"You don't see Bono in a G-String humping cotton Candy in order to sell his music."

But guess who you do see?

Did images of Katy Perry just flood your mind? Maybe not if you haven't seen her music video "California girls". Is it necessary for Miss Perry to shoot whipped cream from her cup cake breasts in order to sell music? Is the music not good enough on its own?

"Sext up kids" is a documentary that highlights the growing problem of hyper sexualization in pop culture, or as CBC calls it, Porn culture. As uncomfortable as it is to admit, this is something I have been living a part of in an ignorant bliss as a 23 year old woman growing up in the 21st century. Something that seems so normal to me, never required me to think about it any further. Thats just the problem-hyper sexualization is the new norm and its concerning to see what CBC calls the KAGUY (kids are growing up younger) phenomena. Children are bombarded with images of females and increasingly younger females being featured in little to no clothing and do not bat an eye. Young girls are influenced to dress this way because their icons are dressing this way- and are successful because of it! The star power is enticing and it is common in pop culture to model ourselves after those we desire to be like. This is why we see girls as young as 10 wearing revealing clothing- something that will continue to be an issue as an educator.

If you are interested in checking out the documentary yourself click here! (highly recommended!)

Now I don't particularily have an issue with girls dressing in a way that makes them comfortable or happy, but it becomes more of a controversial issue when young boys are added to the mix.
And then there is pornography. With the internet at our disposal, and with our kids being technologically literate younger and younger, pornography is accessible, affordable and anonymous and kids are being exposed to it as young as GRADE 5! This gives boys an unrealistic expectation of what sex is like, and how women should act, and with girls dressing this way in order to look like their idols, we have a full blown "rape culture" or a "don't provoke the boy" problem. With all of this exposure to things that are beyond their years, its no wonder we have these issues in our young society. Young boys are conditioned to expect these behaviours, and young girls are perpetuating them, somewhat unknowingly.

With all of this knowledge in front of me, it opens my eyes to something i really haven't considered much- so how does this affect my life as an educator and a woman in society?

Like i said before, dress code will forever be an issue as an educator- educating kids to dress appropriately and WHY they should be dressing this way. I was sent home once for wearing a tank top in gym class during elementary, which at the time I felt was unnecessary. and now that i think about it, i still think it was unnecessary. My school at the time had no mandated dress code, and my gym T-shirt was due for a wash. So I wore a tank top that I had in my bag, no cleavage, no mid drift showing- just spaghetti straps seemed to be the problem. Why? I was comfortable and cool during gym class- so where do we draw that line? Each school or school district will have their own rules- but in my opinion we need to teach girls about self worth and most of all comfort- dressing for themselves! and of course our young men need to be brought back to reality in knowing that life is not like porn- a dialogue missing from schools-another point brought to life by CBC.

As I think more about how this culture relates to my life now- the beauty industry comes to mind. I take great joy in collecting/using make-up. I guess you can say it is my hobby. I am constantly wanting to purchase and try out new products- and the biggest vehicle of advertisement is Youtube. I follow various different beauty bloggers, all with seemingly perfect lives- they are rich, good looking, and smart- they seem to have it all. I find that I am often influenced by what they say- they come across as real life girls who have made it and really give off that "friend" feel by letting you into glimpses of their lives. These bloggers started out with simple make-up tutorials online-which is great! Any way to share knowledge and art I am down for. Slowly these bloggers videos have evolved into house tours, follow me for a day, hauls (shopping) and the famous make-up collection videos. These videos feature these bloggers going through their VAST amounts of makeup and showing them off-what products they have and how they organize them. Originally I thought these videos were quite harmless, until i noticed myself buying more makeup and organizing systems because them- spending unnecessary money. If I can be so easily influenced- so can younger girls. Just goes to show how easily the media influences us. I even found videos of young girls on Youtube making their own makeup collection videos-i will link a few below so you know what i am talking about!


You don't have to watch the whole thing to get the idea- this is such a guilty pleasure of mine. The bottom video features a  little girl who obviously has had the same influences I have- a classic case of CBS's KAGUY phenomenon.