We Are Stealing Girl's Childhood

This is my final draft until now, please feel free to comment.  

We Are Stealing Girl’s Childhood

By Lisa Zecchinato

The average American will spend 3 years of their life watching TV commercials. Yes, only commercials. We know that every type of media sexualizes little girls including TV, music videos, lyrics, movies, magazines, video games, the Internet and ads. We know that every day girls are bombarded with sexualized images of all types and that the pressure to look sexy is starting earlier and lasting longer.

Now, sex is nothing new when it comes to selling a product—you have probably seen it years ago with the Brooke Shields commercial for Calvin Klein or any other advertisement—but this obsession is definitely new when the women used to sell these products are 5-year-olds.

As a parent, you probably try to avoid your child being exposed to inappropriate content. Advertisements are everywhere and it is hard to prevent your kids from watching them. The Internet is full of sexualization of young girls, but normally little kids are not very interested in computers; and if they are, a guardian can just cut the Internet on the child’s computer or put some filter to it. However, when trying to avoid your child from watching any sexual content on the TV, you might put on Disney Channel or Discovery Kids. You might think that when watching those channels your child is safe from sexualization. But you are wrong.

Even though the shows played on kids’ channels may seem harmless and educational, the commercials run during them are damaging and detrimental for your kids’ health.

Repeatedly, on channels such as Nickelodeon and Discovery Kids, commercials for Bratz dolls are run. These commercials portray doe-eyed, waist-baring dolls dressed in miniskirts fishnet stockings, and feather boas. This does not only encourage young girls to focus merely on looks and sexuality but also creates erroneous expectations for young boys about how girls should dress and behave.

Recently, I was watching TV with my mother’s 5-year-old goddaughter. We were watching Phineas & Ferb on Disney Channel and suddenly the ‘Bratz Glammed Up’ commercial went on air. This commercial depicts girls who only care about dying their hair green and blue and dressing in slutty black-and-pink dresses.

I was about to make fun of that commercial and laugh at how pathetic those girls looked when the 5-year-old turned around and said, “Mami, me compras esto por favor?” (Mom, can you please buy me this?).

“No Francesca, no es tu cumpleaños”, (No Francesca, it is not your birthday), her mother said.

“Me falta Phoebe y Roxxi para tener a todas las Bratz! Tia, me la compras?”, (I need Phoebe and Roxxi to complete my Bratz collection. Tia, can you buy it for me?), she then pleaded my mom.

Little children want to wear make-up, color their hair ridiculously and dress like child prostitutes just because the over-played Bratz dolls commercials are setting the stupid idea that make-up and sexy clothes are essential to be accepted into girls’ minds. 

According to market research firm Experian, 43 percent of 6 to 9-year-old girls already use lip-gloss; 38 percent use hairstyling products and 12 percent use other cosmetics. These girls cover their faces with colored chemicals until they look like drag queens, just as the girls in the Bratz doll’s commercials do.

I am almost seventeen and do not wear make-up unless I go out. If I could survive societal pressure without wearing make-up for fifteen years, I’m sure a 6-year-old can have friends and still look pretty without covering her face with rainbow-like trash.

Now, it is true that the Bratz dolls commercials do not present much sexuality when compared to some MTV shows or commercials. However, the Bratz commercials are worrisome because they are targeted at 4-year-old girls, while MTV shows are targeted at 15-year-olds and above.

Since kids under 7-years-old cannot tell the difference between entertainment and a commercial trying to sell them something, they might view these buggy-eyed trollop’s commercials in the same league as Dora the Explorer or some other pointless ‘educational’ kids’ show. They might view their cheap red-and-black lingerie as appropriate clothes and think that dancing around a pole and kissing guys at the age of five is something enlightening.

The Bratz Dolls commercials have been running since 2001, when the dolls were invented, and continue to this day. However, each day, the commercials are becoming more sexualized.

Each day, more 6-year-old girls wear the clothes and make-up of a 16-year-old. Each day, more girls view the clothes worn in Bratz commercials as fashionable and want to wear them as well. Each day, more American teenagers are having sexual intercourse.

But you may be wondering, what can be done to prevent kids being exposed to this.  We cannot ban kids from watching TV.

Parents might feel incapable of protecting their children from the media, but without the financial aid, a kid cannot purchase any heavily advertised products.

The truth is that according to NAML, 12-year-old kids and younger influence the household spending of over $60 billion. Not surprisingly, the majority of this spending comes from inappropriate toys that appear frequently in commercials.

If you don’t buy those toys, your child won’t have them.  

Your child may cry, tell you, “I hate you!” or even be left out among their friends. But talk to other parents; I’m sure they feel the same as you about the Bratz dolls and their commercials.

I told my mother not to buy the Bratz dolls for Francesca, her goddaughter. She bought her a memory game instead. At first, she was a little bit disappointed; but eventually, she forgot about the Bratz and was still happy.

So come on parents and other caring people, don’t buy these outrageous toys that appear in TV commercials! By buying them, you are only harming youth.

Eventually, if people don’t buy the overly sexualized products, firms will stop producing them and thus stop advertising them in commercials.

Help kids enjoy their childhood. Vote against the excessive sexualizing of doll commercials with your wallet!