• Australian researcher Maggie Hamilton interviewed thousands of parents and kids for her book What's Happening To Our Girls?. She found that the hypersexualization of kids has lead many youngsters to feel like they have to be, well, hypersexual. • But there is some good news out of Australia today: Australians are pretty pro-choice, says a new study. Only 4% of Australians oppose abortion outright, and 57% think abortions should be readily available for those who want them. •  According to a recent paper, cosmetic eyelid surgery actually improves quality of life. They asked patients who had undergone the procedure to fill out a retrospective questionnaire, the results of which indicated that cosmetic surgery may in fact improve the lives of those unhappy with their looks. •  A Canadian dominatrix and two other sex workers have asked Ontario's Superior Court of Justice to change Canada's prostitution laws, on the grounds that they are unconstitutional. Terri-Jean Bedford, 49, told the Toronto Star that she plans to bring her riding crop to court. "You never know when you might run across a naughty boy, or a naughty judge," she said. •  A study from the University of Copenhagen found that women who join a soccer league are more likely to stick to their workouts than those who run. The soccer plays also reaped more health benefits from their exercise, and tended to enjoy working out more. •  Sitting up straight may actually help improve your self esteem. Researchers found that people who are told to sit up at their desks are more likely to believe positive things about themselves than those who slump over. •  A pregnant aerobics instructor who was wounded when George Sodini fired at least 52 shots into her fitness club has sued the estate of the gunman, saying that the injuries she received that day put her in danger of having a miscarriage. •  Egyptian lawmakers have called for a ban on the Artificial Virginity Hymen Kit. The kit is manufactured in China, but they advertise that it ships to all countries in the Middle East. Conservative Egyptians fear that women will begin using them to trick their new husbands, and that it may make it easier for women to "give in to temptation." Some have even called for the exile of any woman caught ordering the kit. •  Burmese pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi was escorted into "surprise talks" with a junta leader on Saturday. Optimists think this may be the start of a new era of cooperation between Suu Kyi and the current government. • A woman from Florida was the victim of a raccoon "gang attack" at her Lakeland house. A group of five raccoons pounced on the woman after she tried to shoo them away. Fortunately, she is in recovery and will be fine. •  The Supreme Court has decided to refuse the request of the Connecticut Diocese and keep court documents on the sexual abuse committed by clergy members unsealed. • South Africa's African National Congress says that since Caster Semenya was raised as a girl, she should "continue to run as a woman." • Harriet the Spy will become a live-action TV movie on the Disney Channel. • Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, an authorized sequel to A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books, came out today. The book features a new character, a pearl-wearing otter, and the author says, "I made Eeyore a little more proactive so he wasn't always the victim." • Scientists have discovered a damaged gene that is linked to half of all breast cancers. Damaged NRG1s have been found in 50% of all breast cancer patients, and it has also been linked to ovarian and bladder cancers. Although everyone is born with an intact NRG1, many cancer patients have faulty NRG1s, which were damaged at some point during their lives, but doctors have yet to pinpoint how. • 

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Okay, that's a slight oversimplification... I think. The bone of contention is a tub of lipgloss that's arrived with the little girl's children's magazine. When she appears at the breakfast table with her mouth smeared red, her dad panics at the thought that his baby is growing up and being seduced by the big, bad sexualized world. Quoth he,

I will concede that, knowing Bridie would be our last child, I have clung to her babyhood rather more tightly than I did with our older girls. Yet I wouldn't attempt to hold back her natural development. But at the same time she has been born into a world permeated with a creepy and sinister sexualisation of children. She is being brought up in a society where shops sell padded bras to girls who have yet to grow a bust. And one that sees supermarkets forced to withdraw mini pole-dancing kits from their toy sections.

Mom Rachel rebuts,

And while I do, of course, abhor the modern marketing trends that inarguably sexualise our children, I don't believe that having a predilection for pink lippy will see our toddler pestering me for a pushup bra any time soon. Which is why I couldn't share Carl's dismay the other morning when Bridie covered her face in lip gloss in between mouthfuls of Rice Krispies... Of course, I'm appalled when I see a seven-year-old carrying a Playboy pencil case into school, and dismayed by the little girls, no older than five, who play in our park in sequin crop tops and horribly short skirts.But I don't believe there's any harm in little girls liking makeup. That is something that will only change when we big girls go off the stuff, too

To an outsider, the situation seems perfectly clear: yes, kids are too sexualized nowadays and no, there's nothing particularly sinister about a little girl smearing lip gloss on her face - especially after we're inured to the baby pageant circuit's penchant for forced fake-bakes and hairpieces. But what is a little weird in this debate is not the little girl's behavior, which seems age-appropriate enough, as the parents' expectations for her inevitable maturity. Here's what the dad, Carl, says about his two older girls, 13 and 10: "Bronte and Merrily are obsessed with mobile phones, make-up, shopping and boys. I find myself mourning the days when they believed in Santa and the tooth fairy." Their mom concurs: "Yes, the older girls might be mad about shopping and boys, but they also work hard at school, do their chores and are nice to have around, which seems a good balance to me." Shopping and boys, at ten, does seem precocious, and, by the way, kind of within the parents' purview. They're still fighting the battle with the youngest daughter, but at ten the childhood fight is lost? They treat this as a universality, but ironically, maybe the fact that they take it for granted is what's problematic. If this is what the three-year-old will be into in just a few short years, I kinda see why the dad is sad about it; and why the mom thinks it's no big deal. Tragic? Not at all. But their idea of "girlhood" is different from mine.

Should We Let Our Three-Year-Old Girl Wear Make-Up? [Daily Mail]

Theobald uses anecdotal evidence to support her argument that in today’s pink princess Barbie doll culture, the tomboy is on the decline. She has a difficult time finding a tomboy to interview for her article, and takes this as a sign that tomboys have generally gone out of fashion. However, while her methods are rather unscientific, Theobald does make a good point about the marketing of sexy to young girls:

Alarmingly, when it comes to the box office, it seems that semi-sexualising girls is still the only way ahead. Take Disney's revamped Famous Five cartoon, Famous 5: On the Case. Jo, the daughter of George, seems forced to wear figure-hugging girl versions of boy clothes (no tomboy worth her salt would ever wear figure-hugging clothes). And what of poor Dora the Explorer? Nickelodeon recently redesigned the Dora doll to make her more "feminine" (read "profitable"). Instead of being equipped with tools, map and backpack, her new accessories include halter-tops, tiaras and glittery hairbrushes.

Theobald hits on a disturbing trend that we’ve discussed before. Girls are marketed pink everything, sparkly everything, princess everything. In a world where being pretty is the best compliment a young girl can receive, it is hard to be a tomboy. In many ways, Theobald is right; tomboys have been “medicalised,” as has gender-bending in general. Children are now (and have always been) encouraged to conform to strict gender roles usually based on their biological sex. But that doesn’t mean that they always do.

Growing up, both my sister and I were tomboys, which is probably due in part to the fact that we have two very boyish brothers and parents who bought us mostly gender-neutral toys (we had tons of Legos). Working with kids, I see a lot of 21st century tomboys. They’re out there, even if they are not as celebrated by the media as they once were. Tomboys (and “sissies”) are everywhere, and their continued presence can hopefully help redefine what traits are actually “boyish” “girlish” or just human.

Hurrah for Tomboys! [Guardian]

"Lolita" is one of those terms that has entered the culture without having much to do with the character who inspired it. Whereas Nabokov's character is essentially just a kid — albeit a precocious and disturbed one — who's explicitly a canvas for the projection of Humbert's fantasies. As Vickers puts it, "She almost doesn't exist as a person to him." When we talk about a "Lolita" nowadays, it's usually in the context of a little Jezebel who manipulates men; it's a sexually-charged term for sure. How can we have taken such an ambiguous character and invested her with such a simplistic — not to say misleading — meaning? And why does this poor child get all the press? Why hasn't Humbert-Humbert entered the culture as a prototypical pedophile in the same way? Sure, he's less "sexy", but shouldn't that kind of be the point? We're talking, after all, about pedophilia, which is supposed to be the most feared subject of our times.

In a way, the wholesale acceptance of the term "Lolita," the insistence on viewing her as a sexy temptress in the face of Nabokov's beautifully-crafted ambiguity, is a handy (if simplistic) mirror for the weird duality with which we view young girls as a whole. As Vickers says, it feels like awareness of the generality of "pedophilia" is all around us — an openness to childhood abuses, public registries and the risks to which children are subject every day. And yet, young girls are increasingly sexualized and the line between childhood and womanhood has never been more blurry.

Vickers makes the point that most of the people who toss around the term "Lolita" are probably more familiar with one of the movie adaptations than the actual novel. Ironically, in their unwillingness to ever cast a really young girl in the role (both Sue Lyon and Dominique Swain were 15, as opposed to the novel's 12), the films are serving to blur the creepiness of the situation and so the picture these people see is probably less shocking. Vickers is sorry about this cultural blindness, as it's a total disservice to Nabokov. But the thing is, the novel, in its true form, is probably also one of the best primers anyone could have on the horrors and the humanity of pedophilia, and it's kind of sad that, society-wise, we're so invested in oversimplifying.

Girls, Girls, Girls [Nerve]