Frequently Asked Questions

Collective Shout is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and governed by a board of directors. We are an independent registered charity with no affiliation to religious or political institutions. Anyone who finds common cause with our goals is welcome to join.

Our purpose 

We are a grassroots campaigns movement for a world free of sexploitation in all its forms. We harness individual voices into a Collective Shout against the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls in media, advertising and popular culture. 

Our mission 

To bring about cultural change and societal transformation through holding corporations, advertisers, marketers and media accountable for the well established harms of objectification of women and sexualisation of girls and encouraging strategic social partnerships that uphold the value of women and girls.

Our core values 

• A voice that values women and girls.
• A voice that is known and respected as a thought leader on the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls.
• A voice that creates counter-cultural change, where the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls is ‘unthinkable’.

The way we work 

• We are a countercultural voice working to making the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls ‘unthinkable’.
• We are a grassroots campaigns movement - empowering individuals to speak out thus amplifying our campaigns nationally.
• Our professional presentations, products and thought leadership educate people about the way objectification of women and sexualisation of girls is normalised through media, marketing and corporate behaviour. Our presentations, products and thought leadership lead to cultural and systemic change that places value on women and girls.
• We develop strategic social partnerships with corporates who value women and girls, to encourage other companies to do the same and advance corporate social responsibility.
• We have a sustainable fundraising model because of loyal partnerships with donors and sponsors who are committed to authentic change.

Our Corporate Social Responsibility Pledge 

Collective Shout doesn’t just call out companies doing the wrong thing. We also work with those who want to commit to changing the status of women and girls and demonstrating their commitment by signing on to our Corporate Social Responsibility Pledge. Signatories sign a statement of intention worded as follows: 

“In a spirit of respect and responsibility towards our consumers and broader society, and in recognition of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Convention on the Rights of the Child, we PLEDGE to be respectful of women and girls in our advertising and marketing by refraining from: 

• publishing images or messages that objectify women or girls; 
• carrying products, or providing services that involve images or messages that objectify women or girls; 
• promoting products or services that are designed to encourage children to think sexual appeal is essential to social success; 
• carrying/promoting products to girls, or providing services to girls that bear any mark, brand or logo associated with pornography or the systematic objectification of women. 

We further pledge to rectify any error as soon as possible.” 

You can become a CSR pledge partner here. 

Objectification is the process by which a person comes to be treated as a commodity or an object for use, rather than a human being with a personality, feelings, needs, dignity and rights. Sexual objectification is where a person is objectified for the purpose of the sexual gratification or use of another.

See also 'Empowerment, Body Positivity and the Internet'. 

The American Psychological Association defines sexualisation in this way:

There are several components to sexualization, and these set it apart from healthy sexuality. Sexualization occurs when

1)    a person’s value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics;

2)    a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy;

3)    a person is sexually objectified — that is, made into a thing for others’ sexual use, rather than seen as a person with the     capacity for independent action and decision making; and/or

4)    sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person.

All four conditions need not be present; any one is an indication of sexualization. The fourth condition (the inappropriate imposition of sexuality) is especially relevant to children. Anyone (girls, boys, men, women) can be sexualized. But when children are imbued with adult sexuality, it is often imposed upon them rather than chosen by them. Self-motivated sexual exploration, on the other hand, is not sexualization by our definition, nor is age-appropriate exposure to information about sexuality.

Read the entire report here.

Opposing sexualisation is not the same as opposing sex or sexuality. We are for a culture in which people can develop and express healthy sexuality in their own time. To achieve this we must resist a culture that tells people their sexual value is all they are.

Sexually objectifying portrayals of women in advertising and popular culture can have negative consequences for ALL women in society. 

Media and Sexualization: State of Empirical Research, 1995–2015

"Sexually objectifying portrayals of women are a frequent occurrence in mainstream media, raising questions about the potential impact of exposure to this content on others’ impressions of women and on women’s views of themselves. The findings provided consistent evidence that both laboratory exposure and regular, everyday exposure to this content are directly associated with a range of consequences, including higher levels of body dissatisfaction, greater self-objectification, greater support of sexist beliefs and of adversarial sexual beliefs, and greater tolerance of sexual violence toward women. Moreover, experimental exposure to this content leads both women and men to have a diminished view of women’s competence, morality, and humanity."

The goal of this review was to synthesize empirical investigations testing effects of media sexualization. The focus was on research published in peer-reviewed, English-language journals between 1995 and 2015. A total of 109 publications that contained 135 studies were reviewed.

See the review for more information.

Micki Wood, mother of US child beauty pageant star Eden Wood, made this same argument in response to child advocates and health professionals who spoke out against sexualising and exploitative pageants, claiming that if an individual looks at a child and thinks 'sex' the problem is with them. At this time Eden was six years old and famous for her Vegas showgirl routine. 

This notion that viewers are simply choosing to view children though a sexualised lens is a deliberate misrepresentation of the issue, one that obscures reality in such a way as to let advertisers and marketers off the hook completely, as if deliberately contrived ads somehow happened by accident and viewers are seeing something that isn't there. This argument is either disingenuous or indicates a lack of understanding into the significant global body of research into the harms of sexualisation. (See our resources page for more.)

Collective Shout is a campaigning movement that is against the objectification of women and sexualisation of children in media and advertising.

From time to time as part of our campaigning we will choose to share these images to encourage supporters to take action. History has shown that majority of our supporters are more compelled to take action when they themselves have seen the offending advertisement.

While we would prefer that none of us had to look at these images our aim is to create change through collective action in the most successful way possible. 

It’s true that some companies will use controversy as a way of increasing exposure to their product and brand. They hope this increased exposure to their brand will translate to increased sales. This must be true at least some of the time, or companies wouldn’t continue to do it.

So we can do nothing and hope it goes away. We can leave the objectification of women unchallenged. We can remain silent on the sexualisation of children. Or we can take action and expose the offending company.

These companies are going to make their money even if we don’t campaign against their practices, so we choose to speak out. Any increased sales are an unintended consequence of activism and an indictment on the self-regulated advertising industry that fails to penalise companies for unethical marketing practices. We maintain that advertising industry self-regulation doesn’t work. Read our submission here. Read about how the Advertising Standards Board works here.

‘Silence is the language of complicity, speaking out is the language of change.’ – anon

The issue of choice is complex. A number of factors influence the choices a person makes, including culture. Through media, marketing and product placement, the dominant message about women and girls is clear – women are valued for their appearance and how well they can sexually satisfy men.

We absorb this message from a very early age. Mainstream children’s media communicates that ‘beauty’ is a woman’s most important attribute. Images of flawless, slim, youthful models plaster public spaces. Padded bras and make up are marketed towards little girls. Pornographers are working hard to connect girls and young women to their products and the global branding of the sex industry.

The negative impact of sexualisation is significant and has been documented globally.

Girls are under increasing pressure to fit a narrow beauty standard and a sexualised mould. A culture that affirms girls for conforming to these standards is one in which women will be willing to participate in their own exploitation. Collective Shout believes in challenging and changing this toxic culture, rather than focusing on the choices of individual women.

A common refrain is that to acknowledge sexualised clothing is to ‘shame’ girls for their choices. The fact is, the sexualisation of girls has very little to do with girls choices, and much more to do with adults - companies, advertisers and marketers - whose financial interests are at stake, corporations who make choices to sexualise girls for their own financial gain. 

Calling out retailers that manufacture and sell padded push-up bras and g-strings for pre-pubescent girls, clothing and underwear with sexualised and suggestive slogans and merchandise embedded with the logo of global pornography brand Playboy is not shaming girls. It is holding these companies accountable. 

Another accusation from sexualisation deniers is that accurately labelling children’s clothing as sexualised is tantamount to arguing children are inviting sexual attention or even sexual assaults from grown men. Identifying sexualisation and outlining the harms for girls is in no way suggesting girls or victims are responsible for crimes against them. What the research does indicate, however, is that the sexualisation of children may play a role in ‘grooming’ children for abuse.

Dr Emma Rush, co-author of Corporate Paedophila report said, “Premature sexualisation also erases the line between who is and is not sexually mature, and as such, may increase the risk of child sexual abuse by undermining the important social norm that children are sexually unavailable.” 

The American Psychologial Association concluded that “Ample evidence testing these theories indicates that sexualisation has negative effects in a variety of domains, including cognitive functioning, physical and mental health, sexuality and attitudes and beliefs.”

Sexualised representations have increased for both men and women over the last few decades, however hyper-sexualised images of women (but not men) have skyrocketed. Women are more likely than men to be viewed as objects, even when both genders are portrayed in similar sexualised ways. Women also objectify other women at the same rate as men.   

We do not support equal opportunity objectification, but the reality is that it is primarily women who are objectified in our culture. Even a brief look at the media and advertising landscape demonstrates that this is the case. Women are also far more likely to be impacted negatively by objectification than men. This is why our activism is primarily concerned with issues affecting women and girls.

We do, however, encourage people to speak out against objectification wherever it is seen - including against the objectification of men and boys. Everyone is welcome to use our website, Facebook and Twitter for awareness raising and advice, along with relevant complaints processes.

From time to time Collective Shout partners with organisations who share our vision. These engagements are usually time limited and enable us to achieve outcomes that may not be possible to achieve on our own. Sometimes our partners are involved in other activities regarding issues beyond the narrow mandate of Collective Shout. Our partnerships are project specific and do not mean that we support other agendas of our partners.

Collective Shout’s primary focus is the objectification of women and sexualisation of children in media, advertising and popular culture. We don’t ask our supporters what their views are on topics outside of this although we know that many of our supporters are very involved in other causes as well.

Many of our supporters give their talents, time and money to our cause and it would be a misuse of their resources to campaign on topics outside of our primary mission.

To book a Collective Shout presenter to come to your school, organisation, church group or company here.

• Sign our petitions and share with your friends and family.
• Support our campaign against Honey Birdette’s sexualised advertising by writing to the CEO of your local shopping centre. 
• Lodge a complaint with Ad Standards Australia as new Honey Birdette ads are released.
• Write to your local MPs about the need to overhaul Australian Advertising Standards

We have some pointers on how to do this here.

IMPORTANT: Unfortunately sometimes Ad Standards Australia rule against complaints as they are not deemed severe enough, however we still encourage you to lodge a complaint Australian Ad Standards as they need a clear indication of community perceptions. The number of complaints they get helps to shape this.

Unfortunately, Facebook and Instagram have not demonstrated any concern about these bigger issues such as pornography and exploitation, and their 'report image' is the only apparent means for reporting inappropriate images.

However, we strongly encourage you to keep reporting images/ads via the platform.

Underage or illegal content

If the image has any underage or illegal and harmful looking material, you can go to the Australian e-safety website where you can make an anonymous complaint.

You can lodge a complaint via the various links on our website and we encourage you to get behind the issues that matter. Due to limited resources, our campaigns team are dedicated to specific campaigns as funding allows. 

Stay connected with us. Sign up to receive updates here.

Follow us on Facebook here.

Follow us on Twitter here.

Through monthly giving, you can directly fuel Collective Shout’s campaigns against the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls in media, advertising and popular culture.

Your contribution helps fund the work of our activists who challenge companies about their advertising, enable lobbying of politicians, and send Collective Shout representatives to schools and organisations to engage with young men and women on these important issues.

We get contacted quite frequently about the Safe Schools Program; however, it is not in our organisation's scope.

The purpose of Collective Shout is a grassroots campaigns movement against the objectification of women and the sexualisation of girls in media, advertising and popular culture.

Our mission is to bring about cultural change and societal transformation through holding corporations, advertisers, marketers and media accountable for the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls and encouraging strategic social partnerships that uphold the value of women and girls.

Check out the e-safety commissioner website which has some helpful information and free online webinars you can attend.

We are very sorry to hear that you are faced with the very serious issue of pornography and its harmful effects on children. Please know that you are not alone and there is a way forward. Check out our Tips for Parents

We have compiled some frequently asked questions for school and university students based on sexualisation and exploitation.

Please contact us here and we will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

if you would like to join our media list or speak to a Collective Shout representative please leave a message here with your contact details and we will get back to you as soon as possible.