Well, the Australia Institute may have ruffled a few corporate feathers with the examples that it chose to use in its report last year on the sexualisation of children, but it seems that they have strong support for their over-all message from the American Psychological Association (APA).
The APA’s Task Force on the Sexualisation of Girls have just released a report and it makes for sobering reading. While they are calling for more research into the pervasiveness of the sexualisation of young girls in the media (such evidence exists in abundance for young adult women, but not yet for young girls), the APA are clear that it is not difficult to document the existence of the problem by pointing to a range of prominent products marketed at young girls.
These include advertisements (e.g., the Skechers “naughty and nice� ad that featured Christina Aguilera dressed as a schoolgirl in pigtails, with her shirt unbuttoned, licking a lollipop), dolls (e.g., Bratz dolls dressed in sexualized clothing such as miniskirts, fishnet stockings, and feather boas), clothing (thongs sized for 7– to 10-year-olds, some printed with slogans such as “wink wink�), and television programs (e.g., a televised fashion show in which adult models in lingerie were presented as young girls).
Continue reading ‘Developmental impact of the sexualisation of girls’
Pavlov’s Cat has written a wonderful post that explores some of the reasons that she blogs. I know that this is a common topic for blog posts, but I think that it is one that remains really interesting nonetheless. Many of us have friends and family who are utterly baffled by the fact that we spend some (perhaps, even a fair bit) of our time blogging and cannot fathom what it is that we get out of it. Personally I have always struggled to provide such people with a satisfactory response and I may now just send them PC’s post instead.
What resonated most strongly for me was the idea that blogging provides a nice compromise between socialising and being alone. Arguably this kind of controlled socialisation is an extension of reading novels or biographies for those of us who like to discover more about the human condition through books. Blogging provides the addition of real life interaction without having to be surrounded by real life noise and people. Surprisingly, at least to me, it can also go beyond this as relationships start to form online; creating a whole new layer to the life sagas that we dip into through our computers.
But that is quite enough rambling from me - what I want to know is why do you blog? What do you get out of blogging (including commenting)? [If you have written a post on the subject already, or have read one that you feel is worthwhile, please share the link with us in the comments.]
A note of warning: This is intended to be a nice thread where people can feel safe to share their thoughts about blogging in a friendly environment. Therefore, snarky or nasty comments will simply be deleted. If you just want to pick a fight with someone or ruin someone’s day, then please find another home for your comments.
Suddenly water has become the hot new political issue for this year and politicians are scrambling over each other to be seen as the most pro-active and visionary after years of ignoring the issue.
This morning Howard announced at least $2.48 billion in new projects for water in Australia and a planned Commonwealth government takeover of the management of the Murray-Darling basin.
“Projects will include a $1.5 billion nationwide subsidy scheme to encourage all farmers, particularly irrigators, to be more efficient with the water they use [and…] to improve farm productivity. Another $500 million will be devoted to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of river storage and operations through projects such as digging channels to unblock natural chokes in rivers, to divert the water for agriculture. Another $480 million will be dedicated to funding a new division within the Bureau of Meteorology to audit the nation’s water capacity and availability.”
This all sounds very good, but it also leaves a lot of questions unanswered. First of all, no one seems to know whether or not this is actually new money or whether Howard is simply reallocating money that was set aside years ago to tackle the problem. Following on from that confusion is the question of why the two billion dollars of funding set aside three years ago has still not been spent or allocated by the Commonwealth government. “Election year” may be the only answer that to that one.
Continue reading ‘Water, water, water’
I have been pondering this article from The Guardian for the last week and I am no closer to resolving exactly what I think about the issues that it raises. However, I thought that it was worth discussing regardless.
Essentially, the Ugandan government has asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to drop its charges against Joseph Kony - the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army - so that they can proceed with a peace deal that may see the end of the civil war in Uganda.
The ICC believe that dropping the charges at this point would be fatally damaging to the credibility of the Court and would be a blow for International Justice. The Ugandan government (and many community members) believe that they should not be made to suffer an ongoing war just so that the ICC can have its historic first case and feel good about itself. I think that they both have a point.
Continue reading ‘Peace or justice?’
Apparently Bronwen Bishop is angry that her suggestion to make childcare tax deductible has not been taken up by the Commonwealth government. She rightly points out that “If you can get a tax deduction for your car, your laptop, your mobile, your tools” then it is inconsistent that childcare is also not included.
Howard’s response is that child care is already tax-deductable for 80 per cent of Australians and “It’s not possible to make child care completely costless […]. There has to be some limit, we can’t afford to do that.”
In one of the first occasions that I can remember agreeing so strongly with Ms Bishop, she has responded by saying:
“I cannot agree with any man who makes a judgement about what is best for a woman.”
However, the issue is a little more complicated than men making judgements about what is best for women. Ms Bishop’s proposal was designed to ensure maximum flexibility of childcare arrangements, which meant that it would have provided heavy subsidies for home carers including private nannies. Clearly this means that many of the proposed changes were really designed to favour the wealthy.
Continue reading ‘The childcare debate’
Well it is that time of year again - a time when we traditionally write down a list of resolutions that are designed to make us better people in the new year or, at least, make the year itself better than the one we just lived.
I have always liked the process of writing new year’s resolutions. I see it as an act of hope - an optimistic commitment to the idea of that I remain in control of my life and that the coming of a new year gives me the chance to not only reflect on what kind of life I want to live, but to also do something about it.
However, sometimes these resolutions can seem to hang over you in judgment and become a list of things that you have failed to do; a symbol of your failure to live up to your ideal self. In order to avoid this depressing side-effect, my resolutions last year were simply a list of ten things that I wanted to do with my year - things that would make it more fun and more worthwhile. I think it included practicing more yoga, learning to swing dance, volunteering somewhere worthwhile, and getting more involved in Australian politics. The results have been mixed. I have at least attempted most of the things on my list, but some of them (like swing dancing) did fall by the wayside rather quickly.
This year I am not sure what to do. I am slowly embracing the idea that I will have very little control over my life in the coming year as a new little person enters our world and interrupts everything. This, of course, seems to run counter to the very purpose of new year’s resolutions, which are all about claiming control. So I probably shouldn’t be making any resolutions this year. But the thing is; I am quite attached to the process. So maybe this year I will simply make them all hopes, as in: I hope to get some sleep, I hope to find time to blog, I hope to at least live in nice pyjamas…
How about you? What do you think about new year’s resolutions and, if you are making them this year, why don’t you share some of them with us?
A fairly uncontroversial reading of the US mid-term elections was that the American people voted against the Republicans because they believed that America was on the wrong path. Whether they were concerned about the mess that is Iraq, the economy, political scandals, corruption, or just a general sense of malaise, a majority of the population seemed to believe that their country was not heading in the right direction and that this needed to change.
Personally, (and not particularly surprisingly) I feel the same way about Australia. The average home owner is up to their necks in debt and terrified of rising interest rates. We are caught up in the mess that is Iraq. We have not signed Kyoto and are doing almost nothing to stop a process of climate change that may destroy the earth for our children (and ourselves). Reconciliation seems further from our grasp than it did after Mabo and the release of the Stolen Generations Report. We have a skills shortage and funding to public education has been slashed. Our public health system is a mess. We have a new IR regime that hands far too much power to employers at the expense of worker’s rights and work/life balance. And, life is getting tougher for the truly poor.
However, I am not really all that interested in pointing the finger of blame (in this post). My question here is: What is our vision for the future?
So, please imagine that you are Prime Minister and give me some inspiration. What would you do to set us on a better path?
Shockingly to those of us who were convinced that this was just a expression of Islamic misogyny,* a number of Christian commentators have jumped out of the closet to join Sheikh Hilali in his blame the victim festival of hatred.
First we have Pastor David Hodgens, of the Warrnambool and District Baptist Church:
“I confess to being very uncomfortable with the tone and reported content of the sheikh’s comments . . . however, one of the things that seems to have been lost in the ensuing discussion is whether or not the point he seemed to be trying to make . . . ought to be examined. Is there a link between provocative dress and sexual assault?”
Ms Fits raises the obvious question here: where are the cries of indignation and calls for him to renounce his Australian citizenship?
Then we have Michael Leunig. Never much of a fan of women’s rights, Leunig really shines in his Saturday opinion piece in which he specifically defends Sheikh Hilali:
Continue reading ‘We’d better get back in the fridge’
While I am pro-choice, I acknowledge that there can be a range of legitimately held views on the issue of abortion. However, this disgusts me:
An 11-year-old girl was raped by her step-father and requested an abortion so that she could go back to being a child - instead of having to carry the product of rape to term and risk death by attempting to give birth before her body was sufficiently mature to handle the experience. This little girl made use of a new exception to Colombia’s ban on terminations, that allow for “pregnancies to be terminated in cases of severe deformity of the foetus, when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger,” and doctors performed the procedure in the early stages of her pregnancy.
In response, the Catholic Church has threatened to excommunicate any member of the medical team who took part in the procedure. For goodness sake! She is 11 years old. She was the victim of rape. Her stepfather admitted to having abused her since the age of 7. Her life would be at risk if she were to carry the pregnancy to term - not to mention the ongoing psychological trauma that she would have suffered.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE MEN?
A senator, Gina Parody, has responded to the Vatican’s threats by saying: “The Vatican has the right to excommunicate whomever they choose. But I would hope that they also excommunicate priests when they rape boys or girls.” Interestingly, I have never heard of such a thing taking place.
UPDATE: Apparently “A Roman Catholic cardinal has denied reports that he said the Vatican would excommunicate” the doctors in question.
Breaking news (Trivandrum, India, August 9, 2006):
“The state government of Kerala in south India has banned the production and sale of Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the state. The companies will be asked to close their operations entirely.
Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan stated today that the ban was being imposed because of the health hazards posed by Coca-Cola and Pepsi. “We have arrived at the decision to ask both Coke and Pepsi to stop production and distribution of all their products, based on scientific studies which have proved that they are harmful,” said Mr. Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan.
Chief Minister Achuthanandan also pointed to the four year campaign by the community of Plachimada in Kerala where the community has protested falling water levels and pollution of the groundwater and soil - directly as a result of the Coca-Cola company’s bottling operations in the area.
This is extremely exciting news, particularly if you have been following the story in Plachimada from the beginning. If you missed it, let me give you some of the background.
Continue reading ‘Goodbye Coke’
For some reason I felt vaguely excited at the prospect of completing the census form last night. There is something quite satisfying about forms sometimes.
However, I was left with a feeling of deep disappointment by the end. The questions are really incredibly boring. There wasn’t even one that sought out my opinion or enabled me to feel like an individual.
While I know that it costs a lot of money to add additional questions to the census, I thought that it would be fun to brainstorm some extras that the ABS could consider throwing in next time around.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Well Doha lies dead on the ground this morning and now it is apparently time for allocating the blame and counting the cost.
So first of all, let’s allocate some blame. Well, this one is fairly clear - neither the US nor the EU followed through in any meaningful way in cutting their agricultural subsidies, which was the whole point of Doha in the first place. Both trading parties had actually promised to cut their subsidies in the original Uruguay round - in return for Southern countries signing up to TRIPS, GATS and TRIMS (which were clearly not in their interests). Instead, they were tricky and managed to categorise their subsidies into different boxes so as to keep them legal and so Southern countries were tricked into giving up something for nothing. This was the reason that Seattle and Cancun collapsed. Southern countries refused to enter into another round until something was done to even out the balance. The two main demands that they made were for genuine cuts to agricultural subsidies (which destroy the livelihoods of Southern farmers) and for the introduction of “special and differential treatmentâ€? provisions for Southern countries (which were supposed to assist with minimising the negative impact of complying with WTO Agreements). It was on the basis of these demands that the Doha Development Agenda was declared (NOTE: it was and is not a Round, as it is often called, because Southern countries had refused to enter into a new round).
Continue reading ‘Bye Bye Doha’
Over at no pod we will be hosting the next Carnival of Empty Cages, which will go up on 1 August 2006.
If you are a vegetarian, a vegan, or are in other ways concerned about issues of animal welfare and animal rights (or read a blog of someone who fits this description), please think about writing and submitting posts (yours or someone else’s) to us at nopod.blog at gmail.com The posts need to have been (be) written between 1 June and 1 August 2006.
For this Carnival, we are particularly interested in the life cycle of veganism and vegetarianism (veg*nism):
1. The story of when and how people became a veg*n.
2. The evolution of people’s reasons for staying a veg*n.
3. The most frustrating aspects of being a veg*n.
4. The most rewarding aspects of being a veg*n.
5. Whether or not people make much of an effort to “convert� others to veg*nism and what you think of this as a concept.
We are really keen to hear from people from all over, so if you know of a veg*n blog in the far corners of the world then please let us know. If you are not a veg*n, but your post is on topic (and in the spirit of the Carnival), we would be happy to hear from you too.
Finally, if you are unfamiliar with the concept of a Carnival, take a look at the latest Carnival of Feminists.
Well, I was beginning to fear that it would never happen, but the SMH have just reported that Alkatiri has resigned from the position of Prime Minister of East Timor.
Thank goodness. It looks like Gusmao’s bluff worked and allowed Alkatiri the necessary space to save face and stand down without admitting fault. However, having seen the alarming accusations made against him on the ABC’s Four Corners program last week and the subsequent investigation into his ex-interior minister, Alkatiri certainly has a lot of questions to answer.
I hope that his resignation will bring peace and stability to East Timor. Does anyone know if Jose Ramos Horta will be resuming his old position of Foreign Minister or stepping up to the position of Prime Minister? Apparently his ex-wife, Ana Pessoa, who is a close ally of Alkatiri, has become the frontrunner to replace Mr Alkatiri and has said that she would be willing to take up the position.
[crossposted at two peas, no pod]
Update: Silkworm has provided a link to a very interesting article on ZNet that provides far more sinister reasons for Alkatiri being forced out of power. It is worth reading and following this whole East Timor story with a certain level of scepticism. While I have a lot of trouble trusting Alkatiri, I also have little trouble in believing that Australia’s oil and gas greed are playing a strong role in fuelling this conflict.
Sorry Tigtog, I know that you were keen to talk about another kind of football, but I got up at 4:45am and went out to a pub to watch the soccer, so I’m afraid I have to write about it at least briefly.
Highlights were, of course, our two goals - particularly Kewell’s, which was beautifully shot - and the dancing performed by Croatia’s coach. At one point he appeared to be impersonating a washing machine (and quite convincingly too).
Continue reading ‘Socceroos through to the next round’
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