Girl Mag Watch: Girlfriend – from mindfulness to masturbation

From Mindfulness to Masturbation: Girlfriend’s January issue ‘Switched on: Sorting out the small things’ provides readers with 10 things they need to know about 2013, which ranges fascinatingly from the Australian Federal Election and our troops exiting Afghanistan, to One Direction’s World Tour and actors Ryan Gosling and Robert Paterson in Australia. ‘Are you a […]

Girlfriend: hot boys and recycling gender stereotypes

Girlfriend’s November issue is about boys. Sort of. It’s more about ‘hot’ celeb boys and recycling gender stereotypes. What do girl readers learn about the opposite sex? That they are, disgusting, fart, pee standing up and aren’t just “good for pashing”, they can also be “quite useful” (“they can fix all the things you accidently […]

Girl Watch Mag: MTR commends Dolly (is the world about the end?)

Dolly commended for helpful features on anxiety and safety on-line Not sure if I’m getting too relaxed with the soon arrival of a desperately needed break, but I am about to surprise you and commend Dolly on a few things this issue, primarily features on anxiety and cyber dangers. A two page article on anxiety, […]

The Big O and it’s not Roy Orbison: Girlfriend mag review

For women my generation who see a massive magazine heading “The Big O” and think it’s about Roy Orbison, you probably won’t want to read further. The “Big O” in this case refers to orgasm – in fact “your giggle-free guide to orgasms.” Although if your daughter is a 13-year-old reader of Girlfriend (GF has […]

Girlfriend May Review: injects some much needed reality, but doesn’t go all the way

In last month’s Girlfriend Review,  I outlined the disturbing findings of the magazine’s annual body image survey. Our young women still despise their bodies, despite GF’s own positive body image initiatives, which I’ve argued, never really went far enough. So it was refreshing to see in May’s issue a strong case for exposing systems and […]

Girl mag watch: Dolly where are the girls who don’t fit the mould?

While there appeared to be more ‘retouch free zones’ in this issue of Dolly (you may recall I said I’d like to see more of these), there also seemed to be even less body diversity. I couldn’t see one girl who didn’t fit the mould. Dolly has so many pages of fashion and shopping I […]

Girlfriend body image survey: dire findings

But is positive self-talk enough? The story of most significance to the health and wellbeing of girls this issue is the reporting of results of a survey of 1000 of Girlfriend’s readers who were asked how they felt about their appearance. Among the findings are: 25% don’t like what they see in the mirror Only […]