They used to get help… now they get likes

I saw this post on a friend’s feed. It’s grim stuff. Got me all annoyed and rolling my eyes.

And then I watched it a second time with my husband and it felt even worse.

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Calvin Klein and the glamourisation of sexual harassment

You’ve probably already heard about the new Calvin Klein advertising campaign. It’s worked, that’s for sure, in that Twitter and Facebook can’t get enough of complaining about it. And of course the pro-sexism and creepy factions can’t get enough of defending it and lashing out at people who recognise it for what it is – blatant sexist glamourisation of and dismissal of sexual harassment.

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Helping to nurture your teenage daughter’s body image

Do  you suck your tummy in when you think other people are looking at you?

Every day, women (and men) are bombarded by messages on the TV, radio, print media including the internet telling us (and selling us) on how to change how we look. Unless you actually live under an actual rock you are bombarded by change-your-body messages maybe twenty, thirty times a day (?!!). All designed to sell you something. All disguised as “help”.

 

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(That’s an ad for yogurt… ahem and erm…)

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Talking to teens about Sexting

A teenage boy asking you to leave

Firstly let’s define sexting:

Sexting is the sending of a sexually revealing image of oneself or an explicit text using a phone, or other device that is connected to the internet. You will have heard about the celebrity photo leaks, most notably the recent Jennifer Lawrence leaks .

And last week we heard about SnapChat pictures being leaked.

Sexting
Sexting – the new first base

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Kim and Kanye are in Ireland!! (And why we give a &^%*…)

Kim and Kanye

We have a lovely little castle with proper history that has been nicely converted into a 5 star hotel and in fairness, many celebrities have indeed stayed there. Disappointingly I missed, by mere minutes, an afternoon with a very sociable Bruce Springsteen last summer. And so when it became clear that the newlyweds, “Kimye”, (we can nickname them now ‘cos they’re practically locals) flew into Cork airport, Castlemartyr was the obvious choice destination. So we all went mad looking to confirm that we were hosting new sparkly guests, albeit briefly. It was most entertaining!

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“Selfies, more than just self portraits?”

Selfies

What’s the deal with selfies? More often than not, selfies are taken and posted online by young girls and women, and worryingly, these young girls and women are in increasingly submissive and/or sexualised poses.

Thank you porn.

Here is a conversation I had with Chrissie Russell, a freelance journalist around this topic. The resulting published online newspaper article is here. Continue reading