Published on: 22 March 2018



Christ Church Grammar School welcomed author, speaker, media commentator, blogger and advocate for women and girls, Melinda Tankard Reist to campus this week to discuss ‘Respect and Responsibility.’

Speaking to community members in our Senior School Staff Room on Wednesday evening, Melinda highlighted the increasing concern and prevalence of sexualised images of children and early adolescents in the media.

“Research has shown that the exploitation of children, particularly girls, as sexual objects has a detrimental effect on adolescent development, increasing the risk of depression, eating disorders and low self-esteem. The unrealistic depiction of children in a sexualised manner is not only harmful to girls and women, but has wider consequences in the community,” said Melinda during the talk.

Boys from Years 9 to 11 also heard from Melinda and additional guest speaker Daniel Pignatiello during the visit where they shared examples of harmful behaviour and highlighted how young men can reject cultural dictates and become young men with integrity.

Melinda is author/editor of five books including Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls, now in its 9th printing, and Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry, and is a regular guest on Channel 7’s Sunrise and Morning Show.

Read Melinda’s recent article featured on our BGM blog, Building good men by empowering boys to stand up to the mistreatment of girls.