In part one we defined the problem with the increase in sexualization of girls, in part two we discussed some of the criticisms of the APA report, and here we'll talk about what we DO to combat our girls' childhood being taken away from them. Let's get to it!
Luckily
for us the APA report [pages 36-42] does an excellent job at suggesting
many wonderful, but not easy, things we can do as parents:
Approach 1:Working Through Schools and Formal Education
Media Literacy
The goal is to create active interpreters of messages rather than passive consumers.
...high
school girls who participated in a media literacy program had less
internalization of the thin ideal and more questions about the realism
of images than girls in a control group (Irving, DuPen, & Berel,
1998).
Athletics
Another school-based strategy is
to provide access to athletics and other extracurricular activities
that encourage girls to focus on body competence instead of body
appearance.
Because physical activity may be a powerful means
of negating self-objectification and other negative consequences of
sexualization, the sexualization of women and girl athletes may be
especially dangerous or harmful for girls. If this domain becomes
co-opted and turned into
yet another venue where girls are taught to
focus on how they look rather than on what their bodies can do, they
will have been deprived of an important method of resistance and
healthy development.
Extracurricular Activities
It
may be that participation in certain extracurricular activities, in
addition to or instead of sports, protects girls against the negative
effects of sexualization and objectification of girls and women in the
media, particularly when the activity does not support feminine gender role ideals. (emphasis mine)
Comprehensive Sexuality Education
A
central way to help youth counteract distorted views presented by the
media and culture about girls, sex, and the sexualization of girls is
through comprehensive sexuality education.(please note that they said
youth meaning both girls AND boys.)
Approach 2:Working Through the Family
Mediation and Co-Viewing
Here,
the notion is that having parents comment on appropriate and
inappropriate content while watching TV with their children can alter
the influence of the messages.
Religion, Spirituality, and Meditation
When
parents, through their religious or ethical practices, communicate the
message that other characteristics are more important than sexuality,
they help to counteract the strong and prevalent message that it is
only girls’ sexuality that makes them interesting, desirable, or
valuable.
L. M.Ward (2004b) found that religiosity buffered the effects of increased media use on self-esteem among Black adolescents.
Activism by Parents and Families
In response to a May 2006 grassroots letter-writing campaign initiated by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (www.commercialexploitation.org/) and Dads and Daughters (www.dadsanddaughters.org/), Hasbro cancelled a planned line of dolls based on the Pussycat
Dolls, a music group known for their sexualized lyrics and dance routines (Goldiner, 2006).
Approach 3:Working Directly With Girls and Girls’ Groups to Resist
Alternative Media
[Schilt
(2003)] argued that zines offer an antidote to consumer-based
empowerment strategies (e.g., buying a T-shirt with a “girl power”
slogan) that do not encourage girls to express their own ideas and
opinions.When girls create a zine rather than buy a commercially
available product, they become cultural producers rather than
consumers, an experience that enables them to be more effective
cultural critics.
Activism and Resistance
J. Ward
(2002) researched the tradition of African American parents actively
socializing their children to identify and resist racism. One strategy
that J.Ward documented involves Black parents teaching children and
teens to recognize the culture in which they live as being White
culture and to critique it accordingly.
Girl empowerment groups. There is a growing trend, both nationally and locally,
of what are called “girl empowerment groups.”These groups are dedicated
to supporting girls in a variety of ways: helping them to know what
they want; teaching them how to make social changes, especially in
their communities; building their leadership skills; and arranging for
connections between girls and women mentors.
The
APA report has a fabulous resource section, so go check it out. We're
all busy people and our kids lead busy lives (even in preschool!), but
I think we can all make time for some of these suggestions. Activism
can happen on a daily basis in very small ways. It can also happen on
an ad hoc basis (Pussycat Dolls actions). I won't guilt you into
thinking that you need to stage a protest outside of Target because
they sell Bratz dolls, but I will challenge you into reconsidering what
we expose our kids to on a daily basis. We're not a TV-free family by
any means, but I don't want her watching too much TV and especially
anything that I think is inappropriate.
I know it will get
harder when she grows up and wants to go see the latest movie with her
friends. Will I stop her from watching PG-13 movies before she's 13? I
have no idea. But I'm willing to bet it will be on a case by case
basis. And I'm even more willing to bet that I'm going either drive her
crazy over it or she'll be making her own zines by 8.