Body Image – Objectification and Sexualisation

Women’s Forum Australia is deeply concerned that young girls and women are objectified and sexualised. Public images of women heavily focus on women’s sexual features rather than other attributes such as intelligence or work capacity...

Women’s Forum rejects the message sent by media and advertisers – in an attempt to sell products – that women are inferior and flawed...

Women’s Forum encourages women to be critical rather than passive consumers of popular culture – with the ability to accept healthy, positive messages, and reject fake or damaging messages. We exhort each woman to celebrate her own uniqueness and withdraw from conforming to the attractiveness ideal presented by marketers and media.

Read our whole Position Statement:

Sexualisation and Objecification Position Statement (735 KB)

Quick Facts [1]

• 70% -76% of Australian high school girls consistently choose an ideal figure that they wish to have that is thinner than their own.
• Only 16% of young women are happy with their body weight.
• Of healthy weight Australian women, 47% believe they are overweight
• Less than 25% of Australian women are satisfied with their weight
• Body dissatisfaction has been shown to be directly related to declining self-esteem among girls, negative mood and mood disturbances.[2]
• Unhealthy weight loss behaviours are associated with negative mood and unhealthy weight gain.[3]

Submissions

APA Task Force on the Sexualisation of Girls (3568 KB)

Body_Image_Submission (938 KB)

National_Women's_Health_Submission (843 KB)

WF Published Articles

Body Image is more than about size (419 KB)

Girls now the sum of their body parts (90 KB)

National strategy on body image doesn't go far enough (211 KB)

We recommend you read

Faking It

 

The Butterfly Effect – Danielle Miller

 

Girl Stuff – Kaz Cooke

 

What’s Happening to Our Girls – Maggie Hamilton

 

Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls

 

 

Useful Websites