Children are becoming increasingly sexualized through dance at younger and younger ages. Studios, dance teachers, and even parents often unknowingly model their movement choices on what they see in the media and pop-culture outlets. The ramifications of this are alarming. A 2012 research study shows that most girls – as young as 6-years old – are beginning to think of themselves as sex objects (Source 1 & Source 2).
Another 2012 study from US researchers Kaitlin Graff, Sarah K. Murnen and Linda Smolak found that people who viewed a photo of a ten-year old girl in highly sexualized clothing (a short dress and leopard print cardigan) rated her as less intelligent and less moral than people who viewed her in less sexualized clothing (Source). In a 2014 study by Marika Tiggerman (Australia) and Amy Slater(UK), they found that children are starting the teenage years four years earlier than they used to. Meaning that girls aged 4 – 10 are engaging with teen culture and exhibiting hyper-sexualized behavior (Source).
The hypermasculinization of boys is just as disturbing. In 2015, evidence-based research from the UK by Dr. Linda Papadopoulos, found that “Hypersexualization of femininity can’t exist without hypermasculinization of males. They feed off and reinforce each other (Source).” The research concluded that the media influenced boys to have distorted relational expectations of girls and to evaluate them with ‘unfavorable and unrealistic’ criteria. Further, Dr. Papadopoulos, and other experts, found that a hypersexualized culture put pressure on boys ‘to act out a version of masculinity’ normalizing a controlled display of power and violence with women (Source 1 & Source 2).
The healthy sexual development of children is being hijacked. The culture invites them to imitate the porn-style dance moves of their favorite stars with masculine and feminine roles defined by media influence. Yet, children do not have the emotional sophistication to understand what they are seeing or doing (Source).
The effects of the sexualization of girls in dance is widespread:
• Body Dysmorphia
• Eating Disorders
• Poor Academic Performance
• Promiscuity
• Teen Pregnancy
• Higher Risk of Abusive Relationships
• Higher Risk of Pornography Use
• Unable to Identify Sexual Abuse
• Mismanagement of Social Networking
• Promotes Rape Culture
• Promotes Objectification of Females
• Relationship Wounding due to Constant Comparison
• Co-Dependence
• Desensitization
(Source)
Boys have many of the same negative effects as girls when they are hypermasculinated including body
dysmorphia, depression, eating disorders, rape culture and violence (Source 1 & Source 2).
During the last decade, there has been a cultural shift from healthy educational children’s dance to harmful hypersexualized children’s dance by using adult costumes, sexually suggestive choreography, and music with inappropriate sexual themes and/or lyrics. Our organization is dedicated to raising awareness and providing dance educators, parents, and concerned adults with the resources and education needed to take action and end this kind of exploitation occurring through hypersexualization of children in dance.
Dance educator and author Mary Bawden received a BA in modern dance from the University of California Riverside, a MA in worship (emphasis in dance) from Hope International University in Fullerton CA, and a California secondary teaching credential. Mary began choreographing dance within church services in 1994. In 2003, she founded Soul to Sole Choreography and released a book, Dance is Prayer in Motion, in 2016. The book focuses on an educational approach to use conceptual movement as a communication tool for worship. Several years ago, Mary began to notice the culture around children’s dance moving toward an unhealthy trend: sexualizing children in adult-style costumes, sexually provocative choreography, and music with sexual content and/or themes. Many in the public arena have been slow to recognize this harmful form of child exploitation. Mary’s observation of this unhealthy trend inspired her to advocate for healthy, age-appropriate guidelines to protect children and the art of dance. In 2016, she founded DA:NCE (Dance Awareness: No Child Exploited), a non-partisan organization, to create awareness through the collaboration of credible experts with excellent research to provide free evidence-based educational materials for dance educators, parents, and concerned adults, inside and outside the dance studio.
