It is foolish, unconvincing and plain old-fashioned wrong to pretend that Kate Ellis' fashion shoot and her tight-fitting leather clothes and dominatrix-style eight-inch heels had anything to do with men. Women wear fashion to show off to and 'blow off' other women.

It is about what women want to wear - their individual style - and women versus women: vanity, boasting rights and power. Proof of this is in the magazines women buy for themselves and those bought for their daughters. Further proof is in the clothes women buy for their daughters - it is not the 'shops' or 'makers' who are at fault, it is the buyers and women do all of the buying.

None of this is to say that women never consider men, however that is only one consideration and often the least important when choosing clothing and accessories. Clipping a comment from some man ('Mick') who posted a comment in a newspaper misses the elephant in the room.

Are some women foolish enough to follow the lead of Kate Ellis? Probably, but that is what choice is all about. However choice also implies taking responsibility for one's own decisions, for the behaviour modelled to daughters and for the buying decisions they are encouraged to make.

Similarly, if daughters are taken to Maccas for dinner after childcare and are baby sat by a TV, it is a bit much to expect that they will prepare healthy food for themselves later. Obesity and eating disorders come from home and it is time we took responsibility.

This article got off to a wrong start by concentrating only on girls and trotting out some old stereotypes. It didn't improve by the end. Sorry, but a public health advocate specialising in eating disorders prevention has to do better than that.

Good onya Lydia. You have just proven what men have known all along about how women feel about themselves & other women. When it comes to fashion & body image women are stupid & gullable. ;-) They are led on by the media & they believe it all. As stated by some female Professor in Melbourne recently & quoted in the Courier Mail. "80% of women have some sort of mental problem." Yep, I believe that.

Women go to all thoes "feel good" classes to learn how to put other women down so they will feel good about themselves. I've got the books.

That's just what has happened here. Kate Ellis has been dressed up just so other women can critize her. Well done the womens media.

Bring on the flack!

Cornflower once again you have completely missed the point.

This is not just any old photoshoot - indeed, there is nothing wrong with wanting to maximise one's attractiveness - however Kate Ellis has positioned this shoot as an attempt to improve women's body image and self-esteem.

The author is spot-on when she highlights that girls and women are continually pressured to measure their self-worth by their appearance and how sexually desirable they are to men.

How is upholding the current beauty ideals meant to challenge body image problems? Clearly Ellis has been hypocritical in not even adhering to her own recommendations put by the National Advisory Board (ie not revealing whether or not the images of her were airbrushed)

You say that this is all about women versus women. You have completely ignored the role of commercialisation. While some degree of competition between individuals of the same sex is probably natural, how much of this is exaggerated when magazines like Grazia encourage women to judge other women based on appearance alone? When women are continually bombarded with messages across a whole range of mediums that reiterate that they must look a particular way just to matter

I saw the Ellis photo and I thought, gee, she looks hot. I didn't associate it with body image. I mean it's like making love and thinking, oh no, if I have a baby, I'm adding to the world's population.

I know we don't see this very often but Ms Ellis is evoking what we old hags used to call freedom. It's an old fashioned concept: freedom of choice, freedom of action, freedom to pursue wants and needs, to satify desire.

Try it, you'll like it.

To Cornflower Part 2:

Psychological studies have shown repeatedly that a 'halo effect' exists in western cultures where those who are considered attractive are more likely to be hired for jobs, be paid more, be given lesser jail sentences for time, more likely to be helped (even resuscitated for longer) compared to those who are considered unattractive. I would argue that there are genuine rewards and consequences that are carried out depending on how much one conforms to existing beauty standards. Your physical attractiveness is linked to your social attractiveness.

Our beauty ideal however is largely socially constructed- (think about how foot binding in China was considered the beauty ideal for centuries; corsetry in the 1800s; fat women are revered in rural parts of India) - which means we can change this.

Advocating for body diversity is a start- and it is one of the key recommendations put out by Ellis herself. Yet she did everything to uphold existing beauty ideals as we saw with the whole Hawkins debacle.

Cornflower I encourage you to consider that people who are oppressed (in this case, by commercialisation, media ideals) often participate in their own oppression. They learn to internalise the values of those in power. This is partly why women rush out to buy these magazines. They're not stupid - on some level there is understanding that they will have more opportunities presented to them by conforming more closely to the socially constructed beauty ideal.

I dont' think this article is about attacking men -it's really attacking the hypocrisy of Kate Ellis as a body image advocate confusing the issue of body image. Shifting the focus onto what she is wearing (deliberately sexual and unusual for her) takes the focus off of what body image is really about- the linking of self-worth to what one looks like.

What was it that Kate Ellis was trying to say about body image by her outfit? Especially as I suspect it was the magazine's choice, but I may be wrong.

I don't understand the relationship between the desire to make a statement about body image and the photoshoot.

If Kate Ellis wants to get around in an uncomfortable tight wearing leather dress and wobbly stiletto shoes - go for it. Those tiles at Parly House can get a bit slippery though and you would need a head start to get into the Chamber in time for Question Time.

All women want to be seen as attractive to the opposite sex and both men and women compete with their own gender, even if unconsiously - no news there.

We are missing the point which is - what was the point?