Getting Real Read online

  Young women and girls today face extraordinary pressures to meet body image expectations that are unhealthy, unhelpful and unrealistic. The contributors to this book make a valuable contribution to an important national debate on how we can help young women to grow up with a healthy self-image and with the freedom and strength to be their real selves.

  —THE HON. KATE ELLIS, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION, CHILDCARE AND YOUTH, PARLIAMENT OF AUSTRALIA

  Congratulations to Melinda Tankard Reist and the writers of Getting Real for ‘Getting it Right,’ for calling it like it is, exposing medicalisation, commercial sexualisation and objectification of our girls, drawing the parallels with sexual assault, anorexia, bulimia and suicide.

  Every girl deserves a childhood full of love, trust and support to grow in safety and happiness. Not to be seen as ‘thin, hot, sexy’ but as ‘unique, adorable, talented.’ It is time to speak up for the right of every child to grow freely with hope.

  Each one of us who cares about a daughter, sister, niece or friend needs to take personal responsibility and join this call demanding a future free of exploitation for all our girls. Parents, teachers, girls themselves and all those who care about and work with girls should read this book.

  —COLEEN CLARE, CEO, CENTRE FOR EXCELLENCE IN CHILD AND FAMILY WELFARE

  Our modern culture is preoccupied with sexualising the experiences of childhood. Getting Real unmasks the tactics of those who mercilessly target children with messages that confuse and distort their development. It offers insights about how to reclaim childhood and support the critical discourse of children’s rights.

  —JOE TUCCI, CEO, AUSTRALIAN CHILDHOOD FOUNDATION

  This book does a wonderful job of adding a much needed feminist approach to the debate on the sexualization of girls. By exploring the issue from a number of perspectives, Getting Real brings into stark focus the social and psychological costs of turning our girls into sex objects—costs that we ignore at our peril.

  —GAIL DINES PHD, PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND WOMEN'S STUDIES AT WHEELOCK COLLEGE AND AUTHOR OF PORNLAND: HOW PORN HAS HIJACKED OUR SEXUALITY

  Getting Real is an important contribution to the discussion of the sexualisation of girls. This profoundly disturbing issue is a public health problem of international concern. This book is essential reading for parents, educators, and everyone who wishes to make the world a safer and healthier place for all children.

  —JEAN KILBOURNE, EDD, AUTHOR OF SO SEXY SO SOON: THE NEW SEXUALIZED CHILDHOOD AND WHAT PARENTS CAN DO TO PROTECT THEIR KIDS

  If you weren’t convinced of the urgency of the situation—this book will light a fire in your efforts to change the world for the next generation. Everyone should read it!

  —CAPTAIN DANIELLE STRICKLAND, SOCIAL JUSTICE DIRECTOR, SALVATION ARMY

  Getting Real unflinchingly tracks the abuse that, with the pervasive penetration of pornography, becomes normal culture. In the sexuality where objectification of children and infantilization of women converge, the less power you have, the sexier you are. Girls increasingly live in a world pornography has made. This book shows what needs to be stopped and why.

  —CATHARINE A. MACKINNON, ELIZABETH A. LONG PROFESSOR OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LAW SCHOOL, AND JAMES BARR AMES VISITING PROFESSOR OF LAW, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

  This is an outstanding collection of contributions addressing a significant problem in our community, namely the abuse of children and particularly girls by sexualising and exploiting them for commercial gain. Most people would be justifiably critical of child prostitution as many of the authors are, but few realise that some of the most respected commercial organisations in our community have no compunction in effectively doing so by their similar abuse of children in advertising. This book fills a real gap.

  —THE HON ALASTAIR NICHOLSON AO, FORMER CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE FAMILY COURT AND FOUNDING PATRON OF CHILDREN RIGHTS INTERNATIONAL

  Children today are exposed to sexual imagery from their earliest years, to sex as a product and our bodies as commodities. The consequences, particularly for girls, are unmistakably negative.

  Getting Real gives the mindlessness of this cultural misdirection a good shake. It does it in straightforward language and with academic attention to detail. This book will be a valuable guide, helping young people reclaim their freedom.

  —TIM COSTELLO, CEO, WORLD VISION AUSTRALIA

  Getting Real wipes away the hot, sexy sheen of the environment in which girls develop, to reveal the ugliness underneath.

  —DR CORDELIA FINE, HONORARY FELLOW, SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY, ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIAL INQUIRY, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

  Getting Real is powerful, disturbing, confronting. We often hear that young women today have never had it better, but the sexualised world they have to grow up in has nothing to do with empowerment. If we don’t challenge what we’re beginning to accept as the social norm, the risk to our girls will only continue to grow.

  —MELINA MARCHETTA, AUTHOR OF LOOKING FOR ALIBRANDI

  Photograph: David Reist

  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).

  Also by Melinda Tankard Reist

  Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief After Abortion

  Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics

  Getting Real

  Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls

  Edited by Melinda Tankard Reist

  First published in Australia in 2009 by

  Spinifex Press Pty Ltd

  504 Queensberry St

  North Melbourne, Victoria 3051

  Australia

  [email protected]

  www.spinifexpress.com.au

  © on collection Melinda Tankard Reist, 2009

  © on individual contributions remains with the authors, 2009

  © on design and typesetting, Spinifex Press, 2009

  © on cover image Hailey Bartholomew, 2009

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of the book.

  Copying for educational purposes:

  Information in this book may be reproduced in whole or part for study or training purposes, subject to acknowledgement of the source, and providing no commercial usage or sale of material occurs. Where copies of part or whole of the book are made under part VB of the Copyright Act, the law requires that prescribed procedures be followed. For information contact the Copyright Agency Limited.

  Cover image by Hailey Bartholomew: www.youcantbeserious.com.au

  Cover design by Deb Snibson, MAPG

  Typeset by Emma Statham in 12 pt/14.4 pt Bembo typeface

  Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication:

  Getting real : challenging the sexualisation of girls /

  edited by Melinda Tankard Reist.

  ISBN 978-1-74219-279-6 Master e-book ISBN

  ISBN 978-1-74219-421-9 (ePub Format)

  9781876756758 />
  Includes index.

  Bibliography.

  Girls in popular culture.

  Children in advertising.

  Sex in advertising.

  Advertising—Psychological aspects.

  Body image—Social aspects.

  Tankard Reist, Melinda.

  306.40820994

  CONTENTS

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  PREFACE The Right of Children to Be Children

  Noni Hazlehurst

  INTRODUCTION The Pornification of Girlhood: We Haven’t Come a Long Way Baby

  Melinda Tankard Reist

  What Are the Risks of Premature Sexualisation for Children?

  Emma Rush

  The Seduction of Girls: The Human Cost

  Maggie Hamilton

  Sex on the Street: Outdoor Advertising and the Sexual Harassment of Women

  Lauren Rosewarne

  The Psychological and Developmental Impact of Sexualisation on Children

  Louise Newman

  Good Is the New Bad: Rethinking Sexual Freedom

  Clive Hamilton

  The Faking It Project: What Research Tells Us about Magazines in Young Women’s Lives

  Selena Ewing

  The Gaze that Dare Not Speak Its Name: Bill Henson and Child Sexual Abuse Moral Panics

  Abigail Bray

  Media Glamourising of Prostitution and Other Sexually Exploitive Cultural Practices that Harm Children

  Melissa Farley

  The Harmful Medicalisation of Sexualised Girls

  Renate Klein

  Sexualised and Trivialised: Making Equality Impossible

  Betty McLellan

  How Girlhood Was Trashed and What We Can Do to Get It Back: A Father’s View

  Steve Biddulph

  Finding the Courage to Get Real

  Tania Andrusiak

  One Woman’s Activism: Refusing to Be Silent

  Julie Gale

  CONTRIBUTORS

  INDEX

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Richest thanks to the contributors who gave so generously of their time, talent and passion to see this book come to fruition: Noni, Emma, Maggie, Lauren, Louise, Clive, Selena, Abigail, Melissa, Renate, Betty, Steve, Tania and Julie. It really has been a pleasure and privilege to work with you all.

  To Renate—so good to do another book together. Profound thanks for your commitment to this project, and the enormous support and effort you have given to see it to completion.

  Susan, Nikki and Maralann at Spinifex—thanks for all your work too. And to Suzie for copy editing.

  Hailey—thanks for the perfect photo and Deb, for turning it into the beautiful cover.

  To all the endorsees—thank you for adding your good name to this book.

  To all who read and commented on my introduction, sincere gratitude. Helen, your skill with words is impeccable. Michael, your positive response meant a lot to me. Thanks due also to Emma, Anna, Caroline, Betty, Angela and Greg.

  I am indebted to Sophie, Nanâ, Andrew and Peter. Your generosity in friendship, wisdom and guidance is so valued. For special personal support also, I thank Anna, Suzy, Catherine, Renate, Helen, Angela, Melinda, Erica, Danni, Maria, Sally-Anne, Shawn, Branka, P & Q, Cliff, Mela and David. Julie, the laughter we share has become as necessary to me as food.

  To David (for everything), Ariel, Jordan, Kelsey and Layla.

  To Maria and Anna.

  To all the girls everywhere (and boys too).

  And to all those who want to be part of a new movement for change.

  PREFACE

  The Right of Children to Be Children

  Noni Hazlehurst

  During the Second World War, many women left the home for the first time to engage in paid work. This was primarily necessary because so many men were away fighting and somebody had to keep the wheels of industry turning. And there was the added advantage that women worked for less remuneration than men. At war’s end, however, it became clear that women would need to step aside and be encouraged to go back home, so that men could take their ‘rightful place’ as the breadwinners. Understandably, some women weren’t all that keen to go back to the way things were. So a massive campaign was mounted to make being a little homemaker seem like an attractive and normal thing for women to aspire to. Glittering new domestic appliances were dressed up as objects of desire in print, radio and television ads, television shows and films featuring ‘normal’ apple pie families were produced, and ‘homemaking’ was officially sanctioned as the proper occupation for women in the western world.

  Predictably, the next generation jacked up, and the sixties brought about revolutions of all kinds. As a child of the fifties, I spent hours drawing home-plans and bridal gowns, only to reject all that for the far more attractive options that feminism offered when I hit my teens and early twenties. We honestly believed that we could give 50 per cent of the world’s population the equality, independence and freedom that had been denied for too long.

  I loved the fact that women were encouraged to be strong and independent individuals. We didn’t have to wear high heels and make-up if we didn’t want to, didn’t have to pretend to be girlie if we didn’t feel that way, could tell a man to get lost if he made remarks we found demeaning and offensive. I also harboured a desire for the words ‘women’ and ‘hysteria’ to never again be mentioned together, and for women to be seen as something other than ‘little.’ I wanted to have the way females perceive things to be valued, not seen as just ‘emotional,’ and therefore less important than a strictly ‘rational’ response. After all, rationality didn’t seem to be making the world a better place. And for the life of me, I couldn’t understand how anyone could think that playing a role in the world of business was more important or deserving of respect than the role played by women who were rearing children. Like many young women and men in the seventies, I rejected media manipulation and rampant consumerism, and determined that my reality would be a construct chosen by me, not imposed by society’s expectations and marketing ploys.

  How naive I was, thinking that equality was just around the corner. In this first decade of the new century, I think equality is further away than it’s ever been. In fact the forces that we rebelled against have gained strength, and are more pernicious than ever.

  It saddens me that many young women who call themselves feminists, and who hold positions of public influence, are acting as apologists for the very agents of inequity that have fuelled my anger for so long. They argue that there’s no need to worry, everything’s acceptable and anyone who has concerns about the way things are going is just an old-fashioned wowser. There are some academics who claim that young children are media savvy and therefore cannot possibly be exploited. One even said in an interview ‘I don’t really buy the idea that any group is voiceless or powerless.’ They quote relentlessly from one or two studies that support their tenuous position and choose to ignore the growing number of findings contradicting their views, not to mention the swelling numbers of concerned parents, doctors and teachers.

  These academics refuse to see the forest for the trees. They argue that things have never been better because we have unprecedented power and choice thanks to new paradigms and technologies. Talk about ivory towers. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.

  We have to wake up and smell the crap. It’s everywhere. And the weight of evidence that we are causing irreparable damage to our children is becoming overwhelming. Our children are bombarded on a daily basis with images and concepts that they are not able to assimilate, understand or contextualise, even if they have parents or carers who might try to ‘explain.’

  New technology puts the world at our disposal, sure, but the version or view of the world that our kids are accessing and having thrust upon them is incredibly limited and negative. They can’t access or search for something if they don’t know it exists. They have no way of knowing the difference between accurate or inaccurate information, no way of discerning what is trust
worthy or unreliable. If women are constantly and overwhelmingly portrayed as sex objects, helpless, simpering idiots, or dried-up old prunes, then that must be the way things are. The media focus on celebrity, sex, diet, wealth and plastic surgery, and the implication that these are the only things that count, is causing our kids’ imaginations to atrophy. Ask any school teacher whether kids have changed in the last ten years.

  The insistent and ubiquitous presentation of this unbalanced view of the world is nothing less than a form of child abuse. Why is it we kick up such a fuss about junk food and obesity, but are unwilling or unable to tackle the lack of quality sustenance for children’s minds and spirits? Just as our bodies bear witness to the food we eat, our cultural conserve is the sum of our experiences and knowledge, and more connections are made in the brain in the first three years than at any other time of life. Suggesting we have a dedicated children’s television channel is fine, but how many pre-schoolers control the remote? And putting a television in every room is hardly a solution.

  Clearly our children are suffering a cultural drought—and when you’re parched, when you’re desperate for a drink and you have no other options, you take whatever you can get. But if what you get isn’t good enough, it follows that you will be seriously compromised.

  In my view, our children’s imaginations are dying. Their sense of themselves as worthy, strong individuals who are valued because they are unique is constantly being undermined. Only a few can withstand that sort of pressure. And very few will be in a position to be encouraged to be different, as many of today’s young parents don’t remember when there were alternative ways of looking at the world and other ways to value an individual’s noteworthiness.