So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids

Grandmother of 7 is blown away by inappropriate behavior and language.

I was desparate to find something to help me understand and deal with the grossly inappropriate sexually colored behavior and conversations of my elementary-age grandchildren. I found this book in the library and ordered three copies for their parents. It's excellent information and has already had a very positive impact on the children. I've seen a huge change in them just by talking to them about respecting themselves and their own bodies as well as others. My 42-year old son commented that the book has helped him understand his own sexuality and sexual tendancies as he sees the perspective through his own formative years. Thank you, authors, for this important and extremely well-done book. I would make it required reading for every school teacher in the country.

Important Book for a Troubling Trend

Angeles Arrien (author of The Four-Fold Way) once said, ¿When we lose touch with our inner wisdom, we abnormalize the normal and normalize the abnormal.¿ What was considered crazy, disgusting, or taboo yesterday could become status quo, even necessary, tomorrow¿if we aren¿t paying close attention to our own internal guidance system. But that¿s not so easy to do anymore. Today¿s commercialized culture pushes limits for market share and bombards with mass-delivered influential, often aberrant messages¿making it increasingly difficult for moms and dads to function from their ¿wise selves," as I have discussed in my book, Parenting Well (www.parentingwellinamediaage.com).

An extremely disturbing trend is the counterfeit culture¿s sexualization of children. From early childhood through adolescence today¿s kids are bombarded with negative gender images and skewed messages about sexuality. Twenty years ago, for instance, when I was raising my children, it would have been unheard of, even unspeakable, for manufacturers to market thongs for seven year-old girls. Yet today, crazy as it is, that¿s what¿s happening. So Sexy So Soon provides many other equally distressing examples of how our innocents are now just cogs in the ¿sex sells¿ marketing wheel. The impact is profound. So Sexy So Soon demonstrates the critical urgency of the issue and beautifully articulates what can be done about it by parents and by all of us working together to stop this insidious form of child abuse. (The authors remind us that the thong is the stripper¿s clothing of choice, in case we have forgotten.)

Diane Levin (www.dianeelevin.com) is professor of education at Wheelock College and has been involved in training early childhood professionals for more than twenty-five years. She has worked extensively in the field of media-related issues, and is an internationally recognized expert on the effects of violence, media, and commercial culture on children, and speaks often on these subjects. She is the author or co-author of seven books including Remote Control Childhood? and The War Play Dilemma. Jean Kilbourne (www.jeankilbourne.com), a Senior Scholar at the Wellesley Centers for Women is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on the image of women in advertising. A popular lecturer, The New York Times Magazine named her one of the three most popular speakers on college campuses. She has produced award-winning films, including the Killing Us Softly series and is the author of Can¿t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel.

Either one of these remarkable women could have alone written So Sexy So Soon. I¿m glad they decided to team up, instead. The combined wealth of each of their backgrounds and expertise bring a rich tapestry of ideas, examples, and suggestions. The ultimate power of the book is their compelling united voice¿not only as professionals pioneering this work, but also as mothers. By sharing parenting examples of their own fears, questions, and successes, they give us hope.

By admitting that this is a complex issue with no quick fixes and by giving practical ¿how tos¿ the authors provide both a thoughtful analysis of the problem as well as an effective action plan. Not much time? Go straight to Chapter 6 for dialogues demonstrating listening deeply and asking key questions to support children's healthy sexuality in a commercial culture.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.