I still recommend that you seek the aid of a child psychologist to assess this situation and offer therapy if it's needed, largely due to the family history of sexual abuse. However ....
Since the concerned father first wrote his opening post, I have talked confidentially to the young women I know -- from teens to early 20s, with the youngest being 13. I asked them what they thought about this behavior.
They laughed at first and then felt very insulted when it was termed hyper-sexual. Every single one of them engaged in the same activities in the privacy of their rooms starting in their 'tween years, even the ones who went to parochial school or were considered Goody-Two-Shoes. Some of them got together with their girlfriends to dance and pose and imitate pop stars, taking turns videoing each other.
They pretend smoked, tried on swear words and swear phrases like hey, B**** and hey, you Ho and much worse things they heard in music videos, movies and from their parents. They squeezed their breasts together to make cleavage. They posed and danced in their undies, pretending to be Victoria Secrets models, actresses and pop stars. They spread their legs and twerked their bottoms like Miley Cyrus and did their best to copy Beyonce's dance moves and act like Iggy Azalea (I don't even know who Iggy Azalea is.) Some of them practiced diligently to perfect a completely blank, expressionless face, just like a runway fashion model.
Some of them started with their Barbie dolls, inventing dialogue between Barbie and Ken they might have heard in hip-hop videos or R-rated movies. They popped, locked and dropped it, wearing nothing but their undies. They pretended to be pole dancers. They saw all of this on YouTube and in music videos and on cable TV and they imitated it. Several admitted sneaking to watch their parents porn videos! They watched instruction videos on YouTube to learn the dance moves popular now, many of which of highly sexually suggestive.
None of them is mentally ill or sexually promiscuous. They all made videos and selfies if they had the equipment to do so. The older girls, young women really, said to take her devices away because impulse control is not great at that age and the urge to share with trusted girlfriends or post on the internet is huge. Some of them even videoed themselves discovering masturbation and the beginnings of pubic hair growth. They imitated the butt shots of the Kardashian clan, pulling their panties up to imitate thongs until they were old enough to actually buy thong panties to wear. This is now normal behavior.
All said if their mothers had discovered them in the act or discovered the videos they would have been mortified and punished. All said that if their fathers, brothers, grandfathers or other male relatives saw the videos or even knew about it, they would die of embarrassment.
So, I don't know. Medically, we know that puberty is starting earlier than in past generations. These activities seem to be common. What has changed is girls now have more explicit examples from movies, music videos and YouTube videos and other internet sources to imitate than ever before.
The ability to easily make videos and to send them to friends or post them on the internet has changed the entire scenario from being something done in privacy out of curiosity into something that can be dangerous.
So, find that psychologist and get things checked out. But maybe your girl isn't "hyper-sexual" after all. Just doing what girls do as puberty hits, with a lot of explicit examples for her to imitate in the privacy of her room. You do need to know if this is part of her normal development or if something worrisome is going on. I don't know any other way to do that except with a child psychologist who is trained how to discover if a child is being sexually abused or acting hyper-sexual without pushing a false answer into the equation. Do not skimp or try to save by getting a counselor or life coach or some other non-trained individual who does not have proper credentials.
I guess I have to say I'm glad I grew up in a simpler time and age when padded bras, go-go dancing, two piece bathing suits, smoking and looking at semi-naked pictures in The National Geographic were our worst temptations at age 11. I never even heard anyone say the f-word until I was 19 or 20 years old. Now six year olds say it.
Please look at your daughter within the context of what's normal within this current generation and culture, not what was normal even 20 years ago. I would hate to see anyone diagnosed and even medicated due to normal curiosity and imitation of things they see on the internet and TV, even the Disney Channel.
Last edited by darkpurplesecrets; Aug 20, 2014 at 09:08 AM.
Reason: added trigger icon...
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