The Lolita Effect

Well folks, I’ve spent most of the day in the car, but I have managed to get back to post, so here we go.

I had to drive down to Bexhill on Sea to collect my father’s ashes -but that’s another story. What do you do on a long drive but listen to the radio? What should pop up after an erudite chat about St Thomas Aquinas with Melvin Bragg but Women’s Hour - OK, stop sniggering at the back. But maybe there is a link, and maybe there is a god, because yet again, my belief that ‘ask and ye shall receive’, (where sociology resources are concerned at least) proved to be right once again.

What am I on about? Regular readers will know how I love to moan and whinge about how old all the key studies in sociology textbooks are. But what comes up on Woman’s Hour ? A great reference, that’s what - to a book called ‘The Lolita Effect’. The author and others engaged in an interesting discussion about the contemporary sexualisation and objectification of the young female body.They even had some material from interviews with young women from London. Highly recommended. If you ask nicely I might even buy a copy of the book and make a summary handout, to be made available, on this blog. Free.