Back in April 2012 I hosted a screening of a US documentary called Miss Representation at the Amnesty International headquarters in Shoreditch, London. The film, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival but never had a theatrical release in the UK, explores the way that women are represented in the media (or not, as the case…
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While Mattel’s Monster High dolls have savaged Mattel’s Barbie in the marketplace, what have we really gained as consumers? Monster High’s ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Cleo De Nile’ and ‘Draculaura’ amongst many others – aside from being the offspring of classic monsters – are all about celebrating difference. So sayeth Mattel. But are they? Barbie had unrealistic proportions,…
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Disney has announced a new Princess: Merida from Pixar’s Brave. They’ve given her a makeover to celebrate the promotion, and many of her fans believe the company has robbed the character of her very being. Their anger has led to a petition with more than 93,000 signatories. When Pixar and Disney released Brave in…
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Clementine Ford recently wrote an article about our obsession with plus sized role models over at Daily Life. She speaks about the “real woman” debate (we all know my feelings on that, repeat ad nauseum until I’m blue in the face) and the pitting of women against women. She makes mention of the fact that…
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A few years after my parent’s split up, I was eating dinner with my father and he exclaimed, “You eat like your mother!” It turns out Mum and I like to get a small piece of each type of food and flavour in the meal and create “the perfect bite”. We don’t eat potato or…
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Ours is a strange world indeed when Shane Warne, Taylor Momsen and Robert Falcon Scott can all have something in common. All are, in one way or another, role models. These figures are however nothing more than a degustation menu of expected inspiring figures. Selected from just three zones of achievement valuable to society –…
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