Author Naomi Wolf says recent controversies reveal biased views toward women's bodies. The Pussy Riot trial and Arab Spring protests showed women stripped of autonomy. Women's bodies are battlegrounds used to wage culture wars, Wolf says. It's scandalous when women take ownership of their own bodies, Wolf contends. Controversy is swirling about an American University professor who breast-fed a baby in class ; topless photos of Kate Middleton have been released ; and a Time magazine cover showing a mother breast-feeding her toddler sparked even more tittering in May. It is not just the breast that is contested: Pussy Riot, the punk band, was sentenced to two years in a Russian prison after a staged performance in which they did high kicks that showed too much of their bodies. What is going on? Vagina enters stage left — or is it right? Indeed, the female body has never been so commodified before, and female sexuality has never been so readily consumable in sanitized, corporatized formats such as pornography.


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Can they be taught to see it more critically? Photo illustration by Sara Cwynar. By Maggie Jones.
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Data were collected online between and with 3, randomly selected to year-old youth across the United States. Seven percent of youth reported sending or showing someone sexual pictures of themselves, where they were nude or nearly nude, online, via text messaging, or in-person, during the past year. Although females and older youth were more likely to share sexual photos than males and younger youth, the profile of psychosocial challenge and sexual behavior was similar for all youth. After adjusting for demographic characteristics, sharing sexual photos was associated with all types of sexual behaviors assessed e. Adolescents who shared sexual photos also were more likely to use substances and less likely to have high self-esteem than their demographically similar peers. Whether there are adolescent health implications, however, is less well understood. In a study of high school students across 7 schools in Texas state, youth who reported sharing sexual photos of themselves were more likely to be dating and to have had sex [ 3 ].
By Isabelle Loynes and Anna Hodgekiss. A teenager has spoken of her 'total shock' at being told at the age of 17 she had no vagina. Jacqui Beck, 19, has MRKH, an rare syndrome which affects the reproductive system - meaning she has no womb, cervix or vaginal opening.