There’s a lot of discussion about the inappropriate sexualization of little girls through media and advertising images, but maybe we should also be talking about the inappropriate sexualization of little boys.
At Walgreen’s today, I saw a toddler-sized t-shirt that read, “I think your girlfriend is checking me out”. A few weeks ago, I saw one with the caption “Lock up your daughters”.
Am I the only one who finds this problematic? Despite Toddlers & Tiaras and sexy fairy Kinder Surprises, I think most people in our society would still consider it wildly inappropriate to put a 2-year old girl in a t-shirt that joked about sexual attraction between her and grown men, or suggested that she needed to be locked up to protect her from amorous boys. If we want to move towards a more equal world, we need to stop giving boys the message that the rules about sex are different for them than for girls.
We certainly don’t need to start giving them that message before they reach the age of 3.