Lingerie adverts that are too erotic should be banned to protect children from getting the wrong ideas about sex, a Tory MP says.
Nadine Dorries also wants ‘lads mags’ featuring semi-naked girls on the cover to be removed from child-eye level in newsagents.
The MP for Mid-Bedfordshire has drawn attention to an Armani advertising campaign on London buses which features images of Megan Fox, the film star, in scant lingerie.
She said: “On the Armani ads you can barely see the name of the company.
“Everyone knows I’m not a politically correct feminist, but this is part of a wider trend towards the objectification of women.”
Shocking
And the mother of three warned: “It is becoming more hardcore and shocking. Since when did it become acceptable to have larger-than-life posters of scantily clad women moving up and down every street?”
Mrs Dorries’ concerns come in a Ten Minute Rule Bill, reportedly to be introduced to the House of Commons at the end of March.
Her Bill was sparked by taking a friend’s daughter around London where the MP noticed the sort of images young people face everyday.
Confused
Writing on her blog last week, she raised the issue of the “sexualisation and objectification of young girls and women in the media”, saying it has become “markedly worse over the last few years”.
The MP continued that “it appears to be our teenagers who are the most concerned and confused”.
“We live in a culture whereby our visual and auditory senses are constantly bombarded with images and messages; downloaded into our brain with no filter for objective analysis or warning before the ‘message’ is received”, she said.
Mrs Dorries added: “The breakdown of a strong family culture which was once prevalent within society and provided the moral home spun boundaries teenagers could bounce off, has for many disappeared.”
Pressured
On Monday the Daily Mail reported that teen girls have hit out at modern liberal mums who do little to protect them from ‘pornified’ boys.
“I wish my parents would say I’m not allowed to be home alone with a boy”, said one 16-year-old girl. “I wish they’d say boys aren’t allowed in my bedroom.”
The story revealed that many teenage girls are being pressurised by their boyfriends to engage in sexual acts taken from pornographic films.
Media blamed for sexualisation of children
A recent Home Office-backed report said exposure to an increasing amount of “hyper-sexualised” images by the media was selling young people the idea that they have to look “sexy” and “hot”.
The author of the report, Dr Linda Papadopoulos, called for more stringent regulation of sexual imagery in advertising and a ban on selling lads’ mags to under-16s.