Women Health

The battle against the sexualisation of our children is an ongoing one, requiring a constant balancing act – that can be guided by modelling what influences are appropriate.
Throughout the word, girls are increasingly being force-fed a steady diet of products and images that pressure them to be sexy.
From clothing to cartoons, choreography to commercials, the rampant emphasis on sexuality undercuts parents’ efforts to instill purity and selfesteem in their daughters.
The American Psycological Association (APA) warns that this sexualisation of girls is harmful to their self image and healthy development.
“Girls are experiencing teen plesuares at younger and younger ages. However, they are not able to deal with these issues because they cognitive development is out of sync with their social emotional and sexual development,” the APA reported.
The proliferation of sexual images also undermines a girl’s confidence in and comfort with her own body. In fac, research links sexualisation with three of the most common mental health problems diagnosed in girls and women – eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression.

Suggestive Fashion
Let’s take a closer look at some of the specific culture influences bombarding our daughters. How you shopped for girls’ clothing lately? Toddlers to teens are inundated with adult-styled fashions. There are pop singers who have their own trendy clothing line that introduces
the red light district to school going girls. Popular clothing items among teens include thong underwear and shortd displaying suggestive words across the backside. The abundance of racy clothing emphasises the massage: Dress sexy.
Adult – style toys
As young girls, most moms probably owned Barbie dolls and enjoyed collecting their clothing and accessories, including the coveted convertible car. The same manufacturer of Barbie has taken the style to a new level with introduction of a new style Barbie for adult collectors. Designed as a comic – book character, this doll is dressed in fishnet stockings, a leather bikini bottom and a black leather jacket.
So, how do you explain this to your kindergarten doughter? Other doll manufacturers are also competing in the same way making dolls complete with heavy makeup and skimpy clothing. These dolls are marketed to your girls, who are undoubtedly too young to comprehend the toys’ sensuality even as they seek to imitate it.

Protect Your Doughter
• Avoid sexually suggestive cloting fads. Help your doughter embrace her innocence and not rush the fleeting season of girlhood.
• Allow only those toys that align with your family’s moral standards. If you won’t allow your daughter to wear racy clothing, avoid toys that encourage that.
• Guard what enters your child’s mind. Carefully choose the TV shows she watches, and watch with her. Research movies and song lyrics online for language or sexual overtones. Intall internet filtering software to guard what comes into your home.
• Help your teen discern acceptable behaviour.
• Nurture your daughter’s self image. Remind her often that she is precious.

Pop – Culture Icons
You can’t walk through the selves in supermarkets and bookstores without being bombarded by the latest shenanigans of young celebrities. The lives of Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan fascinate young girls. The Hannah Montana phenomenon, while seemingly innocent at first, has been coloured by provocative photos of teenage actress Miley Cyrus.
The media push young starlets to quickly move beyond “precocious and cute” to “sensual and sexy”. All the while, impressionable tween fans stand by in wide – eyed wonder, waiting to be just like them.

Who’s to Blame?
While it’s easy to blame media and corporate marketing for these poisonous influences, we also need to scrutinise ourselves. How many of these influences have we allowed into our home? Are we modelling a healthy moral view of gender and sex? If we fret over our physical appreance or enjoy media laden with sexual image and innuendo, chances are we will pass on the same mind – set to our daughters.
We must take a fresh look at what messages and images enter our home. While it would be impossible to shield children from every damaging influence, we can certainly take a stand against the worst offenders. And we can inoculate our kids against the world’s counterfeit sexuality by talking to them about moral values for men and women.
Our culture tries to convince our daughters that they amount to nothing more that the sum of their parts. Only by addressing this lie head – on will we equip our children with the truth.

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