves. Such themes can be found in childrens fashions (clothes and accessories), toys and games, and in other areas of entertainment. The impression often given is that children are surrounded by a social and cultural environment permeated with sexual messages. They are introduced to such themes even before they start school and are then bombarded with them subsequently. These experiences, which are embedded within a wide range of socialization experiences, embrace consumerism, interpersonal relations, and the ways in which children then present themselves to the world and perhaps also in the ways they formulate self-identities. There is even a view that children are encouraged to see themselves as brands and their commoditized personalities are shaped by an early sexual awareness.5