Are children really being 'sexualised'? If so, by whom?

[homeworksucks]

This interesting article suggests that it may be a bit more complicated than blaming retailers, what do people think?

www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/8615/

I totally agree that there is a very rose tinted idea of childhood at the moment and the campaign against retailers is a symptom of this.
That said I personally don't like adult clothes on children and wouldn't buy them.

Sorry to answer your op I don't believe children are being sexualised I think our society is trying to deny the fact that children are sexual beings from a young age as a horrified backlash to a perceived increase in paedophellia.

I'm not sure it's rose-tinted - more jaundiced I would say. If you read the main campaign thread, some people are calling for 'little house on the prairie' style dress for girls, which suggests we see children's nascent sexuality as dangerous (or tempting?) even before they can possibly express it. Mini-burkas anyhone?

I understand the concept of sexualisation to be 2-fold. We expose children to adult materials and we also age compress by treating them as mini adults. i dont think anyone has rose tinted glasses and are denying that children are sexual beings, but that their own sense of sexual exploration and discovery are being hijacked by retailers and businesses who want to sell more products and merchandise to them.

I don't think 'we' sexualise children, I think capitalism uses sexuality to sell products and children are not excepted from this; in fact nothing is sacred or safe from the market. This doesn't mean we shouldn't fight this tooth and nail, it just means we need to target the fight accurately and stop thinking that 'we' are somehow responsible for parading children as sexual objects.

Britain's got talent - regardless what you think of it is a show with extremely high ratings and lots of small children will be watching it. Two of the guests it had on this week were teenage singers - Miley Cyrus and Pixie Lott - both dressed like the wee girls you see lying drunk on a Saturday night in town centres, but somehow on the TV it is seen to be OK. This is where the message starts and it is incessant - girls can only aspire to look this cheap.

Of course "we" are responsible, ultimately. No one is forcing "us" to buy the offending articles on sale. "we" do have a choice and correctly so. It is the parents who buy all the different items on display and allow their children to wear them that are ultimately at fault and that my dear NK6d26c4f2X12841518483 is "We".

I work for the only campaign/charity that is actively fighting to get lads mags age restricted and out of sight from children. Go to our website www.thefrontpagecampaign.org.uk we would really appreciate being featured on here. We come from a childs point of view, and have alot of political backing.
Please also sign our petition which can be found on the website. Visit our facebook group: front page campaign

We'd love to hear your comments :-)
Thanks

children are being sexualised by society- retailers, advertising, tv, and all forms of media cos sex is absolutely everywhere! sex sells, and its all about greed, and money and probably getting people addicted to sex and porn as early as possible so they can keep selling more to them in future. and getting women to want to act that way and buy all the slutty stuff. its all a con and is affecting the mental health of everyone, esp the next generation who are already quite clearly in distress. more people with eating disorders, mental health problems, low self esteem- which you then spend more money on trying to treat all those problems etc. last year 3.5000 children were excluded from school due to sexual misconduct for instance. how society is treating children is child abuse.