My past commentary on Olympia Nelson’s image, Art Monthly and Bill Henson I appeared briefly on Australian story last night in a piece about Olympia Nelson, inspired by her significant piece on the rise of the selfie, ‘Dark undercurrents of teenage girls selfies’, published in The Sydney Morning Herald, July 11, 2003, and reprinted here. […]
We must protect our kids from the catwalk of shame Why can’t Australia be more like France? While our country held the world’s first parliamentary inquiry into the sexualisation of children – and has done nothing since – the French parliament has begun taking action on its inquiry, with a move to ban child beauty […]
‘In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms, the collective message that our young women and men overwhelmingly receive is that a woman’s value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality’ By Ori Golan It’s on billboards, in newspapers and magazines; it proliferates on television and social networks. […]
In the pornified music world populated by churned-out female pop stars pumping and grinding to a sexualised script, cavorting semi-naked and presented as sexually insatiable, we see Miley Cyrus simulating sex acts while denuded of real sexuality. While many around the world condemned what was seen as an overtly sexualised performance at the recent MTV […]
Brave Girls Want Change! One of the great rewards of this work for women and girls is the global collaborations that have been forged by like-minded people who recognise there is strength in numbers: that a combined voice will achieve more. The latest exciting initiative is Brave Girls Want, a powerhouse think tank and advocacy […]
Complete disregard for the wellbeing and safety of young girls Last night Foxtel gave this response to our criticism of it facilitating a sexualising contest of adult beauty standards to promote Australia’s Next Top Model. “There’s no doubt that the socially engaged fans of Australia’s Next Top Model have embraced Australia’s Next Top Selfie. The […]
Pouty self portraits have turned boy-girl relations into a cut-throat sexual rat race. If social media only caused narcissism, it wouldn’t be the worst thing. Instagram and Facebook are social networks that not only breed narcissistic tendencies but transform relations into a sexual rat race. On these ubiquitous portals, the popularity of girls is hotly […]
Is this Willow expressing herself? Or the coming-of-age fantasy invented for her by adults? Willow Smith is 12. In her latest release, Summer Fling, she sings about a summer romance. She gives an older boy she has just met her phone number. It was only a few months, but they “do it anyway… “and say […]
‘Roxy and the “sex sells” agenda of surf corporations a la Big Surfing are completely disconnected from what we know surfing to be about: freedom. We don’t want what you are selling’ When writing my column on the objectification of women in sport, I came across the writings of American surfer and Women’s World Longboard […]
My first column with Fairfax As a teenage girl growing up in country Victoria, I was an avid reader of The Age. It inspired in me a passion for journalism. I did work experience on the local paper and went on to study journalism at RMIT. I scored a cadetship and began my life as […]
Hollie McNish rejects public shaming for breastfeeding her daughter I have breastfed four babies. I’m a big fan. I know all the arguments to support it. But I’ve never heard anything quite like this. Listen to Hollie McNish, a published UK poet and spoken word artist, expose what it is like to be publicly shamed […]
We need more men like this For the past few weeks I’ve been addressing female and male students around the country on the issue of the representation of women and girls in media and popular culture. I’ve been urging the boys to reject cultural messaging that socialises them into a calloused and brutalised version of […]
