Film Explores Our Culture's Hypersexualization of Children

"I'm absolutely appalled to see that we are stealing childhood away from children." ~ Chislaine Cloutier, Elementary school principal

"The real damage to girls is that they're overinvesting in image instead of developing real interests and developing unique identities, and it's not just their sexual relationships that will be affected by that, but their accomplishments and their feelings about themselves and what makes them worthwhile as human beings later on in life." ~ Sharon Lamb, author of Packaging Girlhood

We've blogged about the sexualization of children before. It's a growing problem that concerns a lot of parents, educators and citizens -- and children themselves. Marketers are targeting younger and younger kids with messages that women and girls have to be thin, "hot" and sexy, for example. There are several helpful resources out there, but a fairly new one that's come to my attention is from Canadian filmmaker Sophie Bissonnette. Her 2007 documentary, Sexy, Inc.: Our Children Under Influence (35 minutes, in French and English) looks at the hypersexualization of children -- and its influence on their lives and behavior.

The film includes interviews of educators, psychologists and others who work to help children, offers examples of products, ads and messages, and shares the opinions of young people themselves about how they feel about these images and messages, and how such overwhelming influences are affecting their own visions of themselves and others. Although the film touches on messages about boys, most of the focus is on girls.

Note that the documentary includes mature images, topics and language, so be sure to ensure it's appropriate for your audience.

There's also a downloadable (pdf) facilitation guide available.

The sexualization of our children -- especially of our girls -- has become so common place, that, as one teen girl in the film says "You shouldn't look at a picture of a naked woman and feel nothing." It's important that we as educators, parents and citizens raise our youth with healthy concepts of identity, relationships and sexuality, as well as with critical thinking skills that will give them power over the media and messages. It's also essential that we work to change these systems that are so destructive to our children and our society.

~ Marsha

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