Entries Tagged 'guest post' ↓

By Melinda Tankard Reist

Collective Shout is a new grassroots movement mobilising and equipping individuals and groups to target corporations, advertisers, marketers and media which objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services.

Most young women don’t like themselves very much. In fact, self-hatred has been described as a right-of-passage for teenage girls. They are suffering unprecedented levels of eating disorders, self-harm, depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. 

One in 100 Australian girls is anorexic, one in ten is bulimic and even eight-year-old girls are being hospitalised with eating disorders. One in four teenage girls wants to have cosmetic surgery. Deliberate self-harm is the number one reason for hospital admission in girls aged 13-19 in Australia.

Research tells us that young women are negatively impacted by messages from media and popular culture which tells them they are only the sum of their body parts; that they have to look thin and sexy and act “hot” to be acceptable. Many are obsessed with their looks and trying to lose weight. 

Research also shows that boys are increasingly affected by these messages;  worried about their looks and whether they are “muscly” enough . They are also affected by messages that teach them that girls are just there for their own pleasure and also by a deluge of violence in media and computer games which moulds their thinking and too often their behaviour.

But not all young men and women are happy with this situation. They have experienced the effects of this toxic culture on themselves and seen the impact on their siblings and friends.

Many want to resist the air headed cult of celebrity and fashion and be valued for their talents and abilities and desire to make a difference in the world, rather than be sucked-in by the cult of celebrity, fashion and body obsession.

Many are choosing to swim against the tide, taking part in movements and groups working to bring about change, engaging in culture-jamming actions, boycotts, new social media, forums, e-zines and other formats to promote alternatives to the current social scripts for how young people should live.

One of the groups which young people are joining is called Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation. Collective Shout is a new grassroots movement mobilising and equipping individuals and groups to target corporations, companies, advertisers, marketers and media who objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products.

We’ll be telling them:  if you are going to use the bodies of women and girls to sell your stuff in a way that objectifies, degrades, or exploits, then you’ll be hearing from us.

You will see your advertising on our site – reproduced, taken apart piece by piece to expose its negative messages. We’ll have a graffiti board where budding graffiti artists will ‘re-face’ your billboards and other ads. Thousands of  people will be educated about how dodgy you are and will want to avoid you.

Discussion Questions for teenagers

1. What are the ways you think the  media (TV, magazines, websites, advertising, music etc)  and popular culture in general (e.g. fashion, celebrity, music industry) objectify women and girls (and men and boys?)
2. Describe a current advertisement which you think objectifies women and girls. What do you think are the messages this advertisement sends?  How does it make you feel?
3. How do you feel when you read magazines like Dolly, Girlfriend, Cosmo and Cleo? Do you ever feel good about yourself after reading them, or do you think you need to improve yourself?
4. If you were a magazine editor, what sort of content would you include to help girls feel better about themselves and challenge stereotypes about how they should look and act?
5. How would you help a friend who was suffering an eating disorder, self harming, anxiety or depression?

Writer, Melinda Tankard Reist.  Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

By Julie Gale, Kids Free 2B Kids Director.

The premature sexualisation of children and young teens is a global issue which has been increasing over the past decade. Our kids are inundated with confusing messages that serve to minimize what it means to be a whole well rounded human being.

Popular culture encourages girls to focus on their appearance and sex appeal, and while females are offered more opportunities in the work force than ever before, marketing and advertising frequently diminishes girls aspirations to simply being ‘hot’ and ‘sexy’.
Ariel Levy – author of Female Chauvinist Pigs argues that girls and young women are objectified today as never before. Their physical appearances – especially their sexual attributes – are portrayed as their most important assets.

The sexualisation of children can be defined in two ways:
1. Direct sexualisation occurs when children are dressed or posed in ways designed to draw attention to adult sexual features that the children do not yet possess.
2. Indirect sexualisation occurs when a child is involuntarily exposed to sexualised imagery, which is often aimed at adults…for example outdoor billboard advertising.

It is important to note that sexualisation is not the same as sexuality or sex. According to the Report of the APA Taskforce on the Sexualisation of Girls published by the American Psychological Association in 2007, sexualisation has to do with treating other people (and sometimes oneself) as “objects of sexual desire…as things rather than people with legitimate sexual feelings of their own”. When people are sexualised, their value comes primarily from their sex appeal, which is equated with physical attractiveness. This is especially damaging and “problematic to children and adolescents who are developing their sense of themselves as sexual beings.” 

It is normal for a child to go through a gradual process of learning to understand about sex, sexuality and intimacy and what it means to be a caring and respectful human being.

Authors of So Sexy So Soon, Dr Jean Kilbourne and Professor Dianne Levin state: ‘We are not alarmed that today’s children are learning about sex and sexuality. We are alarmed by the particular lessons that children are learning. The sexualisation of childhood is having a profoundly disturbing impact on children’s understanding of gender, sexuality and relationships.”

It is important for parents to realise that concern about the images their children are exposed to is not about being old fashioned or prudish. Child development professionals are also speaking out about this issue and increasing research supports this concern.

Amanda Gordon, President of the APS says: “The Australian Psychological Society is very concerned with the sexualisation of children in society. The research is saying that the sexualisation of children is leading to real mental health problems for those children as they get into their adolescence and their adult years.

We think that the sexualisation of children from as young as eight is what is doing the damage – that’s the danger time, middle childhood. We want to protect those children in those years.

We are not being prudish in doing that, we are actually giving them a chance then to stride out and be sexual beings when their time is right -when their body is right – when their mind is right – to make better choices based on feelings rather than on what they read or what they see.”

Adolescent psychiatrist Dr Sloane Madden from Westmead Children’s Hospital Sydney says: “One third of eight year olds are not happy with their weight and shape. Nearly one in four are dieting. I think there is a growing concern amongst eating disorder professionals around the world that children at this age are being subjected to increasingly sophisticated and adult messages. Messages acquainting thinness with success – sexualised images – presented to children at an age when really they’re psychologically unable to understand those images.” 

Sexualised imagery and easy access to pornographic images on the internet also impacts greatly on our boys and young men.

Kilbourne and Levin go on to say: “Boys are surrounded by media messages that encourage them to judge their female peers based on how they look, often to view them with contempt, and to expect sexual subservience from them. Young men these days are quite actively discouraged from entering into mutually satisfactory intimate and committed relationships with women. Men who have been conditioned to judge women by the current standard of beauty and to compare real women with the idealized images in the popular media and pornography often find it difficult, if not impossible, to feel empathy for women. Needless to say, they are unlikely to be satisfying partners for women. Boys who lack empathy, who have deficit compassion disorder, often become men who find it impossible to have deep and fulfilling intimate relationships with their partners, with their children, with anyone. This is a very high price to pay.”

Exposure to sexualised imagery and pornography at young ages is having negative impacts on our kids’ mental health. This exposure is linked to increased depression, anxiety, body images problems, eating disorders, self harm – a decrease in the age of first sexual experience and an increase in sexually transmitted infections.

While some parents and teachers are concerned about sexuality education leading to earlier or increased sexual activity, recent and comprehensive literature reviews find instead that sexuality education leads to a delay in the onset of sexual activity, reduced rates of sexually-transmitted infections and greater adoption of safer sex practices by those young people who are already sexually active.

It is incumbent upon parents to communicate with children about the messages they are bombarded with in the media. Children need strong direction and guidance, and permission to reject the hyper sexualised culture that imposes unrealistic expectations on them.

While teenage boys may be stereotyped as sex-mad, a report by researchers in the Journal of Adolescence (USA) suggests on the contrary, that boys are motivated more by love and a desire to form real relationships with the girls they date.

“Let’s give boys more credit,” said study author Andrew Smiler, an assistant professor of psychology at the university. “Although some of them are just looking for sex, most boys are looking for a relationship. The kids we know mostly aren’t like this horrible stereotype. They are generally interested in dating and getting to know their partners.”

The data also suggest that teenage boys will be receptive to parental messages about the importance of getting to know a girl and respect within relationships, even if they act otherwise. “Very few parents really talk to their sons about relationships,” Dr. Smiler said. “We know that many parents do have these kinds of conversations with girls.” Dr. Smiler said parents should talk to boys and girls and try to teach them about both romantic and platonic relationships, how to develop and maintain them, how to deal with ups and downs and how to forgive and regain trust.

“Somehow we buy into this idea that guys aren’t emotional, that guys aren’t interested in relationships, so we don’t give our teenagers the information,” Dr. Smiler said. “Boys rarely hear this kind of information about relationships from parents, whether about friendships or romantic relationships.”

If we leave our kids’ sex education up to the media then we will continue to see an increase in dysfunctional relating between boys and girls. We will continue to see girls acting out of an imposed ‘hot’ and ‘sexy’ construct, which, along with objectified and sexualised images of females, affects the ways boys relate to and treat them.  We will continue to see our kids depressed and confused about how they are supposed to behave in their relationships…or their ‘hook ups’ …or their ‘friends with benefits’…or their f**k buddies. We will continue to see girls and boys sexting naked images of themselves, and very young girls performing oral sex under tables at school and at parties long before they are emotionally and psychologically equipped to engage in such behaviour. We will continue to see rates of Chlamydia soar – the silent sexually transmitted infection, which according to medical professionals, may see the next generation of young women with an unprecedented high incidence of infertility. The ramifications are many.

The media is devoid of valuable information about love, respect, caring, intimacy and importantly for our girls, sexual assertiveness, the right to say “no” and the right to expect respect.

In Australia, one in three girls and one in five-seven boys will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of eighteen. This is totally unacceptable.

It is well and truly time for parents to demand that the contemporary media environment and marketing and advertising – works responsibly to support their efforts to raise whole well rounded and happy children.

Australia is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC) which was first adopted in 1989.  In May 2002, world leaders convened at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children to review the progress in meeting the goals and to agree on new goals for the next decade.

Comments from the 2002 United Nations General Assembly on the World Summit for Children include:
• Eleven years ago, at the World Summit for children, world leaders made a joint commitment and issued an urgent, universal appeal to give every child a better future.
• We reaffirm our obligation to take action to promote and protect the rights of each child – every human being below the age of 18 years, including adolescents.
• We stress our commitment to create a world fit for children…taking into account the best interests of the child…including the right to development.
• We hereby call upon all members of society to join us in a global movement that will help to build a world fit for children.
• Put children first. In all actions related to children, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.
• In line with (the) principles and objectives, we (are) confident that together we will build a world in which all girls and boys can enjoy childhood – a time of play and learning, in which they are loved, respected and cherished, their rights are promoted and protected, without discrimination of any kind, in which their safety and well-being are paramount and in which they can develop in health, peace and dignity.

Our Government must focus on recommendations made by child development professionals and groups concerned about the wellbeing and mental health of our children, in the recent senate inquiry into the sexualisation of children in the contemporary media environment.  The inquiry is due for review at the end of 2009. Parents and other concerned individuals and groups must take action and speak out about the negative impacts on our children.

We have a right to expect better for our kids, and the Government has to show us the action promised when Australia signed CROC. Our kids deserve that.

Reference:

1. Faking It. Women’s Forum Australia.
2. Corporate Paedophilia Report. The Australia Institute.
3. So Sexy So Soon. The New Sexualised Childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids.
   Diane E Levin, Ph.D and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D
4. So Sexy So Soon. The New Sexualised Childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids.
   Diane E Levin, Ph.D and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D
5. Sunday Program. Nine Network. 22 June 2008
6. AM – ABC. Eating disorders on the rise. 28 May 2008
7. So Sexy So Soon. The New Sexualised Childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids.
   Diane E Levin, Ph.D and Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D
8. APA Taskforce on the Sexualisation of Girls. American Psychological Association. 2007.
9. (Grunseit et al. 1997;Roker and Coleman 1998, p 15) Youth and Pornography in Australia -  Evidence on the extent of exposure and likely effects. Flood and Hamilton 2003.
10. “I wanted to get to know her better”: Adolescent boy’s dating motives, masculinity ideology and sexual behaviour. Department of Psychology SUNY Oswego NY. 2008 Feb;31(!):17-32.Epub 2007 May 29
11. Inside the mind of the boy dating your daughter. Parker-Rope. New York Times. 15 Feb. 2008
12. Childwise.
13. Ratified by Australia in Dec 1990.
14. S-27/2. A World Fit For Children. United Nations
15. href=”http://www.aph.gov.au/SENATE/committee/eca_ctte/sexualisation_of_children/index.htm”

Writer: Julie Gale, Director, Kids Free 2B Kids. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

By Angie Wilcock.

We all learn (and teach!) in a way that suits us – we might never have thought too much about it, and most of us may never have ‘labelled’ it! If someone were to ask you about your ‘style’, you may be aware that you are not a good listener, or that you like to read information to understand it, or that you are a ‘hands-on’ person. We all go about our daily lives, thinking, communicating and learning in our own unique way.

How do YOU learn? If we stop and think about how we learn, process and understand new information we may not only become more efficient in the work place, we may also become better learners. Imagine how much easier it would be if, as parents, we can ‘tap’ into what makes our children tick and help them to become more effective learners and less effective time wasters!!

Gone are (and should be!) the days of chalk and talk in the classroom. Typically, a classroom would be quiet while the teacher spoke, with limited discussion and few interactive activities. Often, notes were written on the chalkboard and duly copied into workbooks by the students. When exams rolled around, those notes were read and re-read, and often re-copied or summarised as well. Education was fairly ‘generic’, and not too stimulating, consisting of a lot of talking by the teacher and a lot of note-taking by the student. The least catered to was the kinaesthetic, or ‘hands-on’ learner, who generally found themselves on detention for fiddling or disruptive behaviour!

Education and the whole learning process is now viewed quite differently. Some of us are good listeners, others are visual, whilst others like to be ‘hands on’ with their learning. We all have our own ‘style’, and the sooner we are familiar with what works for us, the more effectively we approach our school and professional lives. How devastating it is for parents to watch their son or daughter slave away endlessly over assignments and exams only to gain less than flattering results. Imagine how frustrating this is for the student!

Some research suggests that we don’t lock into our preferred style till mid-teens, whilst other experts provide anecdotal evidence to suggest that the earlier we recognise our ‘style’, the better we can develop techniques to enhance our learning.

When I run workshops on learning styles, parents I speak with may complain about their child ‘never sitting still’, finding it almost impossible to concentrate on a task for very long and always ‘fiddling ‘with something. It may not be that their child is ADD or ADHD – he or she may be a kinaesthetic (‘hands-on’) learner.

Other parents may be frustrated that their child doesn’t seem to listen to instructions – no, not just parents of teenagers! It may well be that their child is not a strong auditory learner, but is visual, meaning that they need to read the material or see it in graph or diagram form to process and remember it.

Finally, there are those parents who say that their child doesn’t remember information when they read or study it – it just doesn’t ‘stick’. They may like to talk about it and ask lots of questions, but they don’t seem to want to write it down or take notes. This may be an indication of auditory learning as the preferred style.

There are numerous indicators for learning styles – and once you are aware of specific indicators, you may well recognise your child as being stronger in one style than another.

We may have a dominant ‘style’ or we may be a blend of ‘styles’ – the important issue is that, as parents, the more we understand about the ‘style’ of our children, the better equipped we are to support them in their learning habits at home. It’s all about working SMARTER, not HARDER – which certainly makes more sense!

Writer Angie Wilcock, educator and speaker. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.

In this guest post, Dr Jackie Curtis, a psychiatrist who actively works with young people with mental health problems at the Prince of Wales Hospital, and Dr Georgie Paulik, a clinical psychologist, explain how the onset of psychosis may be prevented or delayed in high-risk youths and describe some of the research which is currently being undertaken to understand more about the onset of psychosis.

Many changes take place in the developing brain, mind and body of adolescents. This process of change and maturation leaves adolescents particularly vulnerable to developing the unusual and often frightening symptoms associated with psychosis.  Some of the youths who have “odd” experiences, will go on to develop a psychotic illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, while others will not. It is not yet entirely clear who will and who will not go on to develop a psychotic illness, although research currently being conducted around the world, including a large-scale project running in NSW, is endeavouring to find out. Despite this paucity in understanding, effective and non-intrusive treatments aimed at preventing, or delaying, the transition to psychosis for youths identified to be “at-risk” are available.

Identifying who is at risk of developing psychosis is a critical step in preventing transition.  Large-scale studies have found that the most highly predictive risk factors for transition are a drop in functioning (i.e. marked social withdrawal, drop in academic functioning, increase in school or work truancy, and/or general low motivation), accompanied by any of the following: (1) a first degree relative (parent or sibling) with a psychotic illness; (2) brief or attenuated/sub-clinical odd or unusual beliefs/thoughts (i.e.  seeing special meaning in things around them, thinking that people are reading their mind or putting thoughts into their head, thinking that people are trying to harm them etc); (3) perceptual disturbances (i.e. things look/sound/smell/taste different, e.g. more or less vivid) or brief hallucinatory-type experiences; and/or (4) marked decrease or impairment in verbal, expressive communication skills. Youths meeting these criteria will often also have other mental health concerns, such as depression and anxiety. If while reading this someone you know comes to mind, they may be at risk of developing psychosis. Fortunately research findings show that there are a number of ways to prevent or delay the transition to psychosis.

It is imperative that first line treatments for individuals identified as being at-risk of psychosis are safe and have minimal side effects, since there is no certainty that without treatment these youths will transition. Thus, although research studies have found some evidence that antipsychotic and antidepressant medications can prevent, or at least delay, the onset of psychosis, the use of these medications should be reserved for youths who fail to respond to more gentle therapies or have more severe psychotic-like symptoms. The two safest, yet effective interventions are omega-3 fatty acids (“fish oil”) and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). A recent study found that at one year follow-up, ultra-high risk youths who had been taking 1.2 g/d of fish oil daily were six times less likely to have transitioned to psychosis , had significantly less psychotic symptoms and higher over all functioning, than those youths who were not receiving treatment. Fish oils are safe to take regularly and have no common side effects. CBT – a type of talk therapy – has comparable positive effects in at-risk youths to that of fish oil, with reduced transition rates and fewer symptoms after 6 months of weekly therapy sessions (group or individual). CBT is a first line treatment for mood and anxiety disorders, and thus is often the first choice treatment for youths also suffering from these concerns. Medicare now covers most of the costs of seeing a clinical psychologist for CBT via referral from a GP.

A new youth-based service aimed at identifying and tracking youths who are at-risk of developing psychosis has recently opened its doors at Bondi Junction Community Health Centre (BJCHC). The team provide a comprehensive psychological assessment for appropriate referral s, and then on identifying the specific needs and risks of the client will make referrals to relevant youth services for treatment. For youths suspected of being at-risk, aged 14-24, and living in the Eastern Suburbs, referrals can be made through the Prince of Wales Acute Care Team (tel. 9366 8611). At-risk youths (both in and out of catchment area) can also participate in a large-scale Australian based research project being run at the BJCHC. The project aims to advance our understanding of the causes and risk factors of psychosis to assist early detection and intervention. Participants in the research project can learn about their own cognitive strengths to facilitate their learning, and are also financially reimbursed. For referrals to research or for more information, please contact Dr Georgie Paulik on 0401 661 806.

Writers Dr Jackie Curtis and Dr Georgie Paulik. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.