Telling lies to little girls: motherhood, girlhood and identity

Young girls and their mothers have been the focus of ongoing public debate about the sexualisation of children within popular culture. this paper will present the preliminary findings of critical feminist qualitative research exploring Australian women's experiences in mothering girls aged between 9 and 13 years. The title of this paper, 'Telling lies to little girls', reflects the complex social landscape that women negotiate when bringing up girls in a post-feminism world where it is assumed that disadvantage for women and girls no longer exists. Two significant issues emerged from the women's stories: sexuality and body image. Social fault line have appeared between 'how things are' and 'what should be'. Women are negotiating these fault lines with their daughters; simultaneously trying to hold emancipatory visions in what they are describing as hostile social context