Sexed–Up Society

Posted on 18. Dec, 2009 by Cheryl Frances in Life and Style, Real Talk

This week two 10 year old boys were charged with raping an 8 year old girl in the park during the October half term. As I watched this story on the news I couldn’t help but feel a sense of sadness; one because an 8 year old girl had been raped and two that it had been 10 year olds that had been charged and would now spend some of the best years of their life in an institution.

That’s not to say I don’t think they should be punished because the criminal age of responsibility is 10, but I was saddened and confused as to how and why 10 year olds could rape a girl. What were they even doing thinking about sex in such a way that at 10 years old they could rape a girl. Then I realised that in this day and age sex is everywhere.

Its thrust in our faces, I’m very aware of it so considering children are living in the same society as me they must be seeing many of the same things. I’ve been aware that our society is over sexualised for quite some time. But it is only now that I am thinking about the detrimental effects this must really be having on children; taking away their naivety and forcing them to grow up before their time.

Now sex as always been around but even looking back as little as a decade or 2 the increase in the sexualisation of our society is evident and along with this increased sexualisation comes increased teenage pregnancy, gang rape and cases of children raping children. So who’s to blame? Parents? The entertainment industry? Governing bodies? I’m going to be controversial here because as much as I love it, I think when you look at the overtly sexual nature of society these days and its impact on children you can’t help but look at the entertainment industry.

Let’s take the music industry and in particular Beyonce and Rihanna, both beautiful and talented women. I’m not discussing them because they are the worst offenders but because Rihanna is a cover girl for popular music right now and Beyonce is just about the best female performer out there at the moment so girls aspire to be like them. I recently asked some girls at the Primary school I am working at who their favourite artists are and Beyonce and Rihanna came up time and time again.

Now I understand that sex sells and Beyonce and Rihanna and all the other artists out there need to make a living and I respect that, but here’s the problem. They are both popular artists thus a lot of their fan base consists of children particularly young girls and the majority of the stuff they put out is easily accessible. For example their videos can be played at any time of day, there is no censorship of the lyrics on the radio and no parental advisory stickers on their CDs. Fine you say what’s the problem? It’s not like anything they put out is explicitly sexual or provocative, we are not talking about the likes of Lil’ Kim for example. But let’s take a closer look at some of these ladies recent material.

Rihanna’s latest album is named ‘Rated R’. Hmmm… now I know her name begins with an R but in my book rated R only means one thing and that’s for adult’s only! So if any young children are ‘lucky’ enough to get treated to this album for Christmas this is the type of image they would be looking at. Now I’m sure the guys like the look of that image and I agree she looks hot, but is this image appropriate for 8, 9, 10 etc year olds? Definitely not!

Beyonce’s latest work includes the undeniably sexual song and video for ‘Videophone’ and her recent performance at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Again you ask where’s the problem? Well as a young girl you naturally want to emulate your favourite artists. I was a big fan of the Spice Girls and not to say they weren’t provocative, because they most definitely were, Geri Halliwell’s Union Jack dress was a shocker! The difference was I copying the Spice Girls moves, ‘Swinging, shaking, moving and making it’ whereas the girls of today are emulating Beyonce, ‘shaking what their mother gave them’, when they don’t actually know because it hasn’t developed yet!

The single ladies video was brilliant and so many of my friends were trying to learn those dance moves, but the thing is so were the younger girls and some of those moves particularly where her legs are wide open and the tapping and shaking of the booty are not appropriate for young girls to be copying. In Beyonce’s recent performance she wears what I can only describe as lingerie. It has a slit down to her stomach and is cut up to her crotch. Beyonce is a flawless performer but even I as an adult found the ensemble a bit risqué for my taste.

The bottom line is an 8 year old boy is still a male in essence he has a Y Chromosome, he has testosterone flowing through his body and even if he hasn’t gone through puberty; being constantly being flooded with images of sexy, mature woman can only evoke the type of feeling and urges that he isn’t old enough to even begin to understand. For the girls the fact that most of the women they see doing well and are perceived to be beautiful are also overtly sexual only reinforces the message that you have to use your sexuality to get you places and I for one know that if I one day have a daughter I want her to understand that the worth of a woman is based on more than just sex.

The fact of the matter is young children are being exposed to too much sex, too early on. A 10 year old girl at school recently asked me if I liked ‘Birthday Sex’. Now I knew she was talking about the Jeremih song that is openly available for her to hear on the radio and see on TV, but it still threw me. I didn’t know how to answer because I was thinking yes I do, but I’m an adult so I’m allowed too! However I didn’t want to reinforce her listening to songs that are evidently not aimed at her age group. So I said not really but I do like Alicia Keys and The Saturdays. The reason I choose these artists is because they are both popular and appeal to young girls but I feel they present themselves in a more child friendly manner and would be better role models for a 10 year old.

It sounds like I’ve just slated the music industry which is not the case because there is also a lot of Sex on TV, in ‘Eastenders’ and ‘Hollyoaks’ for example which are both on before the watershed and which children regularly watch and also the prime time family show ‘The X-factor’ this year featured a group of ex strippers and allowed them to sing on the show with their derrieres out!

Whilst I know the entertainment industry is not solely to blame for the problems faced in society today or even how over sexualised it’s become. And I am also fully aware that sex is a great marketing tool and people need to make a living. I also feel that it’s an important issue highlight as all we need to do is switch on the radio or TV and we get sex, sex and more sex and this is the same thing that young children are getting exposed to and I think it’s a great shame that they are not allowed to maintain their innocence. I’ll end this article as I stared, an 8 year old girl is raped by two 10 year old boys…where did they get those sexual ideas from?

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