As early exposure to themes of sex becomes the norm, children of younger ages are expressing discontent with their physical appearance.
Results from a recent survey suggest that children rank body image among the highest of their concerns, above both self-confidence and social life. Recent research also suggests that nearly 50% of females between ages 11 and 16 would consider cosmetic surgery to improve their appearance.
These findings, gathered by The Children’s Society charity and the Mental Health Foundation, have striking implications about the factors comprising young children’s self-image and esteem. Eating disorders are now presenting in children as young as six, with dieting becoming more common among those under the age of ten.
Such ardent focus on physical appearance also comes in response to overly-sexualized messages from the media. Stars considered favorites among youth (i.e. Miley Cyrus, Vanessa Hudgens) have received much press for exploiting their bodies on stage or through images leaked on the net.
The media also speaks to the import of sexuality and attractiveness among youth through TV shows such as “Toddlers and Tiaras.” In one episode, 6 year old beauty pageant star, Eden Wood, can be seen on stage gyrating her pelvis like a professional stripper during the “talent” portion of the pageant. The message that it is important to be sexy is clear, even if you still have your baby teeth!
Actress, Gina Davis, is engaging law makers like Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., to support a bill called the “Healthy Media for Youth Act.” Ms. Davis believes that the more hours of television a girl watches the fewer options she believes she has in life. “Of the female characters that were there, the vast majority…were either highly stereotyped or were serving mainly as eye candy. So the concern was clear, what message does this send to young children about the value of girls?”
Girls, more often than boys, recieve the message at an early age that in order to be valued, they must look attractive. Attractiveness in our culture requires one to be thin and to appear sexy. This form of validation is externally driven which leads young girls to believe that their value lies in the judgements of “others”. Their internal sense of self is not developed adequately, which in many cases, leads to the eating disorder behaviors.
As a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of eating disorders, I am often asked what motivates me to treat this often misunderstood and life threatening disorder? My goal is to help teenagers and young women navigate their way through our culture which, I believe, diminishes the value of women and all of our gifts. We are bombarded with images of unrealistic beauty. Often we are taught to value the feelings and needs of others before our own, restricting our voices and distilling our spirits into a pretty package. I envision a world where women feel joyful about living their lives knowing their beauty and power lies within them.
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Sup3r_Fudg3
with you 100%. i wish somebody would speak up like this for the protection of boys, and do something abut the mind-warping that they're targeted with by a cultural campaign that raises boys to believe that, to borrow a phrase from Sublime, "f—–g and fighting" is what life is all about, and they're targeted with these messages at an equally early age. i believe that boys conditioned to accept this world-view as their guiding philosophy for life are as profoundly damaged as girls who are being conditioned to see themselves as nothing but sex toys as soon as they're out of their diapers. and while the result in young girls is the proliferation of eating disorders, in young boys it's the proliferation of drug, alcohol and steroid abuse, so that they evolve into stoned, drunk, pumped-up, raging maniacs. i'd say that's as urgent a problem, too.
I was just thinking about this exact topic, weird how intentions manifest themselves. I do agree that precociousness leads to conditioned behaviors and beliefs on something as transient in nature as a physical body and appearance, some of the kids learn so much about competition instead of cooperation and collaboration, jealousy due to competition instead of being loving and compassionate, stubbornness instead of flexibility and going with the flow, inappropriate reward mechanisms in the form of bad foods(chocolate, sugary candy etc) and therefore find inappropriate ways to get their way as adults so are not nurturing qualities that the child absorbs. Being a victim of molestation I would say from personal experience that it also leads to "predatory" behaviors in adults around the child that no longer is a child but becomes an object of adult desire, abuse and violation. This could be other cause of poor self-image/body image/cutting that they might have been violated due to the exposure to predatory behavior. Then there is the monetary benefit that parents enjoy because of the prize money's involved, I would think that would constitute exploitation of a child. We seem to speak so freely about America being a country free of child labor but would this not constitute exploitation of child labor. We are not letting our children be children, enjoy their lives in the simplicity and innocence that should be what childhood and youth should be about. Thank you so very much for bringing this topic up, quite personally touching and moving the topic. I am hoping this awareness grows by leaps and bounds.