Book now for 2021! I am so pleased to see new speaking engagements coming in for 2021, after having lost most of my work in 2020. I will never take them for granted again! A special bonus is that I now have a young man working with me, a natural speaker with a special message […]
The shame is not with young women’s sexuality but with a culture that teaches them that is their only value Melinda Tankard Reist Everywhere girls turn they absorb messages which tell them their value and worth is in their sexual allure and their ability to attract sexual attention. Messages from media and popular culture tell […]
‘What do these words say about us, especially us men, and the culture we have created and the attitudes we have adopted?’ MTR and Daniel Principe at Macquarie College, Newcastle My friend and co-worker Daniel Principe posted this eloquent reflection on his experience joining me in engaging with students at Macquarie College Newcastle on Facebook […]
What happened to your body image and self-respect policies Girlfriend mag? In the year 2013, I wrote the ‘Girl Mag Watch’ reviews for Generation Next, which were published on the website of the youth mental health social enterprise and in its newsletters to thousands of subscribers. I reviewed Girlfriend and Dolly (an example of a review can be found here). […]
The heartbreaking realities of dealing with sexist treatment every day I’ve been documenting the experiences of girls everywhere I travel. I write down what they tell me (for example, as documented in this piece ‘Growing up in Pornland: Girls have had it with porn conditioned boys’ published by the ABC). Increasingly, with their permission, I’m […]
Free from ‘toxic chemicals.’ Not free from toxic messages Last week, 15 girls aged 14-16, and involved with Fusion Mornington Peninsula’s Real Girls program, took on Australian make-up and skincare brand Frank Body over its lip and cheek ‘Send Nudes’ product. Fusion Mornington Peninsula June 7 at 5:50pm Dear Frank Body, I am speaking on […]
An open letter to Weight Watchers International By Sarah McMahon I discovered today that Weight Watchers International is offering free membership for teenagers aged 13 to 17 under the guise of “helping the development of healthy habits at a critical life stage”. This was announced this week, simultaneously with their three year “2020 goal”, which […]
Re-imagining a new world where violence and coercion at the heart of subordination of women are no more Robert Jensen is a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses in media law, ethics and politics. I first came across Robert’s work when I read his […]
Are we OK with games that allow kids to perform eye lifts and nose jobs? Melinda Tankard Reist A large needle is jabbed into the lips of a young girl. Instantly they become sausage-shaped. Another girl, oxygen mask over her mouth, has her nose cut into with a scalpel. A larger-sized girl in saggy underwear […]
‘This book helps parents understand how we can win back girlhood – happy, wild and free. It’s the core of individuality and self-belief – and is the new feminism that we want for our daughters’ Globally renown psychologist and author Steve Biddulph has been a remarkable support for our movement Collective Shout since the earliest […]
Porn images are robbing children of their innocence, says Kerryn Baird, wife of Premier CLARISSA BYE, Social Affairs Reporter, The Daily Telegraph CHILDHOOD innocence is being swamped by a tidal wave of pornographic imagery, with NSW’s First Lady Kerryn Baird fearing we have “lost the argument” over sexually explicit material. Kerryn Baird has a new […]
Collective Shout, the grassroots campaign movement against the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls, announces Kerryn Baird as its new Ambassador. The announcement was made at a fundraising event for the movement held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney last night for International Day of the Girl Child. Addressing the event was […]
