Author: Melinda Tankard Reist File Type: pdf From advertising and merchandising, to Bratz and Voodoo Dolls, to the images of Bill Henson, Getting Real puts the spotlight on the sexualisation and objectification of girls and women in the media, popular culture and society. Girls are portrayed as sexual at younger ages, pressured to conform to a thin, hot, sexy norm. Clothing, music, magazines, toys and games send girls the message that they are merely the sum of their body parts. The effects of prematurely sexualising girls are borne out in their bodies and minds, with a rise in self-destructive behaviours such as eating disorders and self-harm, along with anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Getting Real brings together writers, advocates and academics including some of the most vocal critics of the widespread pornification of culture. They call corporations, the media and the sex industry to account for creating this toxic environment. Lively and engaging, this collection is of interest to anyone troubled by whats happening today and those seeking ideas to address and mobilise against the sexualisation of girls. Edited by author, advocate and commentator Melinda Tankard Reist, this is a book for anyone wanting to see a better world for the next generation.

Author: Michelle Jackson File Type: pdf In many countries, concern about socio-economic inequalities in educational attainment has focused on inequalities in test scores and grades. The presumption has been that the best way to reduce inequalities in educational outcomes is to reduce inequalities in performance. But is this presumption correct? Determined to Succeed? is the first book to offer a comprehensive cross-national examination of the roles of performance and choice in generating inequalities in educational attainment. It combines in-depth studies by country specialists with chapters discussing more general empirical, methodological, and theoretical aspects of educational inequality. The aim is to investigate to what extent inequalities in educational attainment can be attributed to differences in academic performance between socio-economic groups, and to what extent they can be attributed to differences in the choices made by students from these groups. The contributors focus predominantly on inequalities related to parental class and parental education. **Review The book edited by Michelle Jackson is a major contribution to the literature analyzing class differences in educational attainment . . . The book not only provides new findings but also pushed the discussion of whether and under what conditions the decomposition of class differences in educational transitions into primary and secondary effects is useful . . . In addition, the country studies are outstanding, providing a great deal of evidence in compact form. They will be useful for all interested in the sociology of education and stratification research.Thorsten Schneider, American Sociological Review Following in the tradition of seminal works on comparative studies of education, Determined to Succeed offers an excellent assessment of social origin and educational attainment. Important and innovative, the volume is sure to find wide influence and readership in the sociology of education.Hans Peter Blossfeld, University of Bamberg Clear, systematic, and consistently high quality, this book offers an important contribution to the sociology of education and stratification.Florencia Torche, New York University About the Author Michelle Jackson is a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences at Stanford University and an Associate Member of Nuffield College, Oxford.