‘Pro-Life Feminist’ Coming To Kingaroy

A “pro-life feminist” who campaigns against pornography and the sexualisation of children will be a special guest speaker in Kingaroy on Thursday (May 4).

Melinda Tankard Reist will be speaking on the topic “Too Much Too Young”, looking at how the advertising industry, the media and pornography are sexualising children at an early age.

Melinda is a Canberra-based author, public speaker, media commentator, blogger and describes herself as an advocate for women and girls.

During her Kingaroy talk, she will look at the effect pornography is having on children and society, and how parents can fight against it.

She will be speaking at St John’s Lutheran School Hall in Ivy Street from 7:00pm.

Melinda has been brought to the South Burnett by local group Sistas In Sync.

According to her Wikipedia entry, Ms Reist was born in Mildura in 1963 and studied journalism at RMIT before doing a cadetship at the Sunraysia Daily.

In 1987 she won a Rotary Foundation Scholarship to study journalism for a year at California State University, and on her return to Australia became a freelance contributor to newspapers and ABC radio.

She lived in South East Asia for two years from 1991-1993, where she was engaged in voluntary aid work including caring for infants with disabilities given up for adoption.

On her return to Australia, she took up a position as an adviser to independent Senator Brian Harradine from 1993 to 2005, and also helped found Karinya House, an accommodation and outreach service for pregnant women without support, and Erin House, which offers transitional housing for new mothers.

From 2005-2009 Ms Reist was involved with the women’s think tank Women’s Forum Australia, and also worked as a consultant to NGOs, including World Vision Australia.

In 2009 she co-founded Collective Shout for a World Free of Sexploitation, a movement which targets advertisers, corporations and marketers which objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services.

Ms Reist is the mother of four children and has been the author or a contributing editor of five books.

Her talk on Thursday night will focus on the “pornification” of society and the effects this is having on girls and boys.

The fact that one in four teenagers suffer a mental illness, that there has been a 60 per cent rise in self-harm rates amongst adolescent girls over the past six years, and that one in 100 girls are now anorexic and one in 10 girls are bulimic are evidence that current culture needs to change, Ms Reist says.

The talk is free and supper will be provided, but there’ll also be an opportunity to make a donation to cover costs.

External links:

• Who’s afraid of Melinda Tankard Reist? (Fairfax)
• Notes On a Scandal: Melinda Tankard Reist And Me (Rachell Hills’ blog)
• The authentic feminism of Melinda Tankard Reist (ABC)

[UPDATED Originally published as “Firebrand Feminist Coming To Kingaroy”]