realsociology

‘Sarah’s law’, which will shortly be extend to all areas of the UK, allows parents to check if someone who has access to their children is a sex offender – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10827669

This will generally be regarded as good because everyone hates Paedophiles, in fact the police actually fear the new law may lead to vigilante attacks on them. Most people won’t stop to think that deeply about where this hatred actually comes from – with Paedophiles, just the expression of general hatred is enough to gain public sympathy.  

But let’s actually think about this – To my mind the extreme hatred of Paedophiles has something to do with the way we regard children, or if you really want to be sociological – it has something to do with the way childhood is socially constructed

Today, two of the defining characteristics of children are that they are innocent, one criteria of which is that they are not yet aware of their sexuality, and that they are vulnerable – in need of adult guidance. Thus one can understand the near universal hatred of Paedophiles – they exploit the trust of innocent, vulnerable children by manipulating them into exploring their sexuality before they have reached the appropriate age.

Now hold that thought – and reflect for a moment on the phenomenon of the child beauty contest, an import from America that is growing in popularity in the United Kingdom.

The reason this springs to mind is that I managed to stomach about 10 minutes of ‘Baby Beauty Queens’ last night – a BCC3 programme that follows pre-teenage girls and their mothers through their desperate attempts to win the ‘mini miss’ UK beauty contest. These contests involve girls as young as nine getting make- overs, fake tans and doing provocative dance routines – Many argue against these contests because they encourage the sexualising of young girls at too early an age.  (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lvf60)

The producer/ director of the film, Lisa Pomeroy says ‘The sexualization of young girls is a very topical debate and I didn’t want the film to magnify, or be complicit in this. Certain scenes had to be edited very carefully, for example a scantily clad nine-year-old getting her first fake tan and another performing a potentially provocative hip thrusting dance routine. ’ (see http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/technology/on-location/baby-beauty-queens-bbc3/5003746.article )

Now, the point I want to make is this – If we regard children as non –sexual beings and as vulnerable, why do we allow these contests to take place? Surely these contests involve parents exploiting their children via sexualising them? OK no actual physical abuse is going on here, but aren’t these parents transgressing the same boundaries as the Paedophiles – exploiting children’s innocence by encouraging them to explore their sexuality in their pre-teen years - only in in the case of the beauty contest it is the parents doing it, not strangers, the exploration of sexuality is being done in public, not hidden away in private, and what some might call ‘abuse’ is more manipulative and subtle?

So we live a society where the worst crime is that of abusing vulnerable children’s sexuality, yet parents are allowed to parade their children around as if they were sexual objects and this is perfectly acceptable. Now I am aware that there are big differences between Paedophiles and Pageants, all I wanted to do was to highlight the similarities.

Get back to me with your thoughts – I’m off to call social services!  

Karl.

PS Apparently these shows attract Paedophiles. This isn’t the main point of this blog – but check of this anyway for an interesting article – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1289420/Would-let-YOUR-10-year-old-son-pose-like-beauty-pageant.html