Suri Cruise, 5, is a woman now and botox is for 8 year olds
UK Glamour Magazine has included Suri Cruise in its annual list of the world’s “Best Dressed Women” Up there with Samantha Cameron and Alexa Chung, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ daughter is rated number 21 – ahead of Lady Gaga and Sarah Jessica Parker. Suri Cruise is 5 years old. This little ‘fashion icon’ still […]
Petition launched to stop US child beauty pageants in Australia
Calling on Federal Minister Peter Garrett and Victoria counterpart Wendy Lovell to intervene Collective Shout has initiated a petition in response to the news that a US pageant company plans to import its child beauty competitions to Australia. You can find the petition on the Care2 petition site . Please sign and circulate it through […]
Child beauty pageants: equating a girl’s worth with appearance dangerous and destructive
Nina Funnell writes that girls are learning to read their value as a person in terms of how their physical appearance is received by others. “Destiny enjoys singing, dancing and, of course, pageantry” announces the beauty pageant’s MC as a made-up blonde in a white gown sashays across the stage. Did I mention that Destiny […]
Turning girls into tarted up dolls: we don’t need toxic US child beauty pageants here
Teaching girls their value is in their physical beauty Many readers will have seen the documentary Toddlers and Tiaras revealing the child exploitation that is the US beauty pageant industry. A five year old begging not to have her eyebrows ripped out. Little girls preening, strutting, pouting, beckoning to the judges ‘come here baby’, kissing their […]
Anti-violence men’s group takes on Rivers
How encouraging it is for those of us involved in trying to make things better for women and girls when men stand with us and want the same. Readers will remember when David Ould took on Loveable for its objectifying advertising. Now No To Violence Male Family Violence Prevention Association has taken on Rivers for glorifying […]
Rivers nailed for seeing dead women as new advertising opportunity
The Age has covered our protest against Rivers for appropriating the image of a dead woman in fishnet stockings and stilettos on the front of a catalogue headed “10 deadly deals” as described on the Collective Shout website and here below. I was amused to see River’s spokesman describe our interpretation of the catalogue cover […]
A dead woman becomes a good deal: Rivers
Rivers using glamourised violence against women to flog clothes and shoes This image is from the latest Rivers catalogue advertising “10 deadly deals”. The woman, in fishnet stockings and stiletto heels, is situated under a couch with only her stockinged legs in view. Rivers is the latest company to promote the idea that dead women […]
Witchery: recruiting children as adult-like models
Fashion company ignores experts – again Witchery just doesn’t get it. Or chooses not to. Last year a number of child development experts expressed concern about a Witchery campaign which presented adultified images of children modelling its fashions. Emma Rush, lecturer in ethics at Charles Sturt University and lead author of two significant reports on […]
I’ve got this other woman and the other woman is porn
Porn: the wrecking ball of authentic intimate relationships Came across this piece in the New York Magazine on the impact of pornography on male sexuality. It’s rare to see a man talk so honestly about how frequent on-line porn use impacts real world relationships. While of course the author appears to be writing from a purely […]
Little girls don’t need tips on how to pick up boys
Girls’ Mag Watch: More Stereotyped and Limiting Messages for Girls This is the second installment of my review of magazines for girls and young women, published by Generation Next. 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 […]
Anorexia Kills Girls: don’t say you love it
The disease destroys the lives of too many girls: don’t mock it on a t.shirt [Trigger warning for eating disorder sufferers] A number of my young women friends are very ill with Anorexia Nervosa. Three have come close to death a number of times. I want them to stay alive. They want to live too. Some […]
Children are not miniature adults or fashion accessories: Emma Rush
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 […]