2009 policy panel sessions
Upcoming events
Watch this space for details of exciting public policy discussions coming in 2009.
Recent events
Ideas Festival panel discussion: Beyond size 0 - is anything real?
- MC - Meshel Laurie
- Panellist biographies
The Ideas Festival, held 25-29 March 2009, was a five-day festival of ideas, innovation and invention at Brisbane's South Bank Cultural Centre.
Its objectives were to:
- provide Queenslanders with access and exposure to diverse ideas
- present, celebrate and debate the quality ideas and inventive work of government, business, academia and community
- promote Queensland locally, nationally and internationally as innovative, diverse and forward thinking.
The Office for Women was pleased to be involved with the Ideas Festival and proudly hosted an insightful panel discussion about women and body image: 'Beyond size 0 - is anything real?', on Saturday, 28 March 2009.
Expert panellists Dr Angela Dwyer, Phillippa Diedrichs, Tracy Whitelaw and Phoebe Hart explored the portrayal of body image in the media and its impacts on women. MC was Meshel Laurie, co-host of Brisbane's top rating Nova 106.9 breakfast radio show.
The discussion also explored whether new and emerging technologies will remove the need for real women’s bodies in the future of fashion; and the impacts this will have on fashion, the media industry, and women’s health and body image in the future.
- Phillippa Diedrichs will discussed changing body image perceptions and promoting size diversity to improve health outcomes. She will examine the correlation between health and body size and the concept of controlling one’s body size.
- Dr Angela Dwyer explored the psychological and medical impacts on women, and in particular on young girls, of models, fashion and the media. Contrary to a widely-held perception, young girls have demonstrated that they can be highly critical of models and their behaviours.
- Tracy Whitelaw discussed body image in the virtual world. Tracy develops avatars (in the form of two or three-dimensional models) of clients as their virtual 'selves'. She has found that clients can be very specific when it comes to the size and attractiveness of their virtual construct.
- Phoebe Hart discussed her autobiographical film documentary, which examines issues of trying to control the body through eating disorders and drug use, and living with secrets, shame and angst.
MC - Meshel Laurie
Toowoomba-born Meshel Laurie has been a professional comedian, writer and actor since 1994. She currently co-hosts Brisbane's top rating Nova 106.9 breakfast radio show and appears regularly on television programs such as Spicks and Specks, Stand Up, Rove and Good News Week.
In 2008 Meshel narrated Roller Derby Dolls, a documentary about roller derby, and made her feature film acting debut in Subdivision. She was also a judge for the 2008 Brisbane International Film Festival.
Meshel has performed seasons of various one-woman shows at the Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Adelaide Fringe Festival, and has performed in the last 14 Melbourne International Comedy Festivals.
Phillippa Diedrichs - Health Psychology Research Unit School of Psychology, University of Queensland
Phillippa Diedrichs is a PhD Candidate and an Intern Health Psychologist in the Health Psychology Research Unit at The University of Queensland. Her research interests include body image, the mass media, promoting health at every body size and the stigmatisation of overweight and obesity. Phillippa is particularly interested in exploring ways to promote an environment in which diversity in appearance is valued and accepted.
Her recent projects have included an investigation of the health and marketing benefits of using average-size models in advertisements, an analysis of media messages about the pregnant and postpartum body, and the development and evaluation of an intervention to reduce weight stigma.
Phillippa's research has garnered international media attention and she has presented her findings at both domestic and international conferences.
Dr Angela Dwyer - School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology
Dr Angela Dwyer is a sociologist and, since joining the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) School of Justice in 2007, has been a recipient of three Faculty of Law Vice Chancellor's Performance Fund awards. She previously worked as a sessional academic in the QUT Faculties of Education, Law and Creative Industries.
Angela completed her doctoral studies in the Faculty of Education in 2006. Her research reconceptualised the relationship that fashion models have with young girls as a pedagogical relationship where embodied knowledge is transmitted for better and worse.
This project feeds into her broader areas of interest in the pathologising and demonising of young people in the media and public culture, the commodification of women’s bodies, and the sociology of deviance.
Angela was recently elected as General Member of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) Executive Committee for 2009-2010, and is Editor of the TASAWeb.
She is currently co-authoring a text (with Dr Sharon Hayes and Dr Belinda Carpenter) on Sex, Crime and Morality, to be published in April 2010.
Tracy Whitelaw – Chief Knowledge Engineer, MyCyberTwin
Tracy Whitelaw creates robot brains at artificial intelligence company 'MyCyberTwin'. Based on the Gold Coast, Tracy works in an environment that delivers fully customised personalities and characters to a number of companies and businesses including NASA, AMP, NAB, PBL Media and others.
Holding a BSc (Hons) degree in Behavioural Science and preparing for her PhD candidature in Sociology, Tracy has long had an interest in the social construction of identity in popular media forms. She specialises in studying trends in society, how individuals act within a social milieu, and in helping MyCyberTwin technology be rich in response to these patterns. She has been involved in online technology for a number of years.
Her particular areas of specialisation are online worlds, gaming, character creation and formation of identity in popular culture. With a passion for emerging technology and how it is used, Tracy enjoys the challenges of creating engaging characters who keep users entertained and informed. She combines this with her interest in video-games and gaming culture, working voluntarily for a number of female-based gaming websites.
Phoebe Hart - Writer, Director and Producer
Phoebe Hart is a practicing documentary film maker and a scholarship-awarded PhD student at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). As a writer, producer and director of factual television and media, Phoebe has been involved in a diverse range of projects.
She co-directed a documentary series for SBS called Downunder Grads, on the state of higher education in Australia, which screened in March 2008.
Phoebe also directed and co-wrote the ABC documentary Roller Derby Dolls, on a group of women who play the rough-and-tumble sport of roller derby.
During the time of her PhD thesis, Phoebe has produced and directed a documentary on people living with intersex conditions, entitled Orchids.
Phoebe lives with her husband and cat, and enjoys gardening and Bollywood dancing in her spare time.
Last updated: 14 April 2009
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