About Melinda

MTR

Melinda Tankard Reist is a Canberra author, speaker, media commentator, blogger and advocate for women and girls. She is well known for her work on the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls and working to address violence against women

Writing

Melinda is author of Giving Sorrow Words: Women’s Stories of Grief After Abortion (Duffy&Snellgrove, 2000), Defiant Birth: Women Who Resist Medical Eugenics (Spinifex Press, 2006) Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (Spinifex Press, 2009), now in its fourth printing and co-edited with Dr Abigail Bray, Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry (Spinifex Press, 2011).

Melinda’s commentary has been published and broadcast in Australia and overseas. She has been a panellist on ABC’s Q&A, and is a regular on Channel 7′s Morning Show, along with rfrequent appearances on a range of television and radio programs. Melinda contributes regularly to online opinion sites including ABC The Drum Unleashed. She’s also editor of Faking It: The Female Image in Young Women’s Magazines (WFA 2007). Melinda is named in Who’s Who of Women (Australia) and World Who’s Who of Women.

Speaking

Melinda is in demand as a speaker in Australia and overseas, including for schools, conferences and youth events. Melinda has addressed intimate gatherings and audiences of 15,000. She the ‘Testimonials’ section of this site for responses to her presentations. Melinda also consults on a range of issues of concern to women.

Advocacy

Melinda’s advocacy for women and girls has included helping establish a supported accommodation and outreach service for women pregnant and without support, involvement in projects to address poverty, trafficking and sex slavery, and working to highlight and address the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls in Australia and globally.

Melinda has worked with World Vision in the design of its national anti-trafficking campaign and lent her support to other NGOs working to address the status of women globally. She has formed alliances with many international groups on these issues.

Campaigning

Melinda is one of the founders of a new grassroots campaigning movement Collective Shout: for a world free of sexpolitation. Formed at the end of 2009, Collective Shout names and shames corporations, advertisers and marketers who objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services. Collective Shout has succeeded in campaigns against a number of major corporations.

Testimonials

“Intelligent, passionate, brilliant, fearless… I could not recommend her more highly”

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg
“You continue to reset my shock meter…”

Steve Biddulph
“Melinda Tankard Reist’s presentation to Middle and Upper School students at Pymble Ladies’ College was absolutely brilliant!”

Justine Hodgson – English Faculty, Pymble Ladies’ College
“Melinda Tankard Reist has had a transformational affect on our school.”

Ms Stephanie McConnell, Principal – Turramurra High School

Shop

In this DVD, Melinda takes us on a visual tour of popular culture. “Melinda’s presentation leaves audiences reeling. She delivers her message with a clarity and commonsense without peer.” – Steve Biddulph, author, Raising Boys, Raising Girls
Purchase Big Porn Inc, Getting Real, Faking It and the Ruby Who? book and DVD in one bundle for $100 and save 20% off the individual price.
Purchase Big Porn Inc, Getting Real and Faking It in one bundle for $70 and save 20% off the individual price.
Purchase Getting Real, Faking It and Ruby Who? DVD in one bundle for $60 and save 12% off the individual price.
Purchase the Ruby Who? DVD and book together for only $35 saving 10% off the individual price.
“This powerful and humane book is a breakthrough…Big Porn Inc shows us we are poisoning our own spirits.” – Steve Biddulph
“A landmark publication” – Clive Hamilton
“Getting Real contains a treasure trove of information and should be mandatory reading for all workers with young people in health, education and welfare” – Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, Adolescent Psychologist
Do you read women’s lifestyle magazines? Have you thought about how magazines might affect you when you read them? Faking It reflects the body of academic research on magazines, mass media, and the sexual objectification of women.
Ruby Who? is the sweet and innocent story of a little girl’s adventure in re-discovering her identity. Ruby wishes for so many things and dreams of being like others. Will she end up forgetting how to just be herself?
Ruby Who? is the sweet and innocent story of a little girl’s adventure in re-discovering her identity. Ruby wishes for so many things and dreams of being like others. Will she end up forgetting how to just be herself?
Defiant Birth challenges widespread medical, and often social aversion to less than perfect pregnancies or genetically different babies. It also features women with disabilities who were discouraged from becoming pregnant at all.