I'm your everyday parent raising a teenage girl in a time where sexual abuse, exploitation and rape culture are glorified in mainstream media and pop culture. I have gone to great lengths to protect my daughter from sexual content, especially when she was under the age of 16 years. That doesn't mean she wasn't exposed to inappropriate content - you can not avoid school ground chatter, or what your child is exposed to while in the care of others. You also can not control what is being pushed out by Media of all forms (traditional or digital) and having accidental exposure to x-rated or even soft-porn content.
I recall my daughter coming home in elementary school asking me questions about some very explicit sexual acts. I was shocked she even knew what these acts were because when I grew up, we didn't learn about these acts until late junior high. At the time, my daughter was in grade three attending an elementary school that neighbours a large Junior High school.
After doing some investigating, I came to find out a few things there were taking place on the school grounds and at daycare that were very concerning to me. Some boys from the junior high had passed out porn magazines to the elementary school age children. This lead to older elementary school age boys attending the same daycare as my daughter, to having sex conversations while at day care. These boys discussed BJ's and how some girls in my daughter's grade were putting out.
So lets stop right there for a moment. At the time, I highly doubt these girls were engaging in sex and had any idea of what was being said about them. In fact, we had an experience in my own home that proved this point. My daughter had a group of children in for supper one evening. I had to leave the kitchen to attend to something, and when I came back I heard lots of 'ew gross' coming from the girls and loud laughter coming from the boys. I knew something was up so I asked what was going on. Nobody spoke up so I called my daughter out of the room and asked what was going on. She shared with me the boys were talking about a specific girl in their grade that was giving BJ's and sleeping around. I made the decision to go into the room and discuss how this is an inappropriate conversation. I gently asked questions that gave me insight that the kids didn't even know what they were talking about. I put an end to the conversation and established rules with consequences if I heard conversations like this taking place again.
After these experiences, I made a clear decision to talk very respectfully on the topic, and felt I was forced to discuss the birds and the bees in a very real manner with my daughter ahead of the time I actually expected to share this with her.
The point of me telling this story - it was the distribution of porn magazines on the school grounds that lead to these children having sexual conversations, which this leads me to write this blog post.
Since being involved in Women & Girl leadership programs, working directly with people who have faced sexual exploitation and abuse, you learn very quickly there is much victim blaming that takes place with little to no accountability held against those who foster and cultivate rape culture. In recent years, there have been some high media profile cases in Canada that has hit the hearts and conscience of Canadians, sparking debates on how to address the problems associated with sex crimes.
The bottom line is, there is much work to be done and Canadian Adults need to take personal leadership in addressing this matter, as parents and guardians, as professionals, as people who care about treating everyone with respect, love and honour.
Lets take a look at how mainstream media and pop culture contribute and perpetuate sexual violence against women and girls.
Today, both young girls and
boys are very confused of what is expected of them. We need to
revert back to censorship of sexual content on mainstream media and
digital media. Pop Culture glorifies rape culture and sexual abuse,
extortion & harassment against women and girls. Turn on the TV
and main stream popular shows contain soft porn content. Movies,
Music, Teen Magazines, Billboard advertising - it is every where.
Our MEDIA in all forms is watering down our societal moral compass -
MEDIA produces on-mass the over-sexualization of young girls, just
watch CBC Doc Zone Sext Up Kids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5kiBqc7vyg
While parents and
guardians can take measures to ban sexual content from their homes,
it's getting near impossible with Push Marketing techniques, where
it's in your face all the time. Driving in your car in large cities, you come
across billboards and transit advertising (vehicles, buses & bus stop shelters) that contain sexual content. Walk through a mall and view the advertising
images outside retail outlets, enter retail outlets playing
LMFAO, Robin Thicke, Miley Sirus as the background music. Turn on your computer and there are
pop-up advertising and banner ads that you are forced to view, even if you have tight security
to block sexual content - it often gets pushed through anyway. Spam email asking for hook-ups coming in to the in-boxes of youth, somehow getting past the filters. Popular cartoon shows with scantly dressed females, Teen Magazines with pre-teens dressed like young women in their twenty's. It's very hard to escape, pretty much impossible.
In my opinion it is time to revert back to censorship from the 70's and 80's. I recall quite distinctly radio and television stations banning sexually explicit content. I strongly believe we need to revert back to this time when we had 'clean shows and music' being made available to the masses, and in order gain access to such content, you had to purchase at retail outlets that had to require special authorization to distribute it.
HERE ARE THE IMPACTS OF OVER EXPOSURE TO SEXUAL CONTENT:
1) The younger someone
is exposed to sexual content - and the more frequent they are
exposed, the more at risk they are for being involved with a sexual
crime either as the victim or the predator/criminal
2) For average youth, they are confused. They are being exposed to sexual content that
demeans women / girls and are objectified. Boys think this is normal
behavior in how girls want to be treated, while girls think this is
what boys want - so both sexes find themselves doing things that are
criminal. Meanwhile girls do not like being treated like this, and
many boys do not like demeaning girls sexually
3) In extreme cases
boys are being trained to sexually abuse, harass and exploit girls -
they see it as normal because that is what they are exposed to on a
regular basis from a young age
HERE IS A PRIME EXAMPLE
OF HOW OUR SOCIETY IS FAILING OUR KIDS:
Lets take the song
Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke. There is no question this song
glorifies date rape and rape culture. Lines like "You're the
hottest bitch in this place", "Let me liberate you", worse yet "I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass
in two".
Sure it's a catchy song
- but lets face it - any parent who has a daughter would not condone
her involvement in this type of relationship, and if her boyfriend
forced his power on her - well - that wouldn't go down so well
either.
YET ..... because it's a catchy tune:
1) Many parents and
guardians blast this tune in their car, in their house
2) Retail outlets play
it in their stores
3) Large commercial
business are using it as their theme song in national/international
Television commercials
4) Talk show hosts like
Oprah & Ellen are propping the artist up and saying they like the
song
5) YouTube and Social
Media are playing the normal and x-rated versions of the song -
soft-and-hard porn immediately available spread on mass across the
social web
USING THIS EXAMPLE -
WHO HAS FAILED OUR YOUTH?
- The artist
- The Music
Industry
- Parents &
Guardians
- Media & Broadcasting Stations
- Social Media Platforms
- Advertisers
- Retail
Outlets
- Office Buildings
- Large
Corporate Business
- Any adult that plays this song or provides access to this song to a minor
I'm sure there are many
others - anyone who has glorified this song and others like it are
the ones to blame! Each entity in this list has fostered,cultivated and perpetuated sexual
violence against women and girls in their support of this song
through their own behavior and actions ... keeping in mind adults set
the tone of what is acceptable behavior ... in this case ADULTS HAVE
FAILED!!
And then some people have the
audacity to blame children?
Something that is new
to me that I learned through watching the Sextortion of Amanda Todd documentary on Fifth Estate is the new
type of Criminal called Caper - this is very scary! How does it come
to pass that our young men think that this is normal and acceptable
behavior? What is wrong with our society that there would be such a
large increase in this type of behavior?
MY FINAL THOUGHTS: At
one time, to gain access to sexual content, you had to purchase a
porn magazine or video by showing I.D. - usually your driver's
license. The 'porn' section in a movie rental place or book store
was usually secluded and difficult to gain access - you had to show
ID to enter this section. At one time, we had censorship laws that
did not allow sexual content in movies, music, tv shows, media. You
know, those good old fashion laws need to be re-instated! We need
control over the amount of sexual content that is being pushed out so
we eliminate over exposure at such young ages. FURTHER - the
technology abilities exist that Internet and social media sites can
ban sexual content and there should be laws that these sties have to
conform with. For adults to gain access to this content - they
should have to provide their S.I.N. Number, Drivers License and other
pieces of ID into an online form before they gain access to it.
