Experts address packed-out UNSW theatre The ground-breaking symposium ‘Pornography and harms to children and young people’ held at the University of New South Wales in Sydney last Tuesday has been declared a major success. Hosted by Collective Shout, the Australia-first event brought together leading academics, researchers, educators, psychologists and youth and child advocates to examine […]
Porn’s distortions need addressing in schools say educators The ABC filmed me addressing students at Healthdale Christian College in Melbourne last Wednesday. Some of the students were interviewed – hear how well they articulate the issues! (click on image below for link to video) MELINDA TANKARD REIST, AUTHOR, ADVOCATE FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS: Our boys […]
How sexualised behaviour has become the new normal While the content was disturbing, it was encouraging to wake up to the front page of The Australian on the weekend and see the issues myself and my colleagues write and speak about most days, reflected on the front page. A news piece titled ‘Click bait: kids […]
I’m quoted in this article by Kasey Edwards in Daily Life today: …This is symptomatic of a broader attitude where sex is regarded as solely about male pleasure and male desires. The man decides and the woman provides. Women having sex for their own pleasure is rarely portrayed in popular culture, porn or even sex […]
How online porn is warping the behaviour of boys with girls When Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry first came out, people would tell me they would read a chapter, then take a break, then read another chapter. Others would say they were too shocked to finish it. It was too […]
‘The pornographic vocabulary of sex as the violent debasement of the female body had seeped out from screens and into the lives of women’ There’s a shift happening. Perhaps not quite enough yet to call it a tipping point. But something is going on. When my colleagues and I were working on ‘Big Porn Inc: […]
I wonder if men like Jackson Katz and Jonah Mix and Chris Hedges (mentioned in this piece by Meghan Murphy and by me in this post on ABC Lateline and ‘sex work’ know what it means to women to have them speak so strongly and unequivocally – and often condemned for doing so- on issues […]
This year I’ve had the privilege of addressing a few thousand medical professionals at one-day seminars run by Health Ed around the country, most recently in Brisbane. My subject: ‘Is pornography becoming a public health issue?’ I’m finding it interesting that where it seemed only a few of us were once saying this, now there […]
Profound experiences with W.A students on my last roadtrip. Last month I spoke 27 times in three and a half weeks in the ACT, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales. I spoke on the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls in media and popular culture, the sexual world of the 21st century adolescent, […]
Violence, Teenagers, and Gonzo Porn By Clara Bennathan Reprinted with permission. Posted originally on Bad Housekeeping I have seen a sixteen-year-old boy weeping in distress after getting a girl’s pube stuck in his teeth, I hear he was unshaven. I have seen boys showing each other porn on their iPhones on the train home from […]
Dolly Doctor and Oral Sex: is advice to girls clear? Dolly Doctor this issue deals with oral sex. Parents with younger Dolly readers in the family may want to be aware of that and be prepared to talk about it with them (Dolly has featured’ Readers of the month’ who are 11). Also, although the […]
Over exposure is making teens pawns to porn A 15-year-old boy confided in me after I addressed his class at a Sydney school last year. He cried as he told me he had been using porn since the age of nine. He didn’t have a social life, had few friends, had never had a girlfriend. […]
