Melinda Tankard Reist is an author, speaker, media commentator, blogger and advocate for women and girls. She is best known for her work addressing sexualisation, objectification, harms of pornography, sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence against women.
Melinda is author/editor of six books including Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (Spinifex Press, 2009), now in its 9th printing, Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry (Spinifex Press, 2011, co-edited with Dr Abigail Bray), (Spinifex Press, co-edited with Dr Caroline Norma) Prostitution Narratives: Stories of survival in the sex trade and her newly released Broken Bonds: Surrogate mothers speak out (Spinifex Press, 2019, co-edited with Jennifer Lahl and Renate Klein).
An opinion writer, Melinda is also a regular on morning television and has appeared on ABC’s Q&A and The Gruen Sessions as well as many other TV and radio programs. Melinda is co-founder of the grassroots campaigning movement, Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation, exposing corporations, advertisers and marketers who objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services.
An ambassador for World Vision Australia, Compassion Australia, HagarNZ and the youth mentoring body the Raise Foundation, Melinda is named in the Who’s Who of Australian Women and the World Who’s Who of Women. She has recently been appointed Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Culture and Ethics, Notre Dame University, Sydney.
Speaking
‘The best speaker we have ever had’ – Mitcham Girls High School, S.A
Melinda is in demand as a speaker in Australia and overseas. She addresses thousands of young people a year in schools and youth events. She has addressed professional development days for educators and international gatherings of school principals. Melinda is also asked to speak to women’s organisations such as those committed to women’s health and ameliorating violence against women. See the ‘Testimonials‘ section of this site for responses to her presentations. Melinda also consults on a range of issues of concern to women.
You can download Melinda’s detailed brochure here. It lists all her presentations, along with bio, endorsements and resources.
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. Melinda has recently been appointed an Ambassador for World Vision Australia, Compassion and the Raise Foundation. She is a partner in the global Brave Girls Want alliance, launched in August 2013.
Campaigning
Melinda is one of the founders of the grassroots campaigning movement Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation. 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.
