Book Review: So Sexy so Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids by Diane E. Levin, Ph.D. & Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. (Ballantine Books, 2008)
Year: 2010
Type: preprint
Abstract: Drs. Diane E. Levin and Jean Kilbourne have recently written a book with cross-disciplinary appeal and particular relevance to those of us in the legal community. In the first four chapters of their aptly titled book, Levin and Kilbourne educate the reader about the modern reality of children who are constantly bombarded by electronic media and aggressive marketing with implicit and/or explicit sexual themes. The authors describe the frightening (and often heartbreaking) impact of such media and marketing on young children. In the final five chapters of the book, Levin and Kilbourne shift gears to counsel parents on personalized strategies to guide their children through the sexualized messages they are being fed. In the book, Levin and Kilbourne reference parenthetically the legal landscape that led to the current problem of sexualized children, and they summarize potential legal strategies to help rectify it. However, as non-lawyer experts on childhood development, the authors largely sidestep the legal issues they raise. Nonetheless, Levin and Kilbourne make clear that the modern sexualized childhood is rooted in legal changes implemented in recent decades, and the current problem is too ubiquitous for parents to tackle in isolation. In reading So Sexy So Soon, it quickly becomes apparent that changes in law must be part of a broader, more effective solution. Lawyers must take leadership in that area, but they must first understand the problem. Levin and Kilbourne’s book is an excellent resource to provide such background. Nevertheless, the book has some flaws. Levin and Kilbourne permit certain cultural biases in their book, and they exaggerate some dangers in a somewhat quixotic fashion. This book review examines these biases and exaggerations in some depth because they provide cautionary tales for lawyers interested in working to effect legal solutions. Such lawyers would need to muster significant amounts of political will to secure legislative or even administrative changes to existing law. Because of the scale of the entrenched problem of sexualized children, it would be extremely imprudent to alienate any potential political allies.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Claudine V. Pease-Wingenter
Institution: Arizona Summit Law School
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1575480036