‘Once a self is ceded it’s hard to get back’

Gosh this is good.

It appeared on Huffington Post last month but I’ve only just read it. It is the kind of piece which needs to be read slowly, and a few times, it contains so much to absorb. Here’s an extract:

The problem is determining at what stage she started to cede her self and becomes, in her own eyes, mainly some (bright, young) thing other people see and use.  This process begins much earlier than when a girl is 15 and maybe buying thongs.

In general, parents, schools, counselors, “concerned” adults aren’t openly confronting the unrelenting pressure girls feel to base their self worth on being beautiful, perfect creatures idealized for the sexual and breeding purposes of others. For many people, girls and women are biologically meant to be available to boys and men in these ways. Our default is “Yes!” and “Of course!” You know the kind of being I’m talking about — females whose purpose, abstracted, divine or biological, is to look out for boys and men and guide them to ultimate pleasure and eternal happiness. Hey, aren’t Victoria’s Secret’s models called ANGELS?  What a visually pleasing, totally random and meaningless coincidence.

Once a self is ceded it’s hard to get back.  Regardless of a girl’s or woman’s age, this kind of objectification and “sexualization” results in a performance. It’s not about being a sexual person, it’s about acting out someone else’s idea of a sex object. And… what girls and women want, feel, need and experience are irrelevant unless they help fulfill the dreams of boys and men.  The impact is real, meaningful and measurable. It’s also serious and not at all entertaining.

Girls who conform well and internalize their “thing-ness” don’t miraculously stop doing it when get their driver’s licenses. It NEVER ends. Read the full article here. 

Girlfriend February Review

Many girls and young women look to girl’s magazines for advice on life, relationships, bodies, health and sexuality. But too often they receive conflicting advice and mixed messages and even, sometimes, outright contradiction.

Take for example, information provided in the sealed section of Girlfriend this month, where, within four pages of each other, two medicos give different information about age of consent laws. A 15-year-old, in a relationship with a boy the same age, enquires about age of consent laws because the two want to have sex. Dr Philip Goldstone replies “generally, if you are both under the legal age of consent, it is still illegal for you to have sex.” However Dr Sally Cockburn, under the heading ‘What if you’re both under the age of consent?’ writes: “If two people are both under the age of consent, but are the same or similar age, and both decide to engage in sexual activities, it’s not a legal issue – as long as there’s no coercion, violence or power imbalance involved. Basically, as long as you’re both in control and making informed decisions, there are no legal problems.” So who is the reader to believe? Isn’t this important enough to get right? How does the editing process work at Girlfriend for a contradiction like this not to be noticed? Girls don’t need confusing advice about where they stand under the law.

Not a matter of legal confusion, but something that is consistent is that I have to comment on the ‘Project You Reality Check’ again like I have to on the equivalent in Dolly. The logo is used so inconsistently I have little choice. On the front cover the ‘Reality Check’ provides the vital information that a tag was removed from fashion girl Kylie’s top and that the water in the background was darkened. Seriously, why bother? Then inside, ‘Style School’ features four girls with the ‘Reality Check’ telling us “We haven’t retouched any of these images – we didn’t need to! All the girls look great just the way they are”. So if that’s the case, does it mean that when girls are airbrushed they didn’t look ‘fine the way they were’? Do some need to be airbrushed while others don’t? Also confusing is that the young women featured are specifically clothed to highlight and play down certain parts of their bodies. For example Alex, 15, is dressed to give “the illusion of longer legs” and a mix of large and small prints “also disguises any unwanted bumps”. Eloieese, 14, is lanky, so given curves and a defined waist and “fuller figured” Gemma, 18, is put “in a peplum top, as it draws attention to the slimmest part of her body – her waist”. No airbrushing – but they are still dressed to give the illusion of something other than what they are, and to hide unwanted bumps. I’m all for the disclosure…but it needs to be consistently applied and align with what else is in the magazine as a whole. Otherwise it loses all meaning.  Read article here.

As published on Generation Next blog

Girl Mag Watch

As always, I’m confused about teen girls’ magazines approach to airbrushing and photo-shop (see here for a past example of my confusion).

This issue contains an explanation of the ‘Retouch Free Zone’. “DOLLY is all about healthy body image – that’s why we only feature photos of girls that haven’t been altered or ‘perfected’ in any way. Whenever you see this stamp, you know the girls pictured are real and unretouched!”

Wonderful. But if only.

“Whenever you see this stamp”? What if you don’t see it? What does that mean? The declaration does not appear on every image of every female in the magazine. It occurs inconsistently, which raises doubt. Why ‘retouch’ free’ on this one and not this one? And what about the ads? They are never ‘re-touch free’.

Selena Gomes is on the cover. Not a ‘re-touch free’ logo in sight and Selena’s skin is as flawless as the day she was born.  Was she re-touched? Don’t readers have a right to know that?  A consistent approach would be helpful.

More helpful (though somewhat lightweight) is ‘The 7 deadly sins of facebook’, on online etiquette – how to avoid looking like a stalker, keep control of your online image by setting your privacy settings high (the context is avoid being tagged in ugly pictures of yourself posted by others prior to approval…not so helpful), taking it easy with the ‘like’ button and avoiding angry outbursts.

‘The downside of YOLO’ – the motto ‘You Only Live Once’ and LWWY, ‘Live While We’re Young’ discusses the risks to young people of living by these codes. Dolly asks: “Do these cute shorthand mantras really warrant their sometimes long-term effects?” Psychologist Gemma Cribb says these mottos attempt to justify crazy behaviour regardless of consequences. “When somebody tweets ‘Oh well, YOLO’ it means they’re already aware that their decision might not be sensible.” Another psychologist Sally-Anne McCormack, says YOLO can be used as an excuse to deal with peer pressure or embarrassment. “Girls might be pushed into situations that they don’t want to face and instead of saying no, they think ‘What do I have to lose?’”. Rapper Ervin McKinness and four friends were driving in a speeding car when the 21-year-old tweeted: “Drunk…going 120 drifting corners…#YOLO.” Minutes later all were dead.  Brain development is discussed. The frontal lobe – responsible for impulse control, problem solving and considering consequences – isn’t properly developed until 25. Girls are advised to think smart rather than by the YOLO mantra. Read more here

As published on Generation Next Blog

‘It’s a Girl’, a disturbing but awareness-raising film, screened in Sydney last night. I was asked to say a few words. Here they are.

It’s a girl.

I’ve heard those words three times in my life.

Unlike the women we will hear about tonight, those words brought joy. It’s a girl. Three times for me – each child a cause for celebration.

It’s difficult, actually I would say impossible, for those of us in a country like ours, to imagine the dread that comes for other women in other worlds, when they hear these words.  The words are not delivered with joy. They are more like a curse. It’s a girl. A terrible fate awaits her. She will suffer. She will eat last. She will need a dowry you can’t afford. If she doesn’t please her husband or her in-laws, she may be burned. If she has daughters also, she will be blamed, even though, biologically, sex is determined by the male.

She may be bought and sold, traded like a piece of meat, used in brothels, sold as a bride. There are so many opportunities for her but they all opportunities to be treated badly, as second class, essentially owned, a slave, for the rest of her life.

So a dreadful option presents itself. Perhaps this suffering can be avoided, perhaps another chance for a prized son will come, if this girl child is done away with. Female foeticide, female infanticide, amounting to femicide on a global scale. According to the UN, about 200 million girls in the world today are ‘missing’. India and China are believed to eliminate more baby girls than the number of girls born in the US each year.

Girls, disposable, their lives snuffed out because of a systemic, embedded, ingrained, cultural bias against them.

I’ve spent time in the countries where these unspeakable human rights violations take place.

Some of the most moving experiences of my life have taken place in South Asia, the focus of this film.

Hyderabad, India, a home for abandoned girls and women. There were three levels. On one, young single pregnant girls, (who names on a blackboard were listed under the heading ‘inmates’), among them girls who had left their villages and come to this city to work, taken advantage of by their male bosses, made pregnant, and came here). On another level, the abandoned baby girls, and on the third, the widows.

Each floor represented a despised group of women and girls…one baby girl blinded, another with limbs broken after being thrown onto a rubbish heap. I can still picture her. She lay naked in a wire crib. I didn’t think she would live very long.

I have sat with prostituted women in brothels in India, cared for abandoned Chinese baby girls, met female children rescued from the prostitution and pornography industries of Cambodia (all used, I might add, by Australian men), and girls used as slave labourers in Thailand, through my work with World Vision. (I hope to do the same in my role as a soon to be appointed ambassador for Compassion Australia).

The hatred of women is hard to believe. The systematic, orchestrated abuse against them by individuals, groups and society as a whole. The systematic erasure of lives by an unspoken cultural decree demanding female genocide.

But there is a growing tide against these anti-women and girl practices. New grassroots actions springing up around the world. Girls themselves rising up and demanding their right to be treated with equality and fairness, girls like Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan. I want to go to school, she said.  And got shot by the Taliban for it. But she lives and inspires other girls to recognise their dignity and worth and their right to live and move freely in the world and partake of all that is to offer.

This film can help. It can create awareness that will hopefully be turned into action.

As you watch it, think of the women and girls eradicated from our midst. Who knows what they might have done, what they might have achieved.

Think about how you can engage and make a difference in the lives of women? Can we give ourselves to this just cause and not retreat a single inch? Can we dare to think we really could make a difference?

I commend It’s a Girl to you.

SPECIAL SCREENING November 12: “It’s a Girl”

The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of “gendercide”. Girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls.

The film tells the stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of brave mothers fighting to save their daughters’ lives, and of other mothers who would kill for a son.

Before screening commences, writer, speaker, and advocate for women and girls, Melinda Tankard Reist, will say a few words.  Melinda is co-founder of Collective Shout: for a world free of sexualisation

Time: 6:15 PM – Tickets $12.50 at the door.

Venue: Hoyts Mandarin Centre Chatswood Level 3 65 Albert Avenue, Chatswood NSW.  See the Facebook page here.

Tell World Leaders To End the Female Gendercide in India: sign petition today.

For 6 years, we at The 50 Million Missing Campaign have been working hard to tell the world about the ongoing female gendercide in India which has killed about 50 million women in the country in 3 generations through practices like infanticide, feticide, deliberate starvation and neglect of girl under 6 years, dowry murders, bride ‘trafficking,’ “honor” killings, and “witch” hunts.

It is our goal now to get large global mandate, of at least a million people to demand official accountability and action to stop female genocide in India through the systematic, and accountable implementation of existent laws. Read more here.

See also:

‘It’s a girl: the three deadliest words in the world’, The Independent, January 16, 2012

An interview with author Maggie Hamilton

I have had the privilege of knowing and working with author, publisher and educator Maggie Hamilton for the past few years. As well as her own books including What’s Happening to Our Girls? (Viking, Penguin 2008) and What’s Happening to Our Boys? (2010), Maggie is a contributor to my last two books with chapters ‘The seduction of girlhood’ in Getting Real: Challenging the sexualisation of girls (Spinifex Press, 2009) and ‘Groomed to Consume Porn: How sexualised marketing targets children’ in Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry (Spinifex Press, 2011). Maggie decided she had to produce something beautiful for girls as a gift for them, which she’s done. I spoke with Maggie ahead of her book launch in Sydney tomorrow night.

Maggie, I think Secret Girls’ Business (Penguin) would have to be the most gorgeous looking title for girls I’ve seen. What prompted you to write it?

I wanted to put something together that was fun, funky and joyous for girls, as so much of what they experience in pop culture is dark and depressing. It’s concerning to see a whole generation of girls becoming slaves to leading brands, and causing girls serious anxiety around looks and possessions. This in turn forces them to get on the spending treadmill very early.

The book is packed with art and craft ideas, with getting girls back to the soil, to earth, to imagination and discovery. Why do you feel girls have been cut off from what was in the past just considered normal every day hobbies and interests for girls?

Research suggests that almost all the spare time girls have is spent in packaged entertainment or shopping, which is pretty depressing, as there’s not a whole lot of life experience happening there. Living in a performance culture also means girls are constantly trying to keep up with what’s expected of them, so they’ll maintain the acceptance and approval of peers. This leaves little time for anything else.

Girls also take their lead from the rest of us. We’ve all become seduced by endless opportunities for instant gratification. In the process we’ve lost a lot of nuance from our daily lives – the joy of a personal handmade gift, or the fun and real sense of satisfaction at having to work for something, to watch it slowly unfold before us.

I’ve profiled fabulous vintage blog queens from London to Brooklyn, for example, to encourage girls to think vintage. The joy of vintage clothing is that these garments are about story – someone wore this dress or jacket before you and, if you look after it, it will look after you. Vintage items are often better made. Girls can re-purpose an outfit simply by changing the buttons or removing the sleeves or changing the hemline. They can then enjoy wearing a genuinely individual item. Vintage clothing is also great for girls of different shapes and sizes as there’s other decades that work perfectly for their bodies.

With the overwhelming marketing to girls there’s little chance to learn about their own story. There’s something very special about learning a little here and there about your family history from the discovery of an old button, postcard or photo. But as girls are increasingly pre-occupied with lives of celebrities, this isn’t happening. So in the book there’s a number of fun ways to change this.

Clearly we need more than a new book to solve the problem – but what contribution to you hope Secret Girls’ Business will make to helping girls rediscover their creativity and reclaim their imaginations from the onslaught of advertising, marketing and the global beauty industries which demand conformity to an idealised norm? 

We are seeing a radical drop in imagination and personal creativity in girls, as they’re growing up in worlds full of branded junk. Crafting helps girls become confident about their own ideas and self-expression. It also helps them unwind from their full-on 24/7 world.

Crafting is deeply personal. You invest your love and time in something which you gift yourself or someone you care about. It can be hugely inspiring and comforting as well. Recently a girlfriend was diagnosed with an aggressive breast cancer. She said all she wanted to do was go home and knit. Handmade is precious, it brings intimacy back into our fast-paced hard-wired existence.

I recall when you were working on your last book What’s happening to our boys, you described feelings of trauma, and needing to recover from what you had learned during the research phase. Is this book part of your healing?

Yes, doing the research I have has taken its toll. When you’re spending a couple of years at a time looking at what’s going wrong for our kids, it can be deeply challenging. There were many times I felt overwhelmed with the issues girls face. Putting Secret Girls’ Business together has been so healing, because creative projects and ideas are life-enhancing. There’s something very profound in these activities. They feed the soul.

Do you think we all need to consider scaling back, getting off the treadmill and discovering places of peace and simplicity?

Putting the book together has made me rethink my own values, how I live and what I want from life. I now see how invaluable it is we reconnect with each other. Our kids need a village to grow up in. They need the support of committed engaged adults, the wisdom of their elders, meaningful rituals, to spend time in nature, to have more fun and laughter, more opportunities for spontaneity.

That’s why I’m now encouraging older women to volunteer to teach girls to knit and hand sew in schools, in community halls, in their homes or wherever. It’s about knitting the generations back together again, providing a fun relaxed space for girls to be creative, where they can make things for charity. It’s also about sharing life stories as you knit or sew. Creativity and fun go together – we need more of it.

A few weeks ago I met a beautiful 28-year-old teacher who’d recently lost her mum who had been a great knitter. She was looking for a way to honour her mum, and is now setting up an SGW group to do just that.

Book launch:  Monday 24 September, 6.30pm at Better Read Than Dead, 265 King St, Newtown 2042

‘A safe haven from the commercialisation and sexualisation of girlhood, a place full of gifts that inspire and enable girls to reach for the stars. A venue that will motivate and support artists, independent producers and businesses to innovate and to explore new products that have the potential to change the world’

One of the many privileges of this work is the inspiring women I’ve met in Australia and globally, who feel the same way on the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls – and are taking action to address it. One of these women is Inês Almeida who I met last year. She is an entrepreneur, activist and business leader who applies her skills in technology, business, strategy and innovation to projects related to the health, wellbeing and education of girls. Until recently she was part of the Global Executive team of a large IT consulting firm. In April she has left the corporate world to focus on TowardTheStars, a global online marketplace focused on empowering gifts for girls. I interviewed Ines ahead of the launch.

Can you tell us your motivation for launching ‘TowardTheStars’ Ines?

I was born in Portugal in a small town in the Atlantic Coast and have an Engineering degree in Computer Science. For most of my life I have been part of male-dominated environments – my career path led me to roles that are stereotypically associated with men. The ratio of women to men in my university classes was never higher than five percent and things did not improve as I joined the workforce.

I was raised with seven boys – a brother and six cousins. I had a very healthy childhood away from stereotypes and gender limitations, but as soon as I joined the workforce, and especially as I moved into leadership roles, I was faced with self doubt. I was different, the odd one out. First I tried to fit in and be one of the guys, model their style, but that really didn’t work for me. As I matured and gained confidence and experience, I learned to accept myself and to create a leadership style that matched my personality and my strengths.

As I started coaching my fellow female colleagues, I discovered that we shared a lot of common patterns: we struggled with the lack of female role models, we were trying to release ourselves from passive, voiceless female archetypes and we had impossibly high standards, a need to be perfect, congenial and at the same time highly effective. This left little space for risk taking and audacity. Failure of any kind was seem as a catastrophe. It was feared and avoided, and because of that the muscles related to resilience and resourcefulness were not being flexed enough.

Six years ago a little girl came into my life, Ally, two-and-a-half-years-old. She spent weekends with me and I fell in love with her. As I immersed myself in her world and started to look at the world through her eyes, I was at first drawn by the magical world of princesses, Barbies, sparkly dresses and tutus. But as time went by I started becoming more uncomfortable with what I was experiencing. I was looking at the root cause for all my own limiting beliefs; I was looking at the reason why my colleagues struggled to speak up, why women were risk-averse, why girls don’t pursue science, engineering, technology, math, sports and leadership.

Ally was surrounded by toys, books and media that were telling her everyday that her value came from her external appearance. She dreamed of being Snow White, a voiceless passive princess waiting to marry her prince; she wanted to look like Barbie, a doll with impossible proportions. I started noticing that science kits, sports gear and building blocks where placed in the ‘boys’ section of toy stores with boys pictured on the packaging. I came across the horribly sexualized Bratz Dolls and started noticing the sexualized media surrounding Ally.

Ally was my biggest teacher; this was a time when I went through an enormous adjustment of my core values and belief system. I wanted to rebel, for me, for her and for all little girls. I decided to do something about it and started to raise awareness with parents and educators via social media. I created my own ipad app with empowering stories for girls 7Wonderlicious and my community grew to 100,000 people online across several social media channels. This year I decided to leave my corporate executive role in IT to launch TowardTheStars a global online marketplace for empowering gifts for girls.

What are you aims?

My aim is to continue to inspire and motivate a tribe of parents, educators, business leaders, entrepreneurs, activists, artists, craftspeople and loving adults to come together in defence of healthy girlhood.

TowardTheStars will be a safe haven from the commercialisation and sexualisation of girlhood, from the toxic gender stereotypes that dominate marketing, media and products targeted to children and young adults. It will be a place full of gifts that inspire and enable girls to reach for the stars. A venue that will motivate and support artists, independent producers and businesses to innovate and to explore new products that have the potential to change the world.

What kind of products will you be offering?

In a world overwhelmed with messages that restrict the definition of girlhood, and tell girls that their value comes from their external appearance, it is imperative to showcase girls who are courageous, strong, bold, determined, accomplished and athletic. Girls who are leaders, scientists, adventurers, politicians and, of course, superheroes. TowardTheStars will be filled with books, media, clothing, games and toys that counter stereotypes, products that tell girls that math and science are “girly” subjects too, that tell her that fixing her bike and saving the day are girls’ activities.

We will also have a huge selection of gender-neutral and eco-friendly products. Clothes that allow our girls to move freely and play in the mud, building blocks, sports gear and so much more.

I am also very excited with our partnerships with not-for-profit organisations and businesses that will use the profits from product sales to support causes related to girls all over the world. My goal in the coming years is to drive as much funding as possible to causes related to the security, education, health and wellbeing of girls in less privileged parts of the world.

How many companies have signed up so far and from what countries?

We have 250 business, independent producers and not-for-profits from all over the world currently signed up to TowardTheStars. At the moment many of our sellers and buyers are based in English speaking countries – US, UK, Australia and Canada – but we are starting to see significant engagement from our large third world economies like India, China and Brazil and also northern European countries.

Are you pleased with the response so far?

I am very pleased with the response! The success of this marketplace is very much dependent on the number of great business that decide to join this movement, and I am delighted with the positive response. We have many businesses and craftspeople creating new products inspired by TowardTheStars, we have artists reaching out to us asking for ideas and suggestions from parents and girls as to what products they would like to see in this marketplace.

Do you think TowardtheStars will send a message to mainstream corporations that many of us who care about girls aren’t satisfied with the limited, sexualised, gender-stereotyped products and services they offer girls? Do you think it could help contribute to the global groundswell for change, demanding corporate social responsibility?

As an idealist, passionate activist and entrepreneur, I am certain of it. I strongly believe in the power of movements when they bring together consumers, like-minded producers and artists. The benefit of this type of venue is that it has the potential for rapid expansion and high visibility online.

With TowardTheStars, businesses create their own shops for free, the combined tribe of sellers generates a lot of buzz for themselves. Every time anyone links to the site or mentions the site online the brand becomes exponentially stronger. Everybody wins.

I know through media literacy work I do on social media via twitter and facebook that consumers are desperate for such products, they just find it very hard to find them. Once TowardTheStars is launched they just need to go to one place, they will vote with their dollars which in turn will give a very clear message to the big corporates in the only language they understand.

When is the launch?

I am working night and day on the launch of TowardTheStars, so that parents can enjoy this venue during their Christmas shopping.

The current plan is to have a beta launch in late September for our passionate online community and then to have a huge media push early November all over the world. I am asking our sellers to set up shop next week.

My medium to long-term plan is to include our boys who are also faced with toxic stereotypes that are as damaging for them and to the women who are, and who will be, part of their lives.

Doing this project on my own is the ultimate endurance sport, but I am enjoying every moment. I am taking a huge risk with TowardTheStars as I left my job and have not been receiving salary for the past five months. I knew the only way I could deliver such a bold project was to focus on it full-time, so I took a leap of faith that will hopefully be the first of many bold leaps in my path to make the world a better place for all our children.

And here’s an advertorial on the importance of beauty regimes – for children

‘If you’re on a budget make brows the priority as this really makes a big difference. It’s worth it and it’s worth seeing a professional. Do facials if you can afford it…’

Read entire article here.

Keep the global brand of the porn industry off our girls – boycott Diva

Playboy has been very clever with its marketing, establishing its brand on doona covers, pencil cases, wallets, keyrings, stationery, make-up, youth clothing ranges and even embedded into children’s movies such as Hop. I’ve written about this before.

Now DIVA is the latest company to pimp the Playboy brand to girls as young as nine, promoting the idea that porno chic is cool.

DIVA is very popular with young girls. The company is contributing to the normalising and mainstreaming of the Playboy brand. Girls are being targeted with the major brand of the global sex industry, founded by pornographer Huge Hefner who is responsible for the exploitation of female sexuality on a global scale. As a result many girls are walking billboards for a sex industry brand while being told it’s just about a cute rabbit.

Here’s our post on the issue on the Collective Shout site:

Diva, the jewellery and accessories store popular with teenage girls, is now selling Playboy branded jewellery.

Through use of cute love heart logos, invitations to ‘BFF us on Facebook’ and girls magazine promos, Diva are directly marketing to young girls. So why is Diva wanting to dress them up in a Pornography brand?

‘Playboy’ is not just a ‘cute bunny’, but represents the global brand of the pornography industry. We’ve previously written about how Playboy has infiltrated the mainstream market creating brand familiarity with young people. Playboy is now branding bed sheets, make-up and even energy drinks. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has previously said “I don’t care if a baby holds up a Playboy bunny rattle.” What is then forgotten is Playboy’s core business – pornography.

Among the other Playboy items on sale at Diva is a playboy bunny ‘bowtie’ necklace. Presumably for little girls who want to look like ‘Playboy Bunnies?’ What is Diva thinking?

Diva announced their new Playboy range on Facebook and received some negative responses:

Some of the comments include:

‘Ok so I’m not being a prude (my job is in the adult industry) but playboy is PORN…. Nude magazines, porn films… Ect and i know that diva is REALLY popular amongst girls aged like what 9-16? Diva should be about encouraging girls to empower themselves and their individuality. Not letting a girl aged 14 to year a bunny necklace that shows all she wants to do in life is be a dumb blonde who wants to be in porn and get with an old guy. Seriously diva, thought SO much better than this tacky crap….’

‘Totally agree Nadine. I have two little girls and they were my thoughts also.‘

‘Very disappointed. Will look totally off sitting next to the Disney princess section.’

Take Action!

Write to Diva here: contact@diva.net.au

You can let them know what you think on their Facebook page here.

Tweet them on Twitter here.

Phone them: 02 9938 3311 or 1300 348 228

More contact details for Diva can be found here.

Tell Diva to withdraw their Playboy range or you will boycott their store.

See also: ‘Tell Playboy and Diva our little girls are off limits’, Collett Smart

Zazzle profiting from body hatred

As if there’s not already enough girls whose lives are being destroyed through eating disorders, the on-line UK seller Zazzle.co is doing its bit to make even more girls sicker and to spread further suffering.

This t.shirt (left) is inspired by a motto uttered by model Kate Moss “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. It is marketed to children through a line of “size-zero slogan” products created by US based label Teen Modelling. Even babies are expected to promote the food-is-bad ideology.

‘Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’ is used as ‘thinspiration’ for girls through pro-anorexia websites. It is employed to strengthen the resolve of a sufferer, to help them exercise willpower and self-control in their quest for ultra-thinness.

Zazzle refuses to take any responsibility, stating:  “Zazzle is a custom products platform, it enables all users to create their own products that feature their own content. In this way, Zazzle is an outlet for users to express their personal opinions and viewpoints.”

As long as Zazzle makes money hosting these tees with their killer slogans, that’s the main thing. Profits over the wellbeing and health of girls.

One in 100 girls in Australia suffers anorexia. Anorexia Nervosa is the third most common chronic illness for adolescent girls in this country.

Yet too many companies seem to want to hasten them to an early grave.

I wrote about this ‘I love anorexia’ t.shirt (left) earlier in a piece titled ‘Anorexia kills girls: don’t say you love it’.

I also featured the personal account of a young woman survivor of the disease, who wrote about how the impact of glamourising the disorder on sufferers like herself.

Here’s what I had to say about the Zazzle t.shirts on The Morning Show recently: