A friend in Boston alerted me to the best birthday present ever: CosmoGirl magazine folds.

Newsweek reviews The Porning of America, a book inspired by a father’s realization that “porn culture and I were in a death match for my daughter’s soul.”

He had battled the Bratz empire.

It’s too early to know exactly how kids who grow up in this hypersexualized environment will be affected in the long term. But Scott and his coauthor say it’s not too soon—or too prudish—to sound the alarm, and to look critically at the sexualized culture we’re exposed to every day. . . . [P]orn themes have gone from adult entertainment to prime time, seeping into nearly every aspect of popular culture. Sarracino and Scott define “porning” as the way advertising and society in general have borrowed from the ideas and characteristics central to most American pornography: sex as commodity, sexuality as overt, narrow views of women and male-female relationships, bad girls and dirty boys, domination and submission.

This isn’t about sex. It’s not about morality or sexual freedom or abstinence or teen pregnancy or any polarizing belief or issue.

It’s about kids’ mental and physical health. 

Last year, the American Psychological Association put out a compelling report that described the sexualization of young girls: a process that entails being stripped of all value except the sexual use to which they might be put. Once they subscribe to that belief, say some psychologists, those girls begin to self-objectify—with consequences ranging from cognitive problems to depression and eating disorders. 

Fact sheet on childhood sexualization from CCFC. 

Emphasis mine. H/T Whole Kids Project.

Cross-posted from Tracee Sioux at Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me.

“Kids close your eyes!”

How many times do you find yourself trying to protect your children from harmful and destructive images while watching family television?

Two years ago, while watching television, I was assaulted with an image of a woman wearing a see-through nightgown, nipples protruding and visible, erotic soft lighting, floating in a bathtub. It was intentionally erotic, except that she had been violently and bloodily murdered and this erotic woman was, in fact, dead.

“What the heck is going on?” I thought. “Why are my children and I being subjected to this kind of sexually violent imagery in a commercial?”

So, I wrote the FCC. The Federal Communications Commission used to be the people who governed our airwaves. They used to control when and what was allowed to air during times when children were expected to be viewing television. Remember when they wouldn’t let radio stations play George Michael’s, I Want Your Sex?

Many months later they wrote back.

“Each network or television station has control over what it airs during commercials. You’ll have to write each network to complain about every commercial you feel is inappropriate,” they informed me.

“What? Who made that stupid rule?” I wanted to know.

And now that I’ve read So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids, by Diane Levin, Ph.D, and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D, I know who made that stupid rule.

(more…)

News of Scholastic removing Bratz books from their school offerings has hit the big time: Read it from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.

Reader Vaquera points us to the Heelarious high heels for infants. More on those from Feministing and Hoyden.

And Joe Kelley from Dads & Daughters reports on Parents, Kids, and the Media.

Without admitting why, Scholastic has pulled Bratz books from their fall offerings to schools:

The company confirmed Wednesday that its fall product line for schools no longer includes the Bratz brand — a switch from last year, when Scholastic said the books appealed to “reluctant readers” and its job was to “offer materials that appeal to children where they are, not where we would like them to be.”

Could it have been CCFC’s 18-month campaign resulting in 5,000 emails to Scholastic? Details at Shaping Youth.

Corporations are willing to listen and respond to our concerns. They are concerned about their reputations. They want to keep us as customers. We just have to let them know what we want.

Hot 2 Trot:

She’ll feel extra fab prancing around in these Hot 2 Trot wedges by Mia. . . . Crossing patent vamp straps wrap over the arches to a slingback . . . . A 1/2 inch cork textured midsole rises to a 2 1/2 inch wedge heel.

Prancing? Vamp straps? Slingback? These are children’s shoes. They would fit my six-year-old.

Oh, and they come in silver, too.

Listen, I’m sorry if you’re a bored copywriter, or a really, really bored shoe-namer: You still have to take some responsibility for what you produce.

The shoes are sold by MIA. You can contact them here.

(H/T to Mother Hen)

Friday evening I had the pleasure of being a guest on Fathers are Forever, a radio talk show broadcast from Montery, California. Although the topic was the sexualization of children (Diane Levin, co-author of So Sexy So Soon, was the guest during the first hour), the conversation expanded to cover many aspects of marketing to kids.

One caller, Mike, complained that the clothing he wants his daughter to wear — modest and without suggestive words or phrases — is more expensive than the current fashion. I’d add that it’s harder to find, too.

So in answer to Why do parents buy that stuff for their kids? one reason may be cost and availability. Many people need to shop in the most convenient locations (big-box stores and shopping malls) and don’t have much money to spend. They’re stuck with what is available to them.

When we cannot find appropriate clothing for our kids, we need to complain. We need to talk to store managers. We need to write to customer service representatives. We need to let companies know that we want something else.

Retailers want to please us. They want us to come back to their stores. But they can’t give us what we want if we don’t ask them to.

Read also: What if back-to-school shopping didn’t require selling ones feminist soul?
Photo courtesy Clean Wal-Mart

I’m thrilled to be included in a segment of the Montery, California radio show Fathers are Forever. The segment will examine the sexualization of children and what parents can do about it. It will air live tomorrow night (Friday, September 5) from 7 to 9 pm (Pacific). You can listen to the show here.

I’ll be following Diane Levin and Jean Kilbourne, authors of So Sexy So Soon.

Hosts of Fathers are Forever are dads Rocky Snyder and Steve Ashley, founder of the Divorced Fathers Network.