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Rosalind Wiseman is an internationally recognized author and educator on children, teens, parenting, education and social justice. Her work aims to help parents, educators and young people successfully navigate the social challenges of young adulthood.
Rosalind Wiseman
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So Sexy So Soon: Where We Are One Year Later
Last month So Sexy So Soon hit the market in paperback, though my hand-signed hardback by academic rockstars Diane Levin, Ph.D. and Jean Kilbourne Ed.D is frayed, highlighted, and worn from full use with youth and parent ed groups ever since its release last year.
I broke bread with these two research pioneers at Susan Linn’s house when she hosted all of the presenters at the CCFC summit on Sexualized Childhood last year and felt a bit like ‘Odd Girl Out’ as Rachel Simmons would say (forthcoming interview with Rachel on her new book releasing 8-25 shortly) because I was the token branding/industry veteran in an impressive sea of doctoral Ivy leaguers, medical practitioners and psychological pros.
I was heartened to be welcomed not as Darth Vader, but as a saber-wielding insider eager to find ‘another way’ to reach the light…and to me, that’s what changes the entire conversation. It’s not enough to cluck about APA research and tsk about the trauma and harm to kids’ sexuality, the key is in the action steps to DO something!
That’s where So Sexy So Soon won me over with the chapter header, “Helping Teenagers Through the Minefields” and the finale, “Creating a New Cultural Environment,” complete with ‘12-step’ action plan. Now we’re talkin’ my language…
As regular readers know, I tend to lean hardest on those closest to my own mission to ensure the rebel yell isn’t just a reframing of ‘the problem’ but instead, a concerted effort to seek SOLUTIONS.
I say enough power whining and evidence-gathering about the toxic tipping points of body image, early sexualization and the dysfunctional way it’s tweaking kids’ own sense of a healthy sexuality, let’s energize the youth themselves to help shift the zeitgeist toward positive pursuits and engage their voice as the advocacy arm.
They’re the ones being dealt this smarmy deck of cards, right?
That’s one of many of Kilbourne and Levin’s action steps instilling the media literacy mandates early on at the elementary school level, so that kids are in control of the commodification playboard not just pawns in the game.
Pioneers like Jean Kilbourne and Diane Levin have been pounding these shores for a ’sea change’ for decades, largely talking into a conch shell awash in mega-spending by marketers.
But the tide IS turning…
When Spielberg himself rants on the amount of kids’ gaming violence, Geena Davis leads the way in gender equity, Amy Poehler launches Smart Girls at the Party TV, and Hollywood heavy hitters lend their clout to begin to Do Something not just be short-term PR poseurs…then we’re inching toward systemic change.
Granted, money talks, and it takes funding to effectively counter-act the multi-billion dollar war-chest of advertisers selling insecurities for profit and an increasingly narrowcast view of what it means to be ‘sexy’…
But the So Sexy So Soon authors have been building momentum in an international arena as a favorite on college campuses so that youth voices take the helm, which I personally think is key.
It’s not enough to build awareness, clamp down on accountability, social responsibility or regulatory change…it also takes teamwork and convergence when ‘all sides’ join in an open dialog, including YOUTH who are pivotal in that peer to peer conversation about body snatching childhood.
Jean’s Kilbourne’s award-winning films like the Killing Us Softly series and Slim Hopes on the image of women in advertising are eye openers for many a teen team.
They’re all part of Shaping Youth’s film fest screenings as ‘house parties’ for youth/parent education. (check our sidebar at right for updates; you can find them via MEF, the Media Education Foundation too)
Other favorites, like Calling the Shots and Spin the Bottle focus on the alcohol and tobacco ads that target youth with ever-stealthy ‘lifestyle’ positioning, age compression, and plot point/product placement. I’ve found they work wonders as ‘aha’ moments and motivators for teens who feel duped and betrayed by the precision of being in marketer’s deliberate crosshairs.