So Sexy So Soon

BookPage

On a recent trip to Target I picked up what I thought was a pair of plain shorts for my six-year-old daughter (the only ones I could find that weren’t obscenely short) only to discover the word “Rockstar” written in glitter across the bottom. No, thank you. I prefer clothes that are all cotton, preferably organic and made of 100-percent non-tacky material. Am I the only parent who doesn’t want her daughter to look like a Poison groupie? Then why all the Bratz dolls, age-inappropriate outfits and disturbing TV images? Barbie is starting to look wholesome by comparison. Thankfully, there is So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids (Ballantine, $25, 240 pages, ISBN 9780345505064). This is the must-read parenting book of the bunch. In it, the authors explore how sexuality in mass media affects our children. They also offer strategies for counteracting the negative messages our kids are receiving—and not just girls. One of the many laudable things about So Sexy is that it explains how boys are targeted, too. Written by two internationally recognized experts in early childhood development and the impact of the media on children and teens, Diane E. Levin, Ph.D., and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., So Sexy So Soon is an invaluable and practical guide for parents who are alarmed by the media’s assault on girls and boys. The authors understand that we can’t escape our commercial culture, but, they argue, we can be agents of change. Here they provide strategies for a counterattack, like encouraging more imaginative play and setting limits on TV and other media when your children are at one another’s houses. (Katherine Wyrick, August 2008) Read all the August 2008 reviews of parenting books from BookPage.

Publishers Weekly

The authors (Levin is a professor of education; Kilbourne, an authority on the effects of advertising) accuse the media of sexualizing children. Constantly, American children are exposed to a barrage of sexual images in television, movies, music and the Internet. They are taught young that buying certain clothes, consuming brand-name soft drinks and owning the right possessions will make them sexy and cool—and being sexy and cool is the most important thing. Young men and women are spoon-fed images that equate sex with violence, paint women as sexually subservient to men and encourage “hooking up” rather than meaningful connections. The result is that kids are having sex younger and with more partners than ever before. Eating disorders and body image issues are common as early as grade school. Levin and Kilbourne stress that there is nothing wrong with a young person’s natural sexual awakening, but it is wrong to allow a young person’s sexuality to be hijacked by corporations who want them as customers. The authors offer advice on how parents can limit children’s exposure to commercialized sex, and how parents can engage kids in constructive, age-appropriate conversation about sex and the media. One need only read the authors’ anecdotes to see why this book is relevant. (July 7, 2008)

Library Journal

Levin (education, Wheelock Coll.; Remote Control Childhood? Combating the Hazards of Media Culture) and coauthor Kilbourne (Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel) have cultivated their credentials as experts on media influence and children's development. As the title promises, this book delineates formative social influences promoting premature sexual knowledge and behavior in young children. Among examples of the "new sexualized childhood," the authors emphasize the well-established fact that manufacturers take advantage of children by pushing sexually suggestive products such as Barbie and Bratz dolls, eliciting child sexual behavior. A more useful feature is the sage advice to parents. By emphasizing ongoing discussion and communication between parents and children, this work provides strategies for helping children, particularly adolescents, thread their way through the minefields of societal and peer-reinforced sexuality. Comparable to Susan Linn's Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing and Advertising, this book is recommended for all public libraries. (Lynne Maxwell, Villanova University School of Law Library, PA, June 15, 2008)

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BookPage

On a recent trip to Target I picked up what I thought was a pair of plain shorts for my six-year-old daughter (the only ones I could find that weren’t obscenely short) only to discover the word “Rockstar” written in glitter across the bottom. No, thank you. I prefer clothes that are all cotton, preferably organic and made of 100-percent non-tacky material. Am I the only parent who doesn’t want her daughter to look like a Poison groupie? Then why all the Bratz dolls, age-inappropriate outfits and disturbing TV images? Barbie is starting to look wholesome by comparison. Thankfully, there is So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids (Ballantine, $25, 240 pages, ISBN 9780345505064). This is the must-read parenting book of the bunch. In it, the authors explore how sexuality in mass media affects our children. They also offer strategies for counteracting the negative messages our kids are receiving—and not just girls. One of the many laudable things about So Sexy is that it explains how boys are targeted, too. Written by two internationally recognized experts in early childhood development and the impact of the media on children and teens, Diane E. Levin, Ph.D., and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., So Sexy So Soon is an invaluable and practical guide for parents who are alarmed by the media’s assault on girls and boys. The authors understand that we can’t escape our commercial culture, but, they argue, we can be agents of change. Here they provide strategies for a counterattack, like encouraging more imaginative play and setting limits on TV and other media when your children are at one another’s houses. (Katherine Wyrick, August 2008) Read all the August 2008 reviews of parenting books from BookPage.

Publishers Weekly

The authors (Levin is a professor of education; Kilbourne, an authority on the effects of advertising) accuse the media of sexualizing children. Constantly, American children are exposed to a barrage of sexual images in television, movies, music and the Internet. They are taught young that buying certain clothes, consuming brand-name soft drinks and owning the right possessions will make them sexy and cool—and being sexy and cool is the most important thing. Young men and women are spoon-fed images that equate sex with violence, paint women as sexually subservient to men and encourage “hooking up” rather than meaningful connections. The result is that kids are having sex younger and with more partners than ever before. Eating disorders and body image issues are common as early as grade school. Levin and Kilbourne stress that there is nothing wrong with a young person’s natural sexual awakening, but it is wrong to allow a young person’s sexuality to be hijacked by corporations who want them as customers. The authors offer advice on how parents can limit children’s exposure to commercialized sex, and how parents can engage kids in constructive, age-appropriate conversation about sex and the media. One need only read the authors’ anecdotes to see why this book is relevant. (July 7, 2008)

Library Journal

Levin (education, Wheelock Coll.; Remote Control Childhood? Combating the Hazards of Media Culture) and coauthor Kilbourne (Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel) have cultivated their credentials as experts on media influence and children's development. As the title promises, this book delineates formative social influences promoting premature sexual knowledge and behavior in young children. Among examples of the "new sexualized childhood," the authors emphasize the well-established fact that manufacturers take advantage of children by pushing sexually suggestive products such as Barbie and Bratz dolls, eliciting child sexual behavior. A more useful feature is the sage advice to parents. By emphasizing ongoing discussion and communication between parents and children, this work provides strategies for helping children, particularly adolescents, thread their way through the minefields of societal and peer-reinforced sexuality. Comparable to Susan Linn's Consuming Kids: Protecting Our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing and Advertising, this book is recommended for all public libraries. (Lynne Maxwell, Villanova University School of Law Library, PA, June 15, 2008)