When I started Contraception Education I would never have imagined the ramifications of the development of Contraception: the Board Game. Far from the purely educational nuts and bolts of preventing pregnancy through contraceptives, the whole thrust of the Government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy focuses on helping all young people achieve their full potential. It's also about raising their aspirations for their futures, learn delaying, consenting and permission-giving skills and, of course, managing the risks of alcohol and drugs in relation to sex. Teenagers also need to learn how to navigate services and systems to get what they really need. But what I also didn't realise was the full extent of those messages, and how my work with teenagers would soon begin to overlap with junior school-age pupils too.
You may recall my comments in a Manchester Evening News article earlier in the year when I gave my opinion about the sexualisation of girls through play and toys. A recent report published by the American Psychological Association (APA) showed that our culture delivers many messages about sexualisation of adult women and that this, in turn, influences girls. It suggested that parents, schools, and peers sometimes contribute to this, and that girls themselves sometimes take on a sexualised identity.
One theory has suggested that this sexualisation of children may have negative consequences for all young people. The report suggests that images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandising, and the media are harming girls' self-image and healthy development, having cognitive and emotional consequences, consequences for mental and physical health, and an impact on development of a healthy sexual self-image. It goes on to suggest that parents have a role to play in encouraging girls to value themselves for who they are, rather than how they look, and to teach boys to value girls as friends, sisters, and girlfriends, rather than as sexual objects. The report proposes that with the help of their carers and parents, young people can learn 'media literacy skills', which in turn will help them to resist the message that how girls look is what matters.
Meanwhile, along came the Bratz, a prime example of a commercial enterprise which may well insidiously reinforce the very messages which have been highlighted by the APA as potentially harmful. The tiny bodies, the flawless complexion, the symmetrical features, the immaculate hair – looking a certain way, but not actually doing that much.
The MEN article said that my alternative would be 'Geekz': dolls that would care about the environment. I said, amongst other things: "I'd prefer it if a manufacturer somewhere came up with a doll which reinforced the importance of being healthy, happy and looking after your fellow human beings…..Why can't there be a doll which is concerned about reducing its carbon footprint." I would dearly love to see what my friends and family know to be my motto - an image of an ordinary person achieving extraordinary things and a real challenge to male and female stereotyping."
You can read the article and associated comments at www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1000/1000696_bratz_the_dilemma_facing_parents
