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Why does Britain sexualise its young?

Wed Jun 24 12:53PM

British primary school children are becoming increasingly sexualised, while our over-emotional response to paedophilia grows by the day. When did we get so confused?

By Ian Dunt

Ofsted issued a warning today about the level of sexualisation among primary school children. It found recently suspended pupils as young as four were guilty of touching other children inappropriately and using sexually graphic language.

The watchdog's concerns are entirely justified, but there is a certain irony to the fact they were reported on the same day Rebecca Wade was promoted to the head of News International from her former position as editor of the Sun. Wade's career hit its first political storm in 2001, when, as editor of the News of the World, she named and shamed convicted paedophiles, resulting in mob attacks and the hospitalisation of a paediatrician. The chief constable of Gloucestershire called it "grossly irresponsible journalism" - which is exactly what it was - but she earned herself 95,000 new readers a week.

These twin stories highlight something malign and twisted in our relationship with children. Wade's decision to publish the list of paedophiles is a product of something I have written about before - our cultural habit of treating childhood as an unrealistically innocent and angelic time. This sentiment leads us to adopt a borderline psychotic approach to the problem of paedophilia.

But on the flip side of the coin, we have also pushed the point of a child's sexualisation ever downward. The evidence is all around us, even if much of it is anecdotal. Having coffee with a friend the other day, we were both horrified to see a pre-pubescent girl, walking with her mother, wearing a T-shirt saying 'porn star in training'.

This is not just a UK problem. It's a western problem. Over a decade ago, Britney Spears hit our screens. Her first song, 'Baby One More Time', featured a music video in which she danced seductively while wearing school uniform, around the same time as she gave interviews turning her virginity into a marketing device. A friend of mine who teaches in a primary recently told me she asked the children to form bands and give themselves a name. One of the girl groups called themselves ' the sex kittens'. They have no idea what it means, of course. Neither do I, for that matter. But they understand enough to wish to mimic the world around them.

This comes partly from our obsession with youth. As a society, we've become less deferent, which is certainly a good thing. But age has now become something appalling in our culture, as if it were a living reminder of death. Witness the treatment of Menzies Campbell, a man who was quite evidently of sensible mind, and perfectly capable of doing his job as Liberal Democrat leader. Some, myself included, might even say his experience was a plus. Instead he was hounded from his job by an obsessive and totally unjustified media focus on his age. He was replaced by the perfectly competent Nick Clegg, whose main distinction from his predecessor is his age. Gradually all of our political leaders are becoming younger and telegenic, despite the fact that these factors have no relevance whatsoever to their ability to do the job.

As we increasingly obsess over youth, our ideas of sexual attraction focus on the younger and the younger. And, linked to that, the discussion of sex becomes open and relevant to younger and younger girls. The women offered to young girls as role models are often defined merely by their looks. Take WAGs, endlessly written about in fashion magazines and tabloids, whose primary accomplishment in life entails being pretty enough to attract a footballer. Take pop stars. While men are allowed to look as ugly and odd as they wish - especially in the indie/emo genre - female pop stars must be attractive and reveal as much of their body as possible. The same, to a lesser extent, goes for female actors.

Do we really wonder why our youth have become so sexualised when the society around them has become so obsessed with youth and beauty? They are merely forming the impression we ourselves have given them.

And then, on the flip side, comes our attitude to paedophilia, which is so unhelpful and plain wrong, it does us - and children - a disservice.

The frantic, emotive and vengeful attitude we have towards sex offenders does more harm than good. Children have not become any more threatened than they ever were. There have always been bad people who wish to do terrible things to those weaker than them. We should deal with them through a combination of the penal and psychiatric systems, and whatever empirically verified data we obtain on other measures likely to reduce harm.

We do not deal with them by publishing the names of paedophiles so that we can encourage mob violence. We do not deal with them by instigating a 'Megan's Law', which turns sex offenders - many of whom are trying to change their behaviour - into latter-day lepers or sub-humans. We do not deal with them by suggesting involuntary castration, or any other barbaric pub talk that strikes us as appropriately angry and red-faced.

The threat is there. It is no more substantial than it has ever been. We must control our emotional response to it and proceed on the basis of what will reduce the instances of child sex abuse - not what makes us feel better.

We dug ourselves so far in on either side that we have only a tiny space in which to sit. On the one hand, we desire and envy youth so much we have begun to sexualise our young in a way that should make us all uncomfortable. On the other, we have become so obsessive and foolish about the perfect innocence of children that we have prioritised our anger at paedophilia over our desire to prevent it.

Tabloids and the media are predominantly to blame, of course, in that they spew this contradictory nonsense at us day after day. But the media can't sell what people don't want, and, at some level, these problems are a reflection of a confusion within ourselves.

The West in general has a problem with this, but Britain seems to have a particularly acute version of it. Having an honest, outspoken debate about it is the first step. We need to think about adopting a healthier attitude towards our young.

Comments31 - 40 of 761

The reason is perverts in the media, politics, the criminal justics system and social services.
Paedophilia has been permitted by the Lisbon Treaty (it is no longer specifically outlawed). This has been done to allow child brides. As with all things that fail, the government will alter the laws, in this case it will reduce the age of consent to 13, or when girls reach puberty. The change will be sufficiently vague so as to ensure prosecutions never happen. This is virtually the case now with known paedophiles not even receiving a caution.

From spg.cep on Wed Jun 24 01:57PM
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you must be living on a different planet, you really think that " most paedos are trying to change their behaviour" your more deluded than they are, no paedo has ever been rehabilitated, they never will or can be , their a time bomb waiting to go off, i`m sick of people like you doogooders who try and brainwash the rest of us by saying they can be cured , they cant. your a journalist, you have access to the vile things these monsters do to our children, all paedos should be hung.

From roberttrickett2007 on Wed Jun 24 02:03PM
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wow! this a superb article. the media over glamourizes @#$% and @#$%ualities, what else is expected from the age that is easily influenced? the issue raised is not synonymous to the west alone, but other part of the world is also victim. the world that is ruled by materialism and 'star images' will suffer from disillusionment and the likes. @#$%ual offences against kids is as it was in time past, but this, time freedom of expression and over emphasis on feminism ideology is making some groups to be more prone to assaults. many parents today are suffering from disillusionment, they need treatment from the disease. free your mind from the word '@#$% appeal'. a twisted mind will always do something evil, so, adults who offend against child, should be punished and afterward made to undergo psychiatric treatment. Julius-Adeoye

From kaptainjays on Wed Jun 24 02:04PM
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You should check your fact, btw, regarding the paediatrician attack. That's not true at all. Common misconception that she was attacked and hospitalised, spread by lots of misreporting at the time. Do better research next time, you can find the real story easily online, if you look.

From stupidill on Wed Jun 24 02:04PM
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doc_scrumpy (post 33)As far as I'm aware, if a 14 year old is pregnant, it means someone's had @#$%ual intercourse with her (excluding divine intervention of course)and that's a criminal offence. If your social workers have such a blase view toward a crime against a child, I respectfully suggest they should be on the dole - quick sharp

From nonsaes on Wed Jun 24 02:12PM
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I think the start of the debate should be to admit that children even at an early age are @#$%ually aware.They are not innocent little angels.
I grew up in the post war years and my first @#$%ual experience was in the chicken run at the the bottom of my friends garden with a little girl of the same age who lived next door."Show us yours and we'll show you ours"
It was great to grow up in an age when you could discover things for yourself.You could organise your own games and adults just had to be suffered.
I wouldn't like to be a child in today's world ,nor would I like to be a parent!
We just don't trust our children ,when in fact they're more in touch with their world than we are.
I remember my father saying "we had much more fun when we were young" I replied "but you are not young today"He admitted the truth of that.
This is the eternal generation gap!How can you understand a world that is so different to the one you knew?Children today like any other generation have the parameters mapped.Cut them some slack!

From eltea42 on Wed Jun 24 02:17PM
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Its our slobby society .... under-educated, under-self-respecting, under-skilled, over-exploited by consumerism, treated as political fodder by this Government, mass-hysteria, mass-everything in fact, and economically marginal to boot. Where's the reality? Bring back Rowntrees chocolate, I say ... sod the sickly Nestle stuff ...

From lucindasnumber on Wed Jun 24 02:20PM
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Kids today are growing up too fast, especially young girls and I think our media is putting far too much emphasis on glamourous celebrities that young impressionable girls want to aspire to. I would say any responsible parents do their best to morally ground their kids but it's when kids are with their friends is when all hell breaks loose. My friend is a responsible mother but her young daughter who is 9, has unfortunately been sucked in to this generation. She is a typical girl like I was at that age dressing up and getting into mum's make up (like most of us did) currently obsessed with that annoying brat Hannah Montanna but unlike our generation, kids are picking up too much from the media. She and her friends want all the latest glossy mags in the shops most of which are for teenagers but not put out of the way of childrens prying eyes. Why the hell is this!? If they've now started to put cigarettes behind the till why not these mags! She picked one up when I wasn't looking which had a caption "how to get the best orgasim" but she was drawn to it because of the free @#$%py eyeshadow! We caught them once just saying "we're just going upstairs to watch a DVD" my friend (mum) was immediately suspicious and checked on them only to find out they were about to watch her @#$% and the city DVDs! This is exactly what I mean kids will be kids and there is always the element of curiosity when they are that age but it's about time that the media let kids have a childhood!

From charlottemhamilton on Wed Jun 24 02:24PM
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I wonder whether the writer has children?
I do not think Paedos can be cured in the same way no one can be cured from whatever their own @#$%ual orientation is . There is a valid argument to address the subject of the way young girls are influenced by supposed role models and parents.
I think the printed media has a lot to answer for in British Society.

From mark_champagne on Wed Jun 24 02:28PM
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"As a society, we've become less deferent, which is certainly a good thing."
I take real issue with this claim; it is incredibly short-sighted, and may be at the root of the very problem you seek to resolve.
Were children taught to be more deferent - if they knew their place, in that they are children rather than adults; they are not in charge or control of their lives, because they lack the emotional and physical maturity and experience to be thus - a strong line would be drawn. Children would be less likely to emulate the more sordid elements of today's society and parents would be less likely to give into their little darlings' pressure to dress and act inappropriately. From Dr Spock onwards, today's youth is all about 'expressing itself' whilst completely abnegating ideas like dignity, personal space and responsibility. Small wonder that without a structured family background children - who are like sponges, receptive to the myriad of information around them - are being educated by the media.

From macseoinin on Wed Jun 24 02:29PM
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