TALKING POINTS
There’s nothing like controversy and current events to kickstart conversation. Seize the day and get talking with your child about these recent news stories…
Happy Pride Month! 🌈
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Boys’ sentences for rape to be reviewed in July (BBC, 13/6/26)
“Two boys age 15 were given non-custodial sentences – meaning no imprisonment – after having raped two girls in Hampshire, but their cases, along with that of a third boy who encouraged them and filmed the attacks, will be reviewed next month. The judge said he wanted to ‘avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily’.The attorney general praised the girls for their ‘immense bravery in coming forward’. The first girl had travelled to meet one of the boys after being in contact on Snapchat. When video of the assaults was shared on social media, she received abusive messages. She said: ‘Sometimes I can still feel their hands on me’”
TALKING POINT Why was the judge criticised – in the press, by women’s rights advocates
and in a petition – for his lenient sentencing and the message it sends? Read more here…
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David Sullivan’s Sunday Sport sold sexualised images of 15-year-old girls (Guardian, 8/6/26)
“To compete against other British tabloid newspapers – like The Sun, which from the 1970s showed topless photos of girls age 16+ on its Page 3 – the Sunday Sport in 1987 counted down to the 16th birthday of Natalie Banus, when she could legally be pictured topless. Owned by ex West Ham football director David Sullivan, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by 7 women, the paper called Banus ‘the sexiest 15-year-old in Britain’. It said her first picture did not break the law (which banned indecent images of under-16s), as Banus was ‘not quite topless’. When she turned 16, it ran topless pictures of her along with what she calls ‘nonsense’ stories about her. For over 15 years the Sunday and Daily Sport papers continued to celebrate girls’ 16th birthdays by picturing them topless and recounting supposed sexual experiences. In 2004 it became illegal to publish indecent images of under-18s”
TALKING POINT What do you think of papers publishing topless photos? Read the article >
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Sesame Street’s Pride Post Sparks Another Round Of Predictable Outrage (Little Things, 1/6/26)
“Last year’s Pride Month post on X by Sesame Street shocked conservative critics. It said: ‘On our street, everyone is welcome. Together, let’s build a world where every person and family feels loved and respected for who they are. Happy #PrideMonth!’ This year’s post read: ‘Happy #PrideMonth from Sesame Street! Join us in celebrating and uplifting the LGBTQIA+ members of our community.’ Critics again accused the show of being ‘creepy’ and ‘grooming’ kids. People defending it posted: ‘Womp womp cry that children are shown inclusivity and teach kids to love people that are different from them’ and: ‘There’s a difference between teaching children to accept others versus telling them to be gay.’ Some pointed out that toddlers don’t have X accounts, so they wouldn’t see posts. One wrote: ‘LGBTQ+ people include children and families with children’. Another person sarcastically wrote: ‘How dare (Sesame Street) teach kids tolerance, inclusion and to be a decent human being towards others even if they’re different’”
TALKING POINT What do you think of these Sesame Street posts? Read the article >
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Tom Holland Pitched Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Spider-Puberty Story: “They Liked The Idea” (Empire, 3/6/26) and Tom Holland says he gets more praise for Umbrella lip-sync than his acting work: “Years ahead of its time” (Independent, 3/6/26)
“Actor Tom Holland, age 30, came to the writers’ room with an idea for the Spider-Man film Brand New Day: ‘What happens if my character Peter Parker is losing control and things are changing? Spider-Puberty was my tagline pitch. It was shot down. But they liked the kernel of the idea and it grew into what we have in the movie.’ He says of his 2017 Lip Sync Battle performance of Rihanna’s song Umbrella, in which he took off a suit to reveal fishnet tights, shorts and a vest (he also had on red lipstick and a short wig): ‘I get more compliments for that dance than any piece of work I have ever done. Everyone in the audience was 19 years old. I just knew in my body: “When I take this suit off, you are going to go nuts”’, he recalls”
TALKING POINTS What do you think of Holland’s idea, of his pitching the idea and of his Umbrella dance, look and attitude? Read the Spider-man article and the Umbrella article >
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19 Celebrity Men Who Admitted Hollywood Completely Messed With Their Self-Esteem (BuzzFeed, 31/5/26)
“As Sam Claflin says, the pressure for men around body image is not ‘as bad as what women go through, but I, as an actor I approaching each job, am insecure – especially when I have to take my top off.’ Kumail Nanjiani says: ‘It’s easy to get obsessed with a number on the scale.’ John Boyega says: ‘Why do leads have to be muscular and ripped? That shows the guy has too much time on his hands. What real war hero looks like that?’ Taylor Lautner says: ‘That wasn’t my natural body in Twilight. I had to work very hard for it and very hard to maintain it.’ Ashley Hamilton says: ‘Food addiction: it’s really shameful as a man.’ Zayn Malik says: ‘Food was something I could control. Then I became ill.’ Zac Efron, who had ‘pretty bad depression’ after intense dieting and training, says: ‘I prefer to have an extra 2 to 3% body fat’”
TALKING POINT Do you notice pressure on boys around body image? Read the article >
And finally: to discuss…
Olivia Rodrigo responds to babydoll dress controversy (NME, 28/5/26)
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Singer OLIVIA RODRIGO, age 23, on the controversy around her appearing in a babydoll dress in her single Drop Dead: “What’s really, like, disturbing is I feel like I have worn outfits that are maybe revealing onstage. I’ve been onstage in a sparkly bra, little shorts, which is my right. That’s fun. I felt cool and comfortable in that.
And that wasn’t ‘inappropriate’ – but me fully covered up in a dress that people deem to be, like, childlike was ‘inappropriate’.
It’s just this rhetoric that we’re fed as girls since we’re so little, which is: “Don’t wear that because then a man is going to sexualise your body and it’s your fault.’ Like, it’s so weird. And I didn’t think I looked sexy in that at all.
I was like: ‘This is so cool. I feel like I look like singers Kathleen Hanna or Courtney Love’ – all these people who are my heroes. And I felt cool and comfortable in it. If we start dressing in a way that’s like: ‘I don’t want some freak to think that I am sexy like a baby’ or some crazy thing like that, it’s like losing the plot a little bit.
I’m very protective of younger women and girls, and I don’t ever want them to be fed that rhetoric. You shouldn’t be responsible for some guy sexualising you in a way that was never your intention”
TALKING POINTS Do you like the babydoll dress look – why or why not? What are some reasons people might object to a singer wearing a babydoll dress? What do you think of Olivia Rodrigo’s comment about babydoll dresses being considered inappropriate compared with revealing outfits? How do you feel hearing that she felt comfortable onstage in a revealing outfit? What do you think about her saying she didn’t look sexy in a babydoll dress? Rodrigo says that women or girls shouldn’t be held responsible for being sexualised “in a way that was never their intention” – but when you look at someone’s outfit, can you tell the intention behind their wearing it? About women or girls being sexualised by men or boys: have you heard of or experienced that view?