I was very pleased to facilitate the launch of Melinda Tankard Reist’s book, Getting Real. Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls at Parliament House today.
As the father of a 15 year old daughter, I am all too aware that our young women and girls grow up surrounded by sexual imagery and pressures.
We need to ask how this burgeoning culture of sexually charged marketing and entertainment industries effect girls and women in society and the potential damage this can have on their development, health and sense of self.
This has become an increasingly important issue as there seems to be a growing range of highly sexualised products marketed toward our young girls.
As a community we must ask ourselves whether current marketing efforts that take on sexual content and imagery to sell products is an appropriate message to send our children.
This isn’t just an issue for our daughters, it also has ramifications for our sons whose attitudes and concepts of girls, women and relationships are just as impressionable and important.
Melinda’s book is a thought provoking and intelligent dissection of this important issue and I encourage all parents to consider the matter, read the book and talk to their children about the issues it raises.
Melinda will be speaking to children at Rose Bay High School later today followed by a visit to Parklands and Burnie High Schools tomorrow.
Brett Whiteley MP Shadow Minister for Health and Human Services
