Getting Real

by Melinda Tankard Reist

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  14 I thank Abigail Bray for this expression taken from her essay ‘Chemical ControlTM®: From the Cane to the Pill’ (2009) in which she argues that drugs like Ritalin and antidepressants have replaced the cane in disciplining children.

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  The politics of fear

  An adverse effect of both antidepressants and hormonal contraception is weight gain which makes the medicalisation/sexualisation nexus especially obvious. To be thin and weightless is the ideal, to be ‘fat’ even if only in a girl’s own mind, can lead to extreme self-loathing. Unfortunately, yet another aspect of the medicalisation of children comes into play here and it arrives in our lives care of our own health authorities. For at least a decade we have now heard that an obesity epidemic is nigh in Australia and the UK and that the best way to measure obesity is the Body Mass Index (BMI) that is calculated using a mathematical formulation of weight and height. Undoubtedly, many children don’t get much exercise when they remain indoors and are glued to their computers, and the ads for junk food still recruit many customers (especially when it is cheaper than healthy food). Government campaigns on ‘healthy living’ are to be welcomed (and should include subsidies to organic farmers). What is less welcome is the far too uncritical assumption that your BMI determines whether you are in the ‘obese’ category and at risk of suffering from diabetes and heart disease. Such scaremongering also stigmatises children who are indeed overweight as ‘weak-willed, ugly and awkward’ (O’Dea, 2005, p. 259). It reaches problematic proportions when health authorities threaten to seize overweight kids from their parents (Rose, 2009). Joanne Ikeda and colleagues question whether BMI screening in British schools is ‘helpful or harmful’ (2006, p. 761). Child health researcher Jennifer O’Dea cautions to ‘First, do no harm’ in the prevention of child obesity (2005, p. 259). As she put it to a Parliamentary Senate Inquiry into Obesity (2008):

  There’s a lot of money to be made out of the idea that every Australian man, woman, child and dog could lose some weight… There’s a lot of profit and influence and power and ego involved in these careers in obesity, and in selling products, pills, formulas, pharmaceuticals, books and surgery promoting weight loss (in Guilliatt, 2009, p. 21).

  A perfect example of how well meant and important concerns about children’s wellbeing are turned into the latest arena of personalised medical intervention (possibly coupled with a test for a genetic disposition to obesity). This has serious consequences for a child’s developing relationship with her or his body. As Susie Orbach puts it succinctly: ‘The body is experienced as menace’ (2009, p. 111).

  Fast forward to a healthy life

  With medicalisation as a result of early sexualisation girls are fast forwarded into the adult consumer world of the medical ‘choice’ industry. This is where capitalism meets—and exploits—liberal (feminist) dreams of girl power.

  If we don’t want young girls to succumb to the politics of fear under the false guise of ‘it’s my responsibility and my choice,’ we need to instil a healthy dose of scepticism. The medical industry doesn’t always know best; it might not be the first option to explore. We are ourselves, our bodies and minds, and children must not be robbed of the time it takes to get to know—and appreciate— themselves. And no one needs to be ‘perfect’—whatever ‘perfect’ might be.

  There is a wealth of knowledge about ‘good living’ passed on in families from generation to generation, often by women who know lots about home remedies and nutrition. Health and wellbeing has to be the starting point, rather than screening or testing for the absence of disease. Providing information to young women (and men) about how to eat well, engage in physical activities, not smoke, drink in moderation (if they must), and look for the positives in life rather than the negatives, so that their immune system is strong, would be a better strategy than uncritically inducting them into the medical industry. Some might say that such messages will fall on deaf ears but I suggest we should never give up trying to inform before we reach for the pill—or the syringe as it were with the HPV vaccines mentioned earlier. At least the girls would be spared the serious adverse effects these vaccines can have for some,15 and not become obedient consumers of the latest medical miracle before they are teenagers—many won’t even have started menstruation.16

  As adults we have a responsibility to pass on to young women and men that they need to critically assess new ‘miracle’ technological, medical, and chemical fixes. This can start at an early age in schools where, in courses such as Human Relationships, they learn about issues of power and dominance and what makes boys respect girls and vice versa. In this way they learn about confidence, self-worth, self-love and integrity of body and soul which has to come from the inside, not from others, even if they present as friendly helpers. The Australian Government’s announcement in April 2009 that it is putting nine million dollars into ‘Respectful Relationships programs’ for ‘mainstream school settings [that] will reach up to 8,000 young people over a period of five years’ is a step in the right direction (Australian Government, 2009). When the topic of sex is raised in these discussions, the teachers must get the message across that it is perfectly okay to say ‘no’—and that this is a good decision, not one they should be penalised for (see Clive Hamilton, this volume). They also have the right to know that multiple casual sex partners and hook ups can lead to negative emotional and physical health outcomes. And when it is appropriate that contraception is discussed, the young women (and men) must be given proper information including an introduction into the powerful actions of the sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone.

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  15 Adverse effects after Gardasil injections include difficulty walking, disorientation, dizziness, neurological disorders, seizures, pancreatitis, Guillain-Barré Syndrome, hyperventilation, bronchospasms, pallor, tinnitus, arthralgia (joint pains), cardiac problems and anaphylactic shock. As of April 2009, a total of 1,304 adverse reactions had been reported in Australia and by May 2009 over 16,000 in the USA (reports represent only between one and ten per cent of all adverse reactions). In the USA, by May 2009, 47 deaths have been associated with the HPV vaccine Gardasil: four times the number of deaths associated with Menactra (a vaccine against meningococcal) (for details see www.nvic.org/Downloads/NVICGardasilvsMenactraVAERSReportFeb-2009u.aspx). The vaccine manufacturers maintain that Gardasil is safe. For some of the deaths of healthy US teenagers from cardiac problems the suggestion has been that these girls might have suffered from an undiagnosed weakness (eg a heart murmur). For first hand accounts of girls’ vaccination stories, see http://womenhurtbymedicine.wordpress.com/

  16 Gardasil may interact with the menstrual cycle. It is also not recommended for pregnant women but there have been reports of spontaneous abortions and foetal abnormalities when pregnant women were inadvertently injected with Gardasil during the trials. Merck has set up a registry to follow pregnant women who have received Gardasil. It is unknown if fertility will be affected. http://www.merckpregnancyregistries.com/gardasil.html

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  If girls—and boys—have such an informed start in life, they might be able to better deal with the challenging world around them. They might begin to like their Real Bodies. Indeed, the girls might one day join together, just as the women did in the 1960s, in a 21st century version of the Women’s Liberation Movement, and in ways that fit the current times, demand to be liberated from toxic media, chemical citizenship and neoliberal consumerism. By rejecting both early sexualisation and medicalisation, both girls and boys will have a greater chance of a good life. Hopefully, the inspiring words about ‘Body Power! by Elizabeth Reid Boyd and Abigail Bray in Body Talk (2005) will be listened to (p. 90):

  It’s time to celebrate our bodies and not waste our time trashing ourselves for not measuring up, for not being perfect. It’s time that we celebrated being strong and healthy and intelligent and creative. It’s time we started to enjoy being inside our own skin, eating because we are rea
lly hungry, exercising because we love the feeling of power it gives us.

  Imagine the things you could do, all the energy you’d have if you didn’t waste your health and time on trying to measure up. You’d experience so much freedom. You’d experience a pure and powerful joy in your own body, whatever size it might be. Free yourself. Only you can do it. No one else but you is in charge of your liberation.

  References

  Australian Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee (2004) ‘Use of SSRI antidepressants in children and adolescents’ www.tga.gov.au/adr/adrac_ssri.htm

  Australian Government (2009) ‘Time for Action: The National Council’s Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children’ April 29, http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/women/pubs/violence/np_time_for_action/national_plan/Documents/The_Plan.pdf

  Australian Research Centre for Sex Health and Society (ARCSHS) (2005) The Sexual and Reproductive Health of Young Victorians. Unpublished data. www.fpv.org.au/pdfs/HReport2_02Dec2005.pdf

  Bennett, Jane and Alexandra Pope (2008) The Pill. Are You Sure It’s for You? Allen & Unwin, Sydney.

  Boston Women’s Health Collective (1969). Our Bodies Ourselves. Simon and Schuster, New York.

  Bray, Abigail (2009) ‘Chemical ControlTM®: From the Cane to the Pill’ in David Savat and Mark Poster (Eds) Deleuze and New Technology. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 82–103.

  Doidge, Norman (2007) The Brain that Changes Itself. Scribe Publications, Melbourne.

  Castellsague, Xavier, Teresa Drudis, Maria Paz Canadas et al. (2009) ‘Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection in pregnant women and mother-to-child transmission of genital HPV genotypes: a prospective study in Spain’ BMC Infectious Diseases, 9:74, http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/9/74/abstract

  Davis, Julie-Anne (2008a) ‘Suicide attempt a depressing drug side effect’ The Weekend Australian, September 20-21, Inquirer, p. 28.

  Davis, Julie-Anne (2008b) ‘Probe into anti-depressants being conducted “in secret”’ The Weekend Australian, November 1–2, The Nation, p. 9.

  Dworkin-McDaniel, Norine (2007) ‘I was betrayed by a pill’ Marie-Claire, USA, July, http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/relationship-issues/articles/abortion-pill

  Guilliatt, Richard (2009) ‘Off the Scale’ The Weekend Australian Magazine, May 9–10, pp. 19–25.

  Hawthorne, Susan (2008) ‘Somatic Piracy and BioPhallacies: Separation, Violence and Biotech Fundamentalism’ Women’s Studies International Forum 31 (4), July-August, pp. 308–318.

  Houlihan, Liam (2007) ‘School Pill Run’ Sunday Herald Sun, March 25, http://www.acl.org.au/qld/browse.stw?article_id=14007

  Ikeda, Joanne, P., Patricia Crawford and Gail Woodward-Lopez (2006) ‘BMI screening in schools: helpful or harmful’ Health Education Research 21 (6), pp. 761–769.

  Insciences Organisation (2009) ‘New study finds teen girls regret having sex earlier’ May 19, http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=5101

  Jureidini, Jon (2009) ‘How do we safely treat depression in children, adolescents and young adults?’ Drug Safety 32(4), pp. 275–282.

  Klein, Renate, Janice Raymond and Lynette Dumble (1991) RU 486: Misconceptions, Myths and Morals. Spinifex Press, Melbourne.

  Klein, Renate (1996) ‘(Dead) Bodies Floating in Cyberspace: Post-modernism and the Dismemberment of Women’ in Diane Bell and Renate Klein (Eds) Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed. Spinifex Press, Melbourne, pp. 346–358.

  Klein, Renate (1999) ‘The Politics of Cyberfeminism: If I’m a Cyborg rather than a Goddess will Patriarchy go away’ in Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein (Eds) Cyberfeminism. Connectivity, Critique, Creativity. Spinifex Press, Melbourne, pp. 185–212.

  Klein, Renate (2006) ‘Submission to Senate Inquiry Repeal of Ministerial responsibility for approval of RU486, Bill 2005’ January 15. www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/clac_ctte/completed_inquiries/2004-07/ru486/submissions/sub605.pdf

  Klein, Renate and Melinda Tankard Reist (2007) ‘Gardasil: we must not ignore the risks’ On Line Opinion June 1. www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5917&page=2

  Klein, Renate (2008a) ‘Depo Provera—the shot that lingers’ Living Wisdom 6 (1) pp. 42–45.

  Klein, Renate (2008b) ‘Implanon: just slip it in?’ May 6 On Line Opinion, http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7331

  Klein, Renate (2008c) ‘From test-tube women to bodies without women’ Women’s Studies International Forum 31(3) pp. 157–175.

  Klein, Renate (2008d) ‘The Gardasil “miracle” coming undone?’ On Line Opinion August 21, http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7786

  Klein, Renate (2009) ‘Gardasil: The denial continues’ On Line Opinion June 30, http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=9112

  LA Feminist Women’s Health Center (1981) How to Stay out of the Gynecologist’s Office. Peace Press, Culver City, CA.

  Lippman, Abby, Ryan Melnychuk, Carolyn Shimmin and Madeline Boscoe (2007) ‘Human papillomavirus, vaccines and women’s health: questions and cautions’ Canadian Medical Association Journal 177 (5), pp. 484–487 available at http://www.cmaj.ca/content/vol177/issue5/

  Monteiro-Dantas, Cecilia, Ximena Espejo-Arce et al. (2007). ‘A three-year longitudinal evaluation of the forearm bone density of users of etonogestrel- and levonorgestrel-releasing contraceptive Implants’ Reproductive Health 4 (11). http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?pmid=17997844

  Moynihan, Ray and Alan Cassels (2005) Selling Sickness. How Drug Companies Are Turning Us All into Patients. Allen & Unwin, Sydney.

  O’Dea, Jennifer A. (2005) ‘Prevention of child obesity: “First, do no harm”’ Health Education Research 20 (2), pp. 259–265.

  Orbach, Susie (2009) Bodies. Profile Books, London.

  Reid Boyd, Elizabeth and Abigail Bray (2005) Body Talk: A Power Guide for Girls. Hodder Headline, Sydney.

  Rose, Danny (2009) ‘Call in DoCS for overweight kids: doctor’ February 1, http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/736283/call-in-docs-for-overweight-kids-doctor/?rss=yes

  Sauers, Joan (2007) Sex Lives of Australian Teenagers, Random House Australia, Sydney.

  Sawaya, George and Karen Smith-McCune (2007) ‘HPV Vaccination—More Answers, More Questions’ New England Journal of Medicine 356 (19), pp. 1991–1993 available at http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/356/19/1991

  Scully, Diana (1980/1994) Men Who Control Women’s Health. The Miseducation of Obstetrician-Gynecologists. Houghton Mifflin, New York; Athene Series, Teachers College Press, New York.

  Stoppard, Janet M. and Linda M. McMullen (2003). Situating Sadness: Women and Depression in Social Context. New York University Press: New York.

  Tankard Reist, Melinda (2000) Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief After Abortion. Duffy & Snellgrove, Sydney.

  Tankard Reist, Melinda (2006) Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics. Spinifex Press, Melbourne.

  Tankard Reist, Melinda (2008) ‘Branding girls for s*x’ May 6 www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7314

  Tankard Reist, Melinda and Renate Klein (2007) ‘Why are we experimenting with drugs on Australian girls? The Gardasil program may benefit only drug company shareholders’ The Age, May 25, Melbourne. http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/why-are-we-experimenting-with-drugs-on-girls/2007/05/24/1179601570922.html

  WHO/ICO Information Centre on HPV and Cervical Cancer (2007) Human Papillomavirus and Cervical Cancer. Summary Report. http://www.who.int/hpvcentre/statistics/dynamic/ico/summaryreportsselect.cfm

  Sexualised and Trivialised: Making Equality Impossible

  Betty McLellan

  Promoters of the sexualisation of women and girls tell us that it is a matter of personal, individual choice. But those of us with a long-standing engagement with feminism disagree: ‘The Personal is Political,’ we say, ‘the way women and girls are treated in their personal lives is actually a political issue.’1 We suggest that the increasing focus on sex and sexiness is not so much a matter of personal pre
ference but pressure coming from people and institutions in society with the power to shape the way others think and feel. Unfortunately, our critical voices are often silenced by those with a vested interest in keeping women sexualised and trivialised, commodified and subordinated.

  The process by which feminist voices have been silenced is an interesting one.2 Looking back over the last two decades, one can identify deliberate tactics of misrepresentation designed to make equality between the sexes impossible. This tactic involves the twisting of an original message until it appears to mean something else and, then, the promotion of that false version to the public through the media and other powerful institutions as though that was what was originally intended.

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  1 The word ‘political’ does not always refer to the machinations of political parties. Here I use it to denote power dynamics between individuals and groups of people in society. Feminists call on everyone to have a greater awareness of the power dynamics operating between men and women and between the more powerful and less powerful groups in society.

  2 Susan Faludi used the word ‘backlash’ to describe this process in Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women (1991). See also Marilyn French’s The War Against Women (1992).

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  In this chapter, I will address the issue of trivialising women’s and girls’ agency in the sexualisation debate by discussing, first, the widely promoted deception that the Feminist Movement equals the so-called Sexual Revolution. Next I will ask: How did sex, sexiness, sexualisation become the measure of women’s worth? And how, increasingly, is this measure also applied to girls? Following that, I will outline what feminist researchers and activists see as the harms that come from the sexualisation of women and girls.