Girls now the sum of their body parts

The nerve-paralysing poison Botox is being pitched to teenagers as a preventative against wrinkles. Growing numbers are having breast implants. Younger women seek Brazilian waxes because their boyfriends complain they are too hairy and don’t match up to how women look in porn.

Even organisations which claim to be about “empowering” girls encourage them to get their pubic hair ripped out every eight weeks. The website www.Girl.com.au promotes brazilians on a link on their home page - the same place they advertise Disney films and High School Musical 2.

Says Girl.com: “Nobody really likes hair in their private regions and it has a childlike appeal. Men love it, and are eternally curious about it.” They don’t appear to have a problem with linking men, waxing and childlike appeal - nor with disempowering girls by making them feel they can’t be normal if their pubic regions don’t imitate those of small children.

Girls have been reduced to the sum of their body parts.

Research links sexualisation with three of the most common mental health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression. The messages delivered by a culture obsessed with body image and sex limit the freedom of girls to explore other facets of their lives. They need to be encouraged to think for themselves, to be creative and imaginative, find meaning in life and make a mark in the world.

So why aren’t we doing more about it?

An urgent whole-of-government and community approach is required, recognising what the research says and taking action. Positive body image programs in schools should be mandatory, teaching media literacy skills that help young people recognise damaging messages from popular culture.

There should also be a crack down on degrading and objectified images of women in the public domain, including outdoor advertising, and an overhaul of the Advertising Standards Board and other regulatory bodies which have failed us so badly.

Catherine, a young Melbourne artist and writer who struggles with an eating disorder wrote to me: “I feel it’s essential that not only girls but women are able to identify the real values we should nurture and the deeply dishonest images and ideas we are fed.”

That’s where a new campaign has to begin, so that Lily and her friends can go swimming, without fearing judgment and shame.