The Sexualization of Early Childhood

"Sexualization is how we treat other people (and sometimes oneself) as “objects of sexual desire . . . as things rather than as people with legitimate sexual feelings of their own.” When people are sexualized, their value comes primarily from their sex appeal, which is equated with physical attractiveness. This is especially damaging and “problematic to children and adolescents who are developing their sense of themselves as sexual beings (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009)."

My reaction to the reading this week was a mixture of anger and being surprised at some of the scenarios that have happened. I have witnessed sexualization of early childhood in my own school. The way students dress and girls wear makeup before they are in middle school. The language they use, the way boys and girl treat each other and even the way they dance. Some of my own kindergarteners dance like adults and have said/done inappropriate things I have had to contact parents about. Boys in my class stand and walk like I have seen grown men do.

Children are exposed to images of childhood idols such as Miley Cyrus being overly sexual and dolls that are way too grown up for a childlike image.  I have heard a 5 year old call her own mother ugly. My heart sunk when I heard this. Growing up, I always believed my mother to be the most beautiful woman in the world. I heard another 5 year old call another students' mother fat to make the other child upset.

Children are becoming so focused on how it is important to look good. A child's identity can be harmed if they feel they are not meeting a certain standard. A girl make not feel that she is pretty enough or skinny enough. I know I felt that way as a child myself. Boys and girls will feel they need to act and look a certain a way to be accepted.

As an early childhood educator,  I believe it is my duty to make a child feel and help them reach their highest potential. I focus on their strengths, not weaknesses. I try not to focus on what they are wearing. If I see inappropriate behavior, I pull that child aside and talk to them and the parent about my concerns. I do my best to make each child in my care feel successful, loved and happy. My awareness of this problem has instilled in my some curiosity so that I can stay current and find ways to help children to develop healthy identities.

References

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

Classism is something I see often working in a Title 1 school. Sometimes I hear teachers complaining about parents that are "lazy" or "don't care about their child's education." I have been guilty of this myself prior to beginning my anti-bias courses.  These prejudices and stereotypes can be very damaging to a child's view on his or her family and identity development. It can make the child experience feelings such as shame or discomfort. As early childhood educators, we must do our best to dispel any bias so we can develop a positive relationship with the every child's family so that we can meet the child's needs.

 As a single woman and a teacher, you can imagine (OR KNOW) that I don't make as much money as most of my peers in other professions. When talking about how much teachers make, something that really bothers me is when people say "Well you have the summer's off" or connecting my work to a babysitter's duty. Some people do not realize all the hard work, both physically, emotionally and mentally that goes into a teacher's job each day. It's not like we work from 9-5 and then we relax.I spent a lot of time outside of school filling out report cards and progress reports, making assessments, lesson planning, calling parents, and so much more. I'm not sure if you would call this a "job-ism" or "classism", but it one that affects me often. My friends around the country get upset with me when I can't come to visit them, or go out with them for a night out on the down. They think that I handle my money poorly or I need to cut-back on things. I even get this from my own father. I explain to them that my money goes to bills, groceries and my classroom. The stress that I face with living on a tight income and many bills to pay, the frustrations I get from other's stereotypes/judgements of me when they know nothing about me can really affect my mood and interactions with students and families. I can see how stereotypes and misconceptions can be upsetting for a child and his/her family and how I must do my best to dispel misconceptions in myself AND my students so they can grow up to be knowledgeable, accepting and spread their knowledge and help others to acknowledge and rid their unknown biases.

Here is an awesome and inspiring video that I watch that reminds me why I went into teaching...

Observing Communication

I observed my sister, Erica, interacting with her daughters: 2 year old- Sonorah and 4 month old- Novalee. My youngest sister, Stephany and I were watching our nieces today and we took them to the park. We took care of them all afternoon and evening. Later in the evening, Erica came to pick up the girls with her husband. As soon as she walked in the door, she came over to me (after she softened and raised the tone of her voice) with a big smile, said "Hi baby! I missed you soooo much!

As I handed the baby off to her, I could hear Novalee cooing and she had a big grin on her face. Erica made eye contact and held Novalee close to her while giving her a kiss and hugging her tight. She then proceeded to talk to Novalee (in the soften, higher toned voice) as Nova was smiling and cooing back at her. I believe this interaction between my sister and her daughter let Novalee know that Erica believes her daughter can contribute to an interaction or a relationship (Kovach & Da Ros-Voseles, 2011).

Then, Erica began to ask me how the day went with the girls. As we were talking, I noticed that Novalee was staring right at me the whole time, so I would look at her and smile, sometimes stopping the conversation to acknowledge her sweetness. (I love my nieces!!!) Looking back, I am glad that I did this because "acknowledging and speaking directly to the baby by name tells the baby he or she is respected as an individual (Kovach & Da Ros-Voseles, 2011). As I did this, Erica would stop and smile and look at Novalee too.

Later, my sister's husband Dave came into the room with Sonorah who was crying (mainly because she was tired and hadn't napped for us all afternoon- we assumed she was too excited to spend the day with her Aunts!) Dave told Erica that Sonorah was happy upstairs in Aunt Stephany's room, but got upset when he picked her up to bring her downstairs. So Erica (using the same tone/softness with Novalee) tried to get Sonorah to smile, say "Hi momma!" or give her a hug by asking if she would. Sonorah shook her head no and continued to cry. So Erica replied to her "Okay, then I won't force you." I thought this was so great of my sister not to pursue this and respect her daughter's emotions at the time. Instead, Erica let Sonorah approach her when Sonorah was ready. I believe that because shd did this, Erica let Sonorah know that she is happy to spend time with her, when she was ready (Stephenson, 2009).

I really enjoyed taking a step back and looking at how my sister communicates with her daughters. I was so proud of my little sister who has become such an amazing mom since day 1 of her first pregnancy. Even though she has not had any experience in early childhood studies, she is definitely someone I feel I can go to for advice when working with children just because of her natural abilities after becoming a mother.

The only area that I noticed we both could improve on, was instead of using the endearment "baby" when talking to the girls, use their actual names.

References:

Stephenson, A. (2009). Conversations with a 2-year-old. YC: Young Children, 64(2), 90-95.

Kovach, B., & Da Ros-Voseles, D. (2011). Communicating with babies. YC: Young Children, 66(2), 48-50.

Creating Affirming Environments

What I Have Learned

It is my hope that as a professional in the early childhood field working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, I will become a better anti-bias educator who will affect children and families in a positive way by helping them becoming confident in who they are and where they come from.

My goal for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that I share my journey with my colleagues in hope that they too will begin to think about their biases they hold so they can also join me in the journey of becoming an anti-bias educator.

Thank you so much to my colleagues for your kind words, encouragement and also sharing your own journeys with me. I have enjoyed this course and learned some important lessons that will stick with my throughout my teaching career. Good luck to you all as we are nearing end of our time here at Walden! I'm so thankful for you all!
Jessica

Creating Art

I would love to know if there is anything you think I should add, that maybe I missed in my slideshow! What are your thoughts? I have really enjoyed this course and can't wait for our next one!

"We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"

In the summer for 2012, I got a part time job working at a local gym in the child care center. One of my co-workers, had really short hair, wore long basketball shorts and t-shirts and shoes that were gender neutral. I will call her Erin. At first glance, most people thought Erin was a boy. But when you began a conversation with Erin, you could tell that she was a girl. Before I began this course, I would have described Erin as a "tom-boy" or "butch." I worked with her a lot that summer and we got a long great. I personally wondered if she was homosexual, just based on the way she dressed and sat in a chair (leaning back with legs open like men tend to do), which I now understand was holding stereotypes about women who are homosexual. (I thought about his internally, but never externalized my questions.) I overheard a group of girls who were working in the infant room talking about Erin and calling her a lesbian and saying degrading things about her. It really upset me because I really enjoyed working with her and she had a great personality. She also had a twin sister who had really long hair and wore similar clothes and wore make-up.

One day, we took the kids outside to play. A little girl came up to the Erin and told her "You look like a boy! Are you a boy?" (but her tone was very snubby.) Erin turned red in the face and said "I'm a girl." So later, I took the little girl aside and I got down on her level and told her that was very rude to ask and that she should go apologize for saying that. I told her sometimes girls have short hair, but we don't need to call them a boy. She apologized to Erin and then went back to playing.

Looking back with my new knowledge of anti-bias education, I would have asked her, "What makes you think she looks like a boy?" It has been found that people seem to rely on hairstyle as a
noticeable facial cue in determining a person's gender  (Eyssel & Hegel, 2012). I would then further the conversation by asking her "Did you know that some girls have short hair? We call them pixie cuts. Like Tinkerbell." As an anti-bias educator, I would also tell her that thinking all girls have long hair is a stereotype that that in fact, some girls have short hair. I would use this as a teachable moment later on and even use the game "Stereotype or fact" as mentioned in week 3's media segment on gender stereotypes (Start Seeing Diversity: Sexual Orientation)
This assignment has caused me to reflect on my own beliefs and consider how my perspectives influence their teaching and interaction with students from diverse sociocultural backgrounds (Eyssel & Hegel, 2012). 

References

Eyssel, F., & Hegel, F. (2012). (S)he's Got the Look: Gender Stereotyping of Robots1 (S)he's Got the Look: Gender Stereotyping of Robots. Journal Of Applied Social Psychology, 42(9), 2213-2230. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2012.00937.x

Han, S. H. (2010). Sociocultural influence on children's social competence: A close look at kindergarten teachers' beliefs. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 24, 80–96.

Laureate Media.  (n.d) Start Seeing Diversity: Gender [media podcast] Retrieved from Week 3 resources of EDUC 6357 at https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_4197932_1%26url%3D