Another Email from My Friend - This Time About Child Sexuality

"My mom regularly gets books from the library, as she really likes to read. Today I saw she has a book called "Too Sexy, Too Soon", about the "sexualization of childhood" and "what we can do to protect our kids". As if kids who sexualize each other or adults either don't exist or are simply confused. She should read "Harmful To Minors" to balance it out (which I haven't in fact read myself, but definitely want to one of these days). In any case, I doubt I could ever have a mutually understanding conversation with her about childhood sexual feelings and their role in shaping how kids develop into adults. Not that I really would necessarily want to, anyway."

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"Actually, on further examination, the book is called "So Sexy, So Soon". And the rather odd thing of it is, I can agree with a lot of the messages in the book, at least as described on the inside front cover. Basically, the book is about commercialism and how children are born into a culture that tries to sell them values, so to speak. I can certainly agree that the images used in advertising and television present a narrow view of the world, and embody a passive mode of understanding that eschews critical thinking (and yes, I used the word "eschews" mostly just to sound cool). I can also agree with ideas like encouraging kids to play and invent their own imaginative, creative games, and express themselves more.

"The connection to sexuality, however, is where I get lost. It seems that not only does the book attempt to replace one form of repression and value-foisting with another, but it seems to relate two things that have little in common except being "fashionable" to worry about. If I wrote a book discussing the implications of school shootings that were supposedly shown by high obesity rates, people would shake their heads and wonder whether I really think that the students at Columbine turned to playing with guns because they didn't know how to exercise. Similarly, why is precocious sexual behavior now a symptom of commercialism? Do kids become curious about genitals after watching people experience wardrobe malfunctions while wearing the latest fad outfit?"