Princesses and Pornstars - What's Happening to Our Girls?

With special guests:

• Emily Maguire, author of the new book Princesses and Pornstars
• Maggie Hamilton, author of the new book What’s Happening To Our Girls?

This week we’re delighted to have two of the country’s leading women authors on the show discussing where gender relations have got to and what is happening to our teenage girls. Emily Maguire’s new book Princesses and Porn Stars and Maggie Hamilton’s new book What is Happening to Our Girls? are both confronting and challenging works.

Many dads are struggling to deal with feisty, determined and often head strong young daughters, trying to encourage them to be independent and successful young women at the same time as hoping like hell they don’t turn into man haters.

Told from an early age they can do anything and be anything, young women today are very different to the women of only a few generations ago.

As any parent will tell you, teenage girls are difficult on a good day. How as a father to deal best with them and the many issues they face can be very perplexing indeed.

Emily Maguire asks: “After forty years of feminism where are we? What has happened to women’s rights in the era of terror and the age of the celebrity diet? Do girls and women have real choices beyond becoming princesses or pornstars? What is the modesty movement? Is raunch culture damaging women? Why are women still restricted by the sexualised identities of virgins or whores?”

In this ground breaking book, award-winning journalist and novelist Emily Maguire examines these issues with wit and intelligence. She looks for a way towards more equality for women in their public and private lives.

Princesses & Pornstars is a bold mix of personal story, interview reportage, analysis and polemic. It’s a call to arms for a generation that grew up thinking the struggle was over.

Here are a few extracts from reviews of Princesses & Pornstars: Sex, Power and Identity. ‘Intelligent, witty, at times a little didactic, Princesses & Pornstars will leave you nodding your head with its judicious good sense. could sit next to Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs on the bookshelf, but it moves beyond being simply a critic [sic] of raunch culture and looks at other issues facing women today: motherhood, abortion and education.’ Australian Bookseller & Publisher

‘Maguire pretty much covers all the issues that divide and conquer She writes passionately and lucidly We may have come a long way since the 1950s but, as Maguire so eloquently points out, we still have a long way to go.’ Good Reading

‘This book is not intended as a neat treatise. It is both howl and prod, both expression of fury and plea for change.’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘Maguire’s voice is passionate throughout. She is also lucid, honest and perspicacious. Discusses all the big issues, including sexuality, representations of women, body image, motherhood, work and abortion. Should be read by young men as well as women and those who conduct sex education in schools. Maguire does not have a daughter. I do, however, and I would give this book to her. Like the person I hope to raise, Princesses & Pornstars has intellectual punch and emotional integrity.’ Canberra Times

Maggie Hamilton was last on Dads On The Air talking about her superb book What Men Don’t Talk About.

A great talent and a fascinating thinker, we’re very pleased to welcome her back in a different guise.

Maggie Hamilton asks: What’s Happening to Our Girls?

She writes:

Too much, Too soon, our kids are overstimulated, oversold and oversexed

She asks:

Why are girls as young as five years old concerned about their looks and addicted to shopping?

Why are they having sex and binge-drinking so young, responding to chat-room predators, and bullying their peers via email and text messages?

Why are depression, cutting and eating disorders on the rise, and why, with so much choice, do so many just want to marry young and have babies?

In a few short years our girls have become vulnerable not just teen girls, but also young girls and baby girls. They are being forced to grow up faster than ever before. What a twelve-year-old girl experienced at seven is not what a seven-year-old girl is now struggling with. Many of the guidelines we offer girls no longer apply, or are contradicted by messages from media and advertising telling girls how to look, think, behave and feel.

Over two year Maggie Hamilton interviewed girls, teachers, school counsellors, psychologists, and law enforcement and medical personnel to get an insider’s view on what girls are experiencing at present from birth to the teenage years.

Informed, revealed, compassionate and at times shocking, What’s Happening to Our Girls? is a book for parents and all those who want to better understand and support girls.

Some early responses to What’s Happening to Our Girls?

‘As Maggie shows in this great book, as fathers and mothers we don’t know it all. If we want to find real solutions for our girls, we need to really listen to our daughters.’ - Stephen Boston, father of three girls

‘What’s Happening to Our Girls? moves parenting into the twenty-first century by highlighting the power of outside forces in shaping the personalities, morality and ultimate wellbeing of our daughters Although directed at raising girls, the message is equally important for those parenting boys. This work is a must-read for both parents and young adults attempting to understand and bridge the generation gap.’ - Bill O’Hehir, senior psychologist

‘Having worked with men and boys for 20 years, I was amazed, fascinated and quite horrified to read such a succinct and well-documented account of all the issues facing girls today. The pressures created by society’s expectations and the marketing evil that is being unleashed on our girls means that every parent should read this book as a way of understanding what is really going on, and what they can do.’ - Dr Arne Rubinstein MBBS, FRACGP, CEO, Pathways Foundation.

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