Girlfriend February Review Many girls and young women look to girl’s magazines for advice on life, relationships, bodies, health and sexuality. But too often they receive conflicting advice and mixed messages and even, sometimes, outright contradiction. Take for example, information provided in the sealed section of Girlfriend this month, where, within four pages of each […]
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 […]
Results of Girlfriend’s sex survey GF cites their reasons: Waiting to be in love (56%) Not wanting to have sex (37%) Feeling too young (31%) No particular reason (26%) Waiting to be married (17%) Waiting to be the legal age of consent (14%) Waiting for their boyfriend/girlfriend to be ready (8%) Not being interest in […]
12 y.o ‘Reader of the month’, 13 y.o model finalists… Girl Mag Watch October 2012 Reading the October issue (yes, I know, just scraping this review in in time) of Girlfriend, I found myself checking the front cover to make sure I’d picked up Girlfriend and not Dolly. I’m wondering if perhaps Girlfriend is moving […]
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 […]
‘It was a liberating act to throw them away: I had been held captive’ I sat near a girl and her mum in the coffee shop recently. She would have been 10, 12 at most. She had on wedge shoes, tight leggings, a handbag, and flicked her long, blonde hair around like a cast member […]
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 […]
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 […]
Girlfriend magazine seems to have forgotten what its ‘Self Respect REALITY CHECK’ was intended for. A recap – it was designed to be an upfront disclosure about the use of digital enhancement, airbrushing or other alterations to an image. But it seems to have become a farce. On the cover below an image of […]
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 […]
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 […]
And making fun of suffering: does Girlfriend want to be seen as a mean girl? [Self harm trigger warning. If you need help, contact Suicide Prevention Australia ] So, we’ve just marked World Suicide Prevention Day. World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September promotes worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides. On average, almost 3000 […]
