‘Surrounded by a culture in which girls are all body and only body’ Glee star Lea Michele features on the March cover of Cosmopolitan. We’re seeing more of this sexification of popular schoolgirl characters. Of course it’s not just sexing up female actresses from the high school TV show genre – this is just another example of […]
Not satirising the culture. It is the culture Critics of the December-January French Vogue photo spread featuring little girls as mini women decorated in gaudy make up, swathed in luxurious adult women’s clothing, assembled on beds, fawning on animal skin rugs, pouting bright red moist lips under a banner ‘Cadeaux’ – little presents to be unwrapped – […]
Do something good for Christmas. Support Sharni Montgomery’s campaign for Afghani women Australian woman Sharni Montgomery is giving her all to help women writers in Afghanistan, through a fund-raising run next month to raise money for the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. Sharni , who describes herself as living with a cowboy and her son in […]
Nothing about the Witchery images recognises that children are anything other than miniaturised adults. The images invite you to ‘read’ the children as adults It’s always a pleasure to publish the work of Dr Emma Rush. A lecturer in ethics at Charles Sturt University, Emma is lead author of two significant reports on the sexualisation […]
Girls’ mag wrap September-October issues For many girls, the magazines they read are their lifestyle bibles. How should they look, dress, act and relate? What’s important in life? Who should they look up to? My analysis of the September and October issues of Girlfriend, Dolly, Girlpower, Totalgirl, Disney Girl and Little Angel shows that girls […]
Bonds withdraws all ‘bra like’ products in girls sizes 6 and 8 A Victory for people power. Only three days ago, Collective Shout started a campaign against the latest bra product for girls aged 6. ‘More Bonds Bras for little girls’ can be read here This sparked three days of activism from our members and […]
What’s happening to our boys?: Maggie Hamilton’s new book When I first began turning my attention to the sexualisation of girls in the media and popular culture, a book that significantly echoed my own thoughts was What’s happening to our girls: Too much too soon, how our kids are overstimulated, oversold and oversexed (Penguin, 2008) […]
This blog is reprinted with permission from Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. Tell Nick: “Naughty” Games are Not for Young Children Nickelodeon, the children’s media empire, is promoting sexualized and violent video games to children as young as preschoolers. Its popular gaming website, AddictingGames.com, features games such as Candy the Naughty Cheerleader, Bloody Day […]
