The basic message of Miss Representation – which was released in America last year – is that media images are having an increasingly powerful impact on how children think and act. Most notably, girls today are being encouraged to think that they have to be slim and beautiful – if not outwardly sexualised – to “succeed”. While some of that brainwashing comes from explicit material, the most potent influences are often the most subtle, ranging from the behaviour of TV news anchors, to the pictures on girls’ bedroom walls. Read more…
