Children’s bodies: adult sexuality

There is however a broader picture we need to attend to if we want to protect childhood from the interference by marketers. Why have products like bralettes and Bratz dolls, which are all about “strutting” your desirability, sold so well? Why have parents and relatives become such passive consumers? Why are the dictates of the designers in clothing and toy companies uncritically accepted? Rush’s answer is advertising. But why is this advertising so effective? Because in myriad ways we aspire for our kids to be adults and as a result we are failing to protect their childhood.

Consider kids’ film and their highly articulate, precocious stars, be they animated or otherwise. Say you’re a kid that speaks like a kid and not some postgraduate New York lawyer who can outsmart any psychotherapist your woeful but well-meaning parents sick on you. You might wonder, should I try to be smarter, or should I dispense with childhood altogether and skip straight to adulthood?

We’re increasingly invested in our children being more like adults. It is as though we have become less tolerant of their difference and dependence. While there is no question that supersonically advanced kids need to be better provided for in our public schools do we really need some 30 accelerated SEAL programs for “gifted” kids in Victoria? Does this facilitate kid’s aspirations or their parents?

Sexualised imagery of children is one facet of a much broader cultural malaise - the cult of the accelerated child. When we rush kids into adulthood one of the effects is to sexualise them, and when our cultural wallpaper is put up with sex-saturated paste we can become inured to it. Rush’s report makes a valuable if somewhat compromised allegation. We are investing our children with adult desires.