Don’t hold your breath for advertising messages that tell you you’re just fine the way you are. At the start of the week I posted my thoughts about the Federal Government’s new voluntary body image code of conduct. I said that it was basically OK as far as it went, but that it had ignored a […]
“Hooters” is a euphemism for breasts in common parlance Hooters is an American restaurant chain specialising in beer, wings and “beautiful girls”. Beautiful girls with beautiful Hooters, of course. In its latest move to further market its brand and help the “desperate” club, Hooters has hooked up with an under 16 boys football team on […]
Anne Summers review of Natasha Walter’s Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism was published in the Australian’s Review section on the weekend. In the review, titled ‘The tyranny of self-perfection’, the long-time Australian feminist campaigner for women’s equality admits she had “no idea” about how bad things were for girls in a hypersexualised culture: …This […]
French-Marie Claire goes sans air brushing, but not sans camera tricks, makeup, lighting and models already near ‘perfect’. French actress Louise Bourgoin graces the cover of this month’s edition of French Marie Claire – hailed as the “totally non-airbrushed April issue”. Leaving aside the fact that it’s not totally non-airbrused because the women in the […]
Advertising aimed at children exploits their developmental inability to spot deception or to distinguish between fantasy and reality. It exploits their trust and manipulates their natural need to belong, to be loved and to feel worthwhile in order to sell products. On October 4 last year I had the pleasure of launching Adproofing Your Kids: […]
Nice to know I’m not the only one with a negative critique (also published in On Line Opinion Friday)of the Lady Gaga machine. Here’s an extract from a piece by Jim Schumacher and Debbie Bookchin titled ‘What’s Next From Lady Gaga: A snuff film?’ recently published on Huffington Post: What if glitzy Lady Gaga is exactly […]
Plus: Grand Theft auto gamer’s instruction video for best way to murder prostituted women And Calvin Klein’s new men’s underwear ad: No, we don’t want to see your d—k. Elizabeth at My Milk Spilt, whose piece on Facebook and violence against women I published here the other day, has now written about an experience she had […]
I’m just so pleased to welcome Dr.Emma Rush to my blog today. Associate Lecturer in Ethics and Philosophy at Charles Sturt University, Emma is to be commended for kicking off the debate on the sexualisation of children in this country, as lead author of Corporate Paedophilia: Sexualisation of children in Australia and Letting Children Be […]
I’ve been involved in a few campaigns against the sexualisation of girls, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a company act on complaints as quickly as this one did. On Tuesday I posted a blog about a ‘tweenage’ push-up bra sold at Best & Less. A number of people got active and wrote to the […]
We magnify the body, we perfect the silhouette, we help to cheat That was said about push-up bras by a woman who manages a French company which invented them. A bra now being marketed to girls who haven’t even hit their teens and, mostly, will not possess anything that needs support, let alone need a […]
Came across this on Girl w/ Pen. These tips put the responsibility where it should be: 1. Don’t put drugs in people’s drinks in order to control their behavior. 2. When you see someone walking by themselves, leave them alone! 3. If you pull over to help someone with car problems, remember not to assault […]
You know, I was really hoping to focus on something other than anti-women t-shirts this week and blog on a topic which might hopefully maintain the interest of the 13,000 people who visited this site in the past four days in response to global coverage of objectifying items of apparel. But just as I was […]
