Troubling Childhood Innocence: Reframing the Debate over the Media Sexualisation of Children

Abstract

CHILDHOOD INNOCENCE IS A bedrock assumption of contemporary Western thinking which permeates the professional field of early childhood. Axiomatic to this assumption is the widespread belief that sexuality is both antithetical to childhood and a threat to children's ‘natural’ innocence. In this article I offer an historical context to the cyclical linking of ‘loss of innocence’ with the mass media and popular culture. I review key arguments represented in a high-profile Australian public media debate over the sexualisation of children in the media and reframe the arguments by revisiting the feminist critical psychologies of Valerie Walkerdine (1997, 2001) and the poststructural feminist philosophies of Judith Butler (1990, 1997). I argue that the emotionally charged discussions about the sexualisation of children in the media function as performative adult projections, and conclude by encouraging early childhood practitioners to be reflective about the nature and effect of their own adult concerns.

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