Posted in Feminism, Power of Words on Jul 2nd, 2009 3 Comments »
Like the rest of the world, I was sickened by the recent death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman shot in the protests that followed the dubious election result in Iran. The 26-year-old university student was with her singing teacher at the time of her death. In Iran, women are forbidden to sing publicly, so [...]
Posted in Blogs, Feminism, Power of Words on Jun 26th, 2009 1 Comment »
Guest Post by Enlighten Education’s Program Director for Queensland, Storm Greenhill-Brown
Personal happiness is a subject that has long been of interest to me, so I was most intrigued when I read Elisa’s recent comment mentioning a study called “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness” by two economists from the University of Pennsylvania. According to their [...]
Posted in Advertising, Enlighten Education, Parents, Power of Words, Schools on Jun 12th, 2009 7 Comments »
Many girls I work with tell me they are stressed — really stressed. They feel exhausted and overwhelmed. They have headaches, trouble sleeping, chronically tight muscles, fatigue and lack of appetite or weight gain, which are recognised signs of stress.
Why do our young women feel such debilitating pressure?
I believe many teen girls are suffering from the Supergirl [...]
Posted in Power of Words, Resources, Schools, Women and Careers on Jun 5th, 2009 1 Comment »
I was really interested in the findings of a study conducted by Janet Hyde, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of psychology, and Janet Mertz, a UW-Madison professor of oncology, on girls and mathematics. They analysed studies from around the world on mathematics performance along with gender inequality as measured by the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index. [...]
Posted in Feminism, Media, Power of Words, Schools, Sport on May 20th, 2009 8 Comments »
The latest NRL scandal has brought some ugly, ignorant and misogynistic views to the surface in the media and among the general public. Many people have sprung to Matthew Johns’ defence since Four Corners’ revelations about an incident in New Zealand in 2002 in which Johns and numerous teammates had sex with Clare, a 19-year-old [...]
Posted in Advertising, Body Image, Fashion Industry, Media, Parents, Power of Words, Sexualisation of children on May 13th, 2009 6 Comments »
Recently I took my 10-year-old daughter, Teyah, on a trip to a shopping centre. Mother’s Day was coming up, and I needed to buy a gift for my mother and a new outfit for Teyah to wear out for our family lunch.
Rather than enjoying this experience, I found myself increasingly frustrated, and in fact furious, [...]
Posted in Body Image, Bullying, Eating Disorders, Enlighten Education, Magazines, Media, Parents, Power of Words, Resources on Apr 26th, 2009 5 Comments »
This month, alarming research was published showing that eating disorders now plague very young children. The study’s findings included a child only 5 years of age who was hospitalised with Early Onset Eating Disorder (EOED).
It was Dr Sloane Madden from The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, New South Wales, who raised the alarm: “What we are seeing [...]
Posted in Body Image, Power of Words on Feb 24th, 2009 11 Comments »
Lily Allen’s song “The Fear” slams the vacuous world of celebrity as well as offering a poignant insight into the fears I believe many young women are harbouring.
Warning: the clip below contains strong language.
During the research process for my upcoming book, The Butterfly Effect, I had the opportunity to speak at length with many teenage girls [...]
Posted in Advertising, Body Image, Enlighten Education, Magazines, Media, Power of Words, Resources, Schools, Sexualisation of children on Jan 21st, 2009 4 Comments »
I want to begin the year by sharing a video that I posted on YouTube earlier this month, it is an edited version of some interviews I did with Iris Productions:
I have been thinking about how we can all make things better for girls and have come up with a few suggestions I’d like to see you all build [...]
Posted in Cyber world / Bullying, Enlighten Education, Power of Words on Dec 12th, 2008 3 Comments »
Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are becoming increasingly popular; 41% of the Australian population uses a social network profile, and 70% of them have 2 or more.
I am a self confessed Facebook addict. Through FB I have reconnected with old friends and past students I taught, made new friends with like-minded women who [...]
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