Sexualizing

01.24.2011

Rob passed along the following video that’s from a new segment on the Today Show about parenting. Today’s topic was about daughters and the push for pink and princesses. Author and mother, Peggy Orenstein whose book Cinderella Ate My Daughter, was a guest talking about the sexualizing of girls and how the push for girls to be beautiful and sexy is getting younger and younger.

A psychologist on the show wasn’t able to present evidence to show prove or disprove Peggy’s argument and said that there weren’t enough studies done to look at the consequences but that it ultimately is up to the parents to be role models. Your children will learn to behave from you and they will learn what to value from you. The most important piece of advice the psychologist had to offer, though, is that if you let your children watch TV, to open up communication about what it is their watching.

Unfortunately, there’s no link to post it up on blogspot (only twitter and FB), so here’s the link to the video (It’s about 6 minutes long.):

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/3041445/vp/41231263/#41231263

Thoughts

10.26.2010

The little girl whose father I tutor now recognizes me and knows me by name (she is almost 2-years old). And when she sees me and yells out “Hi, Vejune” in Lithuanian it really warms my heart. Little kids’ high-pitched voices are always so sweet and their smiles and joy so genuine. I understand the desire to want to put that memory in a bottle and carry it around as a reminder of how sweet life can be when standing in front of a wall of frustration, anger and/or pain. I realized long ago that I want to keep some of that innocence in my heart, to not let the apathy of the world get in the way. It’s not always easy to keep that goal I mind and I wonder if it’ll change at all should we have a kid. Meaning, would the usual worry that I carry trump any shred of innocence I vowed to keep in my heart or would the child bring it out even more?