Meg

“While girls have always been encouraged to see self-decoration as a central part of their lives, today they are also exposed to a deluge of messages, even at an early age, about the importance of becoming sexually attractive. These dolls are just a fragment of a much wider culture in which young women are encouraged to see their sexual allure as their primary passport to success.
This highly sexualised culture is often positively celebrated as a sign of women's liberation and empowerment.”
― Natasha Walter, Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism

“We cannot pretend that this is all about women as victims, when many women are deeply complicit in creating and selling this culture.”
― Natasha Walter, Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism

“What's more, throughout much of our society, the image of female perfection to which women are encouraged to aspire has become more and more defined by sexual allure. Of course wanting to be sexually attractive has always and will always be a natural desire for both men and women, but in this generation a certain view of female sexuality has become celebrated throughout advertisements, music, television programmes, films and magazines. This image of female sexuality has become more than ever defined by the terms of the sex industry.”
― Natasha Walter, Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism

“Somehow the ideals of sexual liberation had become twisted until women were being told that if they didn't buy into an increasingly narrow image of what female sexiness looked like, then they must be prudes.
No matter if they were looking for something freer rather than less free, nobody wants to be told they're frigid. So even though this wasn't about disliking sex, but disliking sexism, the label 'prude' had become an effective gag on dissent.”
― Natasha Walter, Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism