Getting Real
Page 20
KF2BK acts as a conduit for the community to express concerns. People should not underestimate the power of their own voices. I encourage everyone to register their names onto our website www.kf2bk.com as a way of being heard. There’s definitely power in numbers, and speaking up really does make a difference!
I have a quote on my office wall that I refer to often.
‘To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.’ Elbert Hubbard
As long as we stay silent, we are complicit in maintaining the status quo.
References
Australian Government (2005) ‘Guidelines for the Classification of Publications’ http://www.comlaw.gov.au/comlaw/management.nsf/lookupindexpagesbyid/IP200508204?OpenDocument
Australian Government (2008) ‘Senate Inquiry into the sexualisation of children in the contemporary media environment’ accessed June, http://www.aph.gov.au/SENATE/committee/eca_ctte/sexualisation_of_children/report/report.pdf
Benson, Simon (2009) ‘MP Greg Donnelly outrages parliament with adult titles’ The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, March 27, http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,27574,25247801-5006009,00.html
Black, Sophie (2009) ‘FOI reveals DJs kids were supposed to be “adult and sexy”’ accessed June 1, http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/06/01/foi-reveals-djs-kids-were-supposed-to-be-adult-and-s-xy/
Brooks, Karen (2008) ‘Shirty with little misses’ Courier Mail, January 23, http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23091541-5012471,00.html
Collins, Lauren (2008) ‘Pixel perfect: Pascal Dangin’s virtual reality’ The New Yorker, May 12, http://www.newyorkerest.com/?p=36
Critchley, Cheryl (2007a) ‘Kylie gets her knickers knotted’ The Herald Sun, June 15.
Critchley, Cheryl (2007b) ‘Little Kylie syndrome’ The Herald Sun, June 16.
Critchley, Cheryl (2009) ‘Voodoo Smiggle furore’ The Herald Sun, March 18, p. 23.
Danaher, Carla (2007) ‘Racy wear for kids under fire’ The Herald Sun, June 16.
Davies, Julie-Anne (2009) ‘Underage porn sold in corner milkbars’ The Australian, April 3, p. 5.
Fine, Duncan (2008) ‘Bill Henson? Porn culture? Get real’ accessed May 30, http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/05/30/bill-henson-porn-culture-get-real
Fife-Yeomans, Janet (2009) ‘Row brews over children’s “sexy” David Jones ad’ accessed May 30, http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25558480-5001021,00.html
Gough, Deborah (2007a) ‘Innocence interrupted: move to end selling sex to children’ The Sunday Age, Melbourne, March 25.
Gough, Deborah (2007b) ‘Advertisers heed outcry over sex and kids’ The Sunday Age, Melbourne, April 8, p. 5.
Hamilton, Clive (2009) ‘DJs & Saatchi approved sexed-up kids. So why come after us?’ accessed June 2, http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/06/02/clive-hamilton-djs-saatchi-approved-s-xed-up-kids-so-why-come-after-us/
Hansard (2008) Senate, Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs of the Senate, October 20, pp.111–113,120, http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S11351.pdf
Hansard (2009) Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee, May 25, pp. 57–66, http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S12039.pdf
Kids Free 2B Kids (2009a) ‘David Jones sprung for ads sexualising children,’ May 31, Media Release http://www.kf2bk.com/latest_news.htm&news_id=15
Kohler, Chris (2008) ‘Jay Jays reaches out to losers everywhere’ accessed January 24, http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/01/24/jay-jays-reaches-out-to-losers-everywhere
Tankard Reist, Melinda (2008) ‘Incensed about censorship’ accessed November 27, http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2429316.htm
Tankard Reist, Melinda (2009) ‘Sticks and stones, pins and needles’ accessed March 24, http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2521872.htm
CONTRIBUTORS
Tania Andrusiak is a 35-year-old writer, editor and mother of two. She has written and edited content for commercial and non-profit sectors including Oxfam Australia, Eureka Street, On Line Opinion and MercatorNet. She is the co-author of a book on parenting and media literacy, Adproofing Your Kids (Finch Publishing, 2009).
Steve Biddulph’s books on parenthood are in four million homes and in 29 languages worldwide. He has been a psychologist for 30 years. Steve recently led a five-year national project to remember the 353 parents and children who died on the refugee vessel SIEVX, at the height of the 2001 federal election. (www.sievxmemorial.com) He lives among a large extended family in Tasmania.
Dr Abigail Bray is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Western Australia. She has published on anorexia nervosa, the psychiatric drugging of children, and child sexual abuse ‘moral panics’ in international refereed journals. She is the author of Helene Cixous: Writing and Sexual Difference (2004) and Body Talk: A Power Guide for Girls (2005) with Elizabeth Reid Boyd. She is a member of the Marxist collective ‘Das Argument: Journal for philosophy and social sciences.’
Selena Ewing is a founding director of Women’s Forum Australia, and Senior Research Officer at Southern Cross Bioethics Institute, Adelaide. Selena has a background in health science and her research interests include women’s health, aged care and public health. She is the author of Women and Abortion: An Evidence-Based Review and Faking It: The Female Image in Young Women’s Magazines.
Dr Melissa Farley is a feminist psychologist. In 2003, she edited Prostitution, Trafficking & Traumatic Stress (Routledge) and in 2007 she wrote Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections (Prostitution Research & Education). Melissa Farley is director of Prostitution Research & Education, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco (http://www.prostitutionresearch.com) and she is a founding member of the Nevada Coalition Against Sex Trafficking (nevadacoalition.org).
Julie Gale is a comedy writer and performer and the founder of Kids Free 2B Kids (www.kf2bk.com). She has performed her one-woman shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Julie has been raising public, corporate and political awareness about the sexualisation of children since February 2007.
Professor Clive Hamilton AM is Charles Sturt Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, based at the Australian National University. For fourteen years until early 2008 he was the Executive Director of The Australia Institute. He is the author of Growth Fetish and The Freedom Paradox, both published in Australia by Allen & Unwin.
Author and publisher Maggie Hamilton gives frequent talks and lectures, is a regular media commentator and a keen observer of social trends. Her book What Men Don’t Talk About, about the lives of real men and boys, has been published in Australia, New Zealand, Holland, the Arab States and Brazil. Her most recent book is What’s Happening To Our Girls? (2008) Maggie is currently researching What’s Happening To Our Boys? to be published mid-2010.
Noni Hazlehurst OA is one of Australia’s most distinguished and respected actors in film and television. The recipient of four AFI Awards and two Logies, Noni has worked extensively in theatre in Australia and overseas. She has been a performer and writer for Playschool for 24 years and both patron and ambassador for a number of child welfare organisations, such as Barnardos. A regular presenter for ABC radio, a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines on issues of child protection and parenting, she is also well known as a public speaker on children and the media and child welfare. In 1995, Noni Hazlehurst received an Order of Australia for services to children and children’s television and in 2007 an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from Flinders University (SA).
Dr Renate Klein is a long-term health researcher and has written extensively on reproductive technologies and feminist theory. A biologist and social scientist, she was Associate Professor in Women’s Studies at Deakin University in Melbourne until 2006, a founder of FINRRAGE (Feminist International Network of Resistance to Reproductive and Genetic Engineering, www.finrrage.org) and an Advisory Board Member of Hands Off Our Ovaries.
Dr Betty McLellan is
a feminist ethicist, author, psychotherapist and committed activist of long standing. One of four women who comprise the Coalition for a Feminist Agenda, and the facilitator of f-agenda, Betty’s focus is deliberately local and global. She is the author of Overcoming Anxiety (Allen & Unwin, 1992), Beyond Psychoppression: A Feminist Alternative Therapy (Spinifex Press, 1995) and Help! I’m Living With a Man Boy (Spinifex Press, 1999/2006) now translated into thirteen languages. Her fourth book focuses on the politics of speech as a feminist ethical issue (Unspeakable: A Feminist Ethic of Speech, forthcoming).
Professor Louise Newman is Director of the Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology at Monash University and a child and adolescent psychiatrist working with young children who have experienced abuse and trauma. She is also researching the impacts of early trauma on development. She designs and runs interventions for women who have experienced child abuse and are wanting to be effective parents for their own children.
Dr Lauren Rosewarne is a lecturer in public policy in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. She is also the Associate Director of the Centre for Public Policy. Her first book Sex in Public: Women, Outdoor Advertising and Public Policy was published in 2007 (Cambridge Scholar’s Press) and her second book Cheating on the Sisterhood: Infidelity and Feminism was published in 2009 (Praeger). Lauren has qualifications in political science, cultural studies, public policy and education and has taught and researched in areas including media, feminist studies and American politics.
Dr Emma Rush is the lead author of the reports ‘Corporate Paedophilia: Sexualisation of children in Australia’ and ‘Letting Children Be Children: Stopping the sexualisation of children,’ both published by the Australia Institute in 2006. Much of her research work has revolved around ethical issues in public life. She is currently lecturing in ethics at Charles Sturt University.
Melinda Tankard Reist is an Australian author, speaker, commentator and advocate with a special interest in issues affecting women and girls. Melinda is author of Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief After Abortion (Duffy & Snellgrove, 2000) and Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics (Spinifex Press, 2006). Melinda’s commentary has been published and broadcast in Australia and overseas. A founder of independent women’s think tank Women’s Forum Australia, Melinda is editor of the magazine-style research paper Faking It: The Female Image in Young Women’s Magazines (2007).
INDEX
abortion
counselling, 139
late-term, 136
medical, 133–134, 138
see also RU486
abstinence, 89–90, 93
acrylic nails, 10
activism, 179–190
Adproofing Your Kids (Andrusiak), 31
Adams, Phillip, 42
addiction, 164
Adolescent Health Cohort Study in the State of Victoria, 134
‘adult sexual themes,’ 76, 80
Advanced Medical Institute, 182
advertising
changes to codes for children, 180, 182
children’s clothes, 83
complaints, 72–73
controls, 72–73
drawing on pornography, 71
fashion industry, 101–102, 106
homogenous images of women, 70
lingerie, 5
male sexual dysfunction products, 179–180, 182
objectification of women, 67–73, 182
outdoor, 67–73, 131, 179–180, 182
portrayals of women, 67–73
self regulatory system, 169
sexism, 70–71, 73
as sexual harassment, 67, 72–3
sexualised, 27–28, 30, 41, 56, 67, 80, 87, 103, 184
sexy models, 106
television, 68
use of fantasy, 120
use of young models, 30, 185
see also marketing
Advertising Standards Board (ASB), 73, 181–182
advocacy for girls, 34
Age, The, 17–18
ageism, media’s role, 69
Albury, Katherine, 152
American Psychological Association (APA), 32, 81
Taskforce on the Sexualisation of Girls, 8, 46, 48
America’s Next Top Model, 9, 27
Andrusiak, Tania, 31
Annear, Judy, 111
anorexia, 173–174
antidepressants, 133–134, 139–141
Apple, 120
Arndt, Bettina, 150–151, 154
art and pornography debate, 18, 109–116
Art Monthly Australia, 18
Association of National Advertisers (AANA), 180
Australia Institute, 180, 185
Australian, The, 49, 110, 189
Australian Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee (ADRAC), 139
Australian Centre for Child Protection (University of South Australia), 49
Australian Childhood Foundation, 49, 60
Australian Classification Board, 187, 189
Australian Council on Children and the Media, 50, 180
Australian Creative Taskforce, 110
Australian Idol, 27
Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit, 45
Australian Psychological Society, 44
Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS), 47
baby T-shirt slogans, 11
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women (Faludi), 149
bad girls, 92–95
Bal, Mieke, 112
Barbie dolls, 56
Barbie Princess dolls, 16
Barrymore, Michael, 7
beauty, media norms, 68–70, 82
Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West (Jeffreys), 159
bebo, 131
Belliotti, Raymond, 88
Bennett, Jane, 138
Bennington, Sasha, 10
Biddulph, Steve, 31
Big Brother, 14
‘bitches,’ 23, 122
Black, Sophie, 185
Bliss magazine, 59
‘Blow Job,’ 186
blow-up sex dolls, 184, 186
BMG advertisement, 71
bodies
idealised, 28–29, 45, 82, 100, 106, 174–175
see also objectification
body image
dissatisfaction, 43–44, 57, 105, 168, 172, 174–176
fear of fatness, 9, 57
feminist concerns, 69
idealised, 28–29, 45
infantilisation, 17
sexualised, 3
women’s magazines, 106
see also body modification;
eating disorders
Body Love Policy Cosmopolitan (Australia), 105
body modification
acrylic nails, 10
botox, 16, 82
brazilian waxes, 16–17
breast implants, 15–16, 59
cosmetic surgery, 14–15, 59, 82, 159
make-over shows, 9–10
spray tan, 10
see also body image
body perceptions
by cosmetic surgeons, 14–16
by men, 16, 29
by mothers, 10, 17
by teenage boys, 15–16
by teenage girls, 9–10, 14–17
Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, The (Brumberg), 8
body size and shape
body mass index (BMI), 141
fat, 9, 28, 58, 75, 101, 132, 141
obesity, 69, 112, 141–142
Real Women, 171, 176
thin, 8, 67–69, 100, 102, 105, 112, 131, 141, 171, 176–177
weight issues, 14, 44, 57, 75, 82, 132, 138, 141, 171, 173–174, 177
see also eating disorders
Body Talk (Boyd & Bray), 144
‘boomeritis,’ 91–92
Booyar, Olya, 189
botox, 16, 82
Boyle, Susan, 6–7
boys
age at first sex,
134
attitudes to breasts, 15–16
bonding rituals, 22
exposure to pornography, 23–24
false expectations of girls, 158
gang rape, 24–25, 27
sex education from pornography, 21, 24, 123
BP, 184, 188
bras, 11–12, 42–43
Bras N things, 182
Bratz dolls, 19, 32, 56
Bray, Abigail, 30, 140, 144
brazilian waxes, 16–17
breast implants, 15–16, 59, 125
Britain’s Got Talent, 6
Brown, Lyn Mikel, 70
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs, 8
bulimia, 174
Caltex/Safeway, 188
Cambodia, sex industry, 19–20
Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (US), 185
career counselling for sex industry work, 125
Carrington, Kerry, 23, 25
celebrity culture, 3, 32, 43–44, 57, 80, 92, 102, 176
celebrity gossip magazines, 43
censorship, 110–112, 114, 152
Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, 49
Cervarix, 134
cervical cancer vaccines, 134–135, 137, 140, 143
‘chemical citizens,’ 140, 144
child development, 75–84
cognitive, 57, 81
emotional, 81
psychological, 44–47, 75–84, 168
sexual, 77–78, 81
Child Labour and Child Exploitation conference, 190
child pornography, 76, 79, 110–12, 122
censorship legislation, 111–112
child sexual abuse, 44, 47–49, 51, 76
statistics, 79
World Health Organization, 79
child sexual abuse moral panics 109-110, 115
children
agency, 115
bombarded with images, 3, 131
exposure to pornography, 21, 24, 63, 76, 123, 125
psychological effects of sexualisation, 75–84
risks of sexualisation, 41–52
Childwise Australia, 49
‘choice,’ 136, 142
Ciara, 13
Classification Board, 187, 189