It was welcome news to me that the Bailey Review on the sexualisation of children is recommending tighter controls on products, services and promotions that present sexual images to children or encourage them to behave in a sexual way, but I'm not sure the measures will address the basic social problems that underlie this worrying trend.
The review proposes a 'code of conduct' for retailers, restrictions on ambient advertising (such as billboards and posters) containing sexual imagery near schools, further online restrictions, a web site where parents' concerns can be raised, and age restrictions on music videos. All these are sensible suggestions, but for me they are still too weak in some areas. At the crux of the issue, for me, is the overall increased sexualisation of our society, and the link this has to aspiration and celebrity.
Hugh Heffner is opening a new Playboy Club in Mayfair this evening, while selling clothing, pencil cases and duvet covers for children bearing the hallmark of his sex-made wealth. Clearly, the porn industry is booming, and celebrity culture embraces sexiness as a means of keeping the PR machine turning. Sex sells, as we all know; but selling sex as aspirational, as a route to success, is where I believe the real danger lies for today's children.
Clearly governments cannot afford to ignore the porn industry; it is powerful, successful, and contributes to the economy. However, porn's osmosis into mainstream culture, whilst generating further profits (and tax revenues of course), could bring with it some more alarming social consequences.
My concerns are probably too numerous for a blog post, but here are some of the key things that worry me most:
1. Sex as a route to success
Selling children's t--shirts with the slogan 'Future Footballer's Wife' disgusts me. Is this what we want young girls to aspire to? Today? Centuries of Cinderella and Jane Austen may have stacked up the stereotypes, but what parent would want this to be their child's career choice?
2. Unrealistic notions of physical perfection
The starved, siliconed, plasticated, botoxed, airbrushed, plucked, bronzed, and buffed bodies of the porn industry are constructs. They are not real bodies. Children, however, may not understand this. Presenting such images as perfection and something to aspire means that 99% of people may feel they cannot achieve the standards society sets for them. They have failed before they even get out of bed in the morning. What a shame.
3. Sexual expectations
The knock-on of presenting an image of perfection to aspire to is that expectations of sex and what to expect in a partner also become warped. Expecting your partner to look and behave like a porn star or pop star (the boundaries seem to have blurred...) is a worrying trend for me, as the likelihood of a failure to match up to the fantasies presented by the media is high. What impact will this have on relationships?
4. Finally, and most worrying...presenting an image of sexual availability
Children who are unwittingly dressing in a sexual way, by copying their heroines...Rhianna, Cheryl Cole, Britney Spears, may be unknowingly advertising sexual availability to those predators out there who will prey on them, and may also encourage their peers to make assumptions about their sexual maturity. A horrible thought.
Young pop stars have such a position of power, but they don't always have the maturity to understand the impact of their actions. Britney dressed as a schoolgirl singing a song that asked the listener to hit her was a huge success in commercial terms, but perhaps not so palatable to victims of sexual violence.
My view on the Rhianna video that caused such a stir? Just like Madonna, Britney, Christina Aguilera etc. before her, she is being manipulated by an industry and selling what is commercial/shocking. Should she have done it? No; particularly with her background and experiences. Should it have been banned? Well, I'm not a big fan of censorship, so for me the responsibility lies with the makers. In the context of who she is, what she does, and who the audience are, Rhianna's record company should never have made that video. Pop stars saying they enjoy being treated violently by sexual partners may sell records, but if it contributes to a generation growing up thinking that that is what everyone wants from a sexual relationship, our society will not be a pretty place in ten or twenty years time...
The bottom line? Porn has its place in our world, but for me that will never be on Saturday night entertainment shows, in derogatory music videos or in children's clothing ranges.
Call me a prude, I don't care.
Society is becoming more aware at a younger age and the wealth or more breadth of information available is enormous( albeit whether it has the same substance is arguable).
ReplyDeleteIts not prudish to form opinion on what you see as a direct threat to the naive and innocent. Children are our future and if times persist in the same fashion where will we be in say 20 years?.
There has to be boundaries.
Thanks JP :)
ReplyDeleteI think we need to think about these issues for the longer term of our families and wider society as a whole.
ReplyDeleteThe Baby Show got a lot of negative feedback for allowing an exhibitor to attend whose t-shirts said something like "my mum only wanted a back rub" which wasn't felt appropriate. But it was better than "my mum drinks because I scream all day". But it had no idea that the people would be attending with those sorts of t-shirts, so a lesson has been learnt there.
It's not just t-shirts though. People seem to be getting away from what it means to be a parent, guardian, or family member who influences little people. The whole sexualisation issue is another example of us getting away from what it means to part of a society that has problems that seem to be getting more and more intertwined and harder to unpick and find solutions to.
I'm going to link to your article and see what people think of it. I bet you'll get a fair few comments telling you're being over sensitive to these issues. But you're not. We need to stop these problems in their tracks and intervene, quickly.
Thanks Liz - as a Mum you have to face this one head-on in a way I don't, and I agree, it's a tricky one with long term consequences that none of us can claim to be able to predict accurately. I read this morning that Julian Fellowes has written a sex scene into his script for a new movie version of Romeo and Juliet and a 14 year old has been cast in the lead role. I'll reserve judgement until the film is released, but can't help wondering what possible justification there could be for this...
ReplyDeleteI don't know what I think of a 14 year old filming something that they wouldn't be allowed to watch in the cinema.
ReplyDeleteI can't work out where the line is for appropriate versus inappropriate, so perhaps there's little wonder that anyone else can?