‘I shaved my pubic hair and became highly sexual…my innocence was stolen from me’ Jemima (her real name withheld by request) is a 19 year old university student living in Melbourne. At age 10 she saw pornography for the first time. Her life began to unravel, culminating in sexual assault by a group of teen […]
Empowering boys to change Recently I addressed Year 10 girls and boys at a school in NSW. During question time at the end of my presentation, one of the young women read out a Facebook post by a male peer, filled with disparaging descriptions of the girls in his class. The girls were clearly […]
Sex is too intimate to compromise. – Melinda Tankard Reist By loveandnoregrets May 8, 2017 Sex is too intimate to compromise. ‘I’d already decided that teen sex was no fun, especially for girls. Too many of my friends told me about the sex they’d had and it sounded horrible. It sounded fast – insanely fast- […]
And how a pornified world harms our ability to achieve gender equality “Pornified messages are bombarding our young people and giving them distorted ideas about their bodies, about relationships, and about sexuality,” says Melinda Tankard Reist, in this podcast interview, “According to global research, (this is) making our kids very unwell.” We are seeing a […]
It’s time pornography was included in discussion of factors contributing to violence against women I’ve just a released a new DVD! It’s based on an address I gave to civic leaders, community groups, educators and those at the frontline of addressing domestic violence, in Queensland late last year. I think it’s safe to say it […]
Opinion: Our kids exposed to an adult world Melinda Tankard Reist The Courier-Mail is to be commended for its series on the hypersexualisation of our young people — especially the impacts on children by allowing them to be exposed to porn even before their first kiss. What has been documented here in the Generation Sext […]
Yesterday Studio 10 screened a special investigation on the impact of pornography especially on young people. I was part of the panel. You can view an extract from the program below: See also: ‘When 5 year olds create porn themed images in class’. MTR, Australian Childhood Foundation Prosidy blog ‘Growing Up in Pornland: Girls Have […]
MTR guest blogger for The Australian Childhood Foundation This blog article was authored by Melinda Tankard Reist. Melinda is best known for her work addressing sexualisation, objectification, harms of pornography, sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence against women. Co-founder of Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation. Melinda is also an ambassador for World Vision […]
An interview with Porn Factor director Maree Crabbe Maree, there’s lots of things you could make films about. What led you to choose to make films about pornography? Through my work coordinating sexual violence prevention, sexual diversity and STI prevention programs with young people, I learnt that pornography was becoming a significant source of sexuality […]
‘The proliferation and globalisation of hypersexualised imagery and pornographic themes has led to destructive ideas about sex and makes healthy sexual exploration almost impossible…the weight of evidence about the trends in online consumption of pornography by children and young people, and the harms associated with online consumption of pornography, point to the urgent need to […]
“[I want] better education regarding sex for both boys and girls [and] information about pornography, and the way it influences harmful sexual practices.” These are the words of Lucy, aged 15, one of 600 young Australian women and girls who took part in a just-released survey commissioned by Plan Australia and Our Watch. The survey, conducted […]
We must half messages and imagery which reduces women to sexual objects, fosters a culture which condones sexual violence, and pressures young girls to act in prematurely sexual ways Collective Shout has made a submission to the NSW Parliamentary Committee on Children and Young People Inquiry into sexualisation. We hope this inquiry won’t go the […]
