Generation Sex

15 August 2009

As part of my job of analysing generations I am interested to see how future generations will respond to the political, social, economic and technological advents of their formative years. It is interesting to see a greater number of parents are becoming concerned about the sexualisation of children.

Of course the sexualisation of children is nothing new, every generation seems to be having sex, drinking and taking drugs at younger ages though I have no data to support this. I think back to a social function I was at not long ago where there where a few 9 year olds and the girls were singing along to Britney Spears song ‘If you seek Amy” with wholesome lyrics such as “…All the boys and all of the girls are begging to If You Seek Amy” (If that does not sound dirty just say it out loud and fast). It is a similar theme for other popular female artists such as Lilly Allen where the sexual details of her latest relationship are laid bare for all in most of her songs.

Then again I remember one of my favourite shows as a kid - Captain Pugwash - with the main characters being Seaman Stains and Master Bates. The show is no longer allowed on air and yet Kids can sing along to songs about boys and girls (not men and women) begging to F**K them.

Then again half our nursery rhymes are metaphors for lured sex and they where created hundreds of years ago. Jack was doing more than just ‘losing his crown’ when he went up that hill with Jill. Maybe they where just more cleaver at writing this stuff then what we are today.

I remember when I was a kid and a teacher being in despair over the lyrics in a Tool song we were listening to (I think the song’s title was ‘Prison Sex’ or maybe it was their other classic ‘Hooker with a Penis’). Yet he had no problem with the Spice Girls and the line “…if you wanna be my lover you gotta get with my friend.” Most ACDC songs are about sex. Titles such as “Hard as a rock” “Whole lotta Rosie” and “Thunderstruck” (which is about having sex with a bunch of prostitutes) leave little to the imagination and they are held up as national treasures.

I guess what else do we talk about? All the good conversations are supposed to be about either Sex (and an extension of this drugs and alcohol), politics, history and religion. And who would listen to songs about history, politics and religion? These songs will continue to be written and even if they are censored kids will simply listen to them via the internet anyway.

Then of course there is the proliferation of Porn. Pornography is so mainstream now that ‘actresses’ such as Sasha Grey are crossing over to make mainstream movies. In no way am I saying the proliferation of porn is right, there just seems to be no real way of censoring it. Parents should not kid themselves that internet filters work.

And so we are left with our children growing up seemingly quicker than ever and greater controls and censorship are advocated. Call me defeatist but it will never work.

Maybe just maybe the best answer is for parents to spend time with their children after school. For children to have lots of outside interests so their exposure to media and the internet is limited. Maybe if we have children being involved with their wider family and having parents who let them play in the streets after school with the neighbours, they will not be exposed to such lured images and words. This is the thing about studying generations. Often the more things change, the more they stay the same