Our culture consistently objectifies women and increasingly sexualizes childhood. This is well attested by reports such as the American Psychologist Association's Task Force on the Sexualisation of Girls, who define sexual objectification as being "made into a thing for others' sexual use rather than a person with the capacity for independent action and decision making."

However, you needn't read reports to see this phenomenon as it's all around you. G-strings for girls, pole dancing kits produced by toy companies, "North Pole Dancer" shirts marketed by Supré to tweens, Barbie magazine encouraging crushes on older men and Playboy putting their label on little girls' lip gloss, Best & Less selling Tween Push up Bras. This list took under 30 seconds to compile and excludes the more extreme examples. A thorough list would far exceed the length of this article and would contain much more distasteful examples.

Is concern about this topic exclu­sively for over-protective parents? Or is it for angry fathers who don't want their little girls to grow up? Or for overly conservative women who are uncomfort­able with their sexuality? Or, according to that well-worn cliché, those women who are just angry at men?

Repeatedly, women who vocalise their concern about the sexualisation of women and girls, such as advocate and journalist Melinda Tankard Reist, are depicted by their opponents as either rightwing wowsers hung up about sex, or hardline feminists who hate men. The effect of this is to imply that this issue is important only to a vocal minority. Yet, shouldn't it be the concern of all Christians?

I think obedience to God's word compels us to care and act. Romans 12:2 appeals to believers to "not be conformed to this world". God's word urges us to "be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect".

It's a painful and challenging task to analyse how much one is conforming to the world's standards and culture. We live in an age where advertisers get more of our attention than God's word; where we often have more emotional investment in television characters than in fellow Christians at church.

This can affect our ability to discern the biblical view of sexuality as opposed to those of marketers or television script writers. We easily find ourselves adopting worldly standards without intending to. We can also make the opposite mistake. We can react against our hyper-sexualised culture in a way that reveals a less than biblical appreciation of our design as sexual beings. Instead of either of these errors we want to obey Romans 12:2 and discern the mind of God.

Christians are stereotypically presented as prudes. This stereotype can then be used to disqualify any comment Christian people make on sexuality. Those espousing the Christian world­view are described as self-righteous moralists. Are we? Is that what drives our negative reaction to the pornogra­phy in newsagents, the Australian Sex Party's policies, 'Bratz' dolls, raunchy music dips and half naked women sell­ing everything from fast food to per­fume? Why do we think these things are wrong?

Biblical authors notice how easily people's actions are driven by endless sexual desire, as if that is completely normal, and how angry they get when challenged (1 Pet. 4:3-4). But this casual way of relating to people actually cheats others, tearing something precious away from them (1 Thess. 4:5-6, and 1 Cor. 6:8-10).

However, God's word also celebrates sexuality as part of our created design. Jacob is drawn to Rachel's beauty. Esther's attractiveness is used for the salvation of God's people. The Song of Solomon, with its sometimes amusing metaphors, describes at great length the mutual appreciation of beauty and sexuality between couples.

Sexuality is a significant part of personhood. We are not called to ignore our sexuality nor are we called to reject beauty. We are called to understand it within a wider view of personhood. In 1 Peter 3:3-6, external adornment is described as less important than internal qualities. When describing salvation in Galatians 3:26-28, Paul points not to our gender but our divine adoption through faith, as our greatest defining characteristic. Genesis 1:27 reminds us that it is not our sexuality but our cre­ation in the image of God that lies at the heart of our identity.

Therefore, when we react against the objectification of women and sexualisa­tion of children we are reacting to a distortion and devaluing of personhood. When a scantily clad woman is plastered on a billboard to sell wine (or beer or cars or chocolate or razors or...), she is reduced to an accessory, an object. This may sound a little melodramatic, but when it occurs on the scale that we see in modern culture it is a legitimate concern. Women become objects that we can assess purely on appearance.

Even as a woman, I often find myself critiquing and comparing the appear­ance of woman on billboards. This then begins to dictate the way I look at women passing in the street. Sadly I think: "That skirt's not for her" or "I saw those jeans on the ad and they looked much better". The defining trait of women becomes their body. This over­emphasis on our bodies is not in confor­mity with God's creation of us in His image. While God values the body and will redeem it from the grave, He also reminds us that we currently dwell in perishable, weak and natural bodies that will be raised imperishable, powerful and spiritual ones (1 Cor. 15:35-55).

Similarly, when we react against the hyper-sexualisation of our culture we are reacting to a distortion and devaluing of God-given sexuality. The creation of sex as a unifying act of mutual love between a husband and wife has been part of God's design for humanity since our cre­ation (Gen. 2:24). Yet Australian compa­nies are now selling T-shirts saying "It's not rape if you yell, SURPRISE". Pornography magazines pose adult women as children with school uniforms and puppets saying "I'm ready for my first time". Teenage girls are conditioned to think that it's cool to wear a shirt say­ing "Porn Star" and that their self worth is inextricable from how "hot" they are. Girls' underwear is marketed as "frisky, seductive and mysteriously alluring".

This is not God's plan for our sexual­ity. In particular, God does not view childhood as being for the satisfaction of perverted sexual fantasies, and He never intended for our worth to be derived from conformity to what mar­keters say is hot.

The sexualisation of our culture and objectification of women is actually a form of oppression and captivity. One outworking of our culture is a kind of sexual slavery that is growing in normality as the "pimp" image is made acceptable. Emblazoned across yet another T-shirt is a pro-sex trafficking slogan, "I like my women imported". In contrast, Luke 4:18 describes Jesus' care for the oppressed and captive, and the Gospels show Jesus' particular care and concern for people who are oppressed. This is reflected in the dignity with which he treats the "woman who was a sinner" (presumably a prostitute, Luke 7:37ff) who comes to Jesus and washes his feet with her tears. Those who follow Him resist exploitation and show compas­sion for those being exploited.

My parallel between today's objectification and oppression in Jesus' day is not to imply that women are always helpless victims in this hyper-sexualisation. Instead sexualised culture has become so normal that women and girls can sometimes be active participants, even avid proponents. It may surprise us that some of harshest critics of anti-objectification advocacy are women. But many women, like myself, don't appreci­ate the way hyper-sexualisation and raunchy culture is devaluing and objectifying us. Many are also concerned about the way the notion of how to be a true man is becoming "pornified" — but that is another, massive topic!

If we are to be Christ-like then it will involve caring about this issue. Of course, Christ-likeness is broader than this one topic, and it would be a mistake to so narrowly focus on it that one ignores other areas of injustice in our world. But it would be equally a mistake to ignore this issue entirely and simply go with the flow of our culture. Instead we should heed Ephesians 5:11 and "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them".

Therefore, Christians need to take a stand and fight the normalisation of the world's values with the power of critique. We can critique the culture in conversa­tions with children and teenagers which will enable them to identify the perversity of the standards that they may have come to accept as normal. These kinds of conversations are crucial, because if they've never known anything different they may not see the degeneracy of it. Furthermore, one doesn't need to cut oneself off from every aspect of our culture in critiquing it. We can read the magazines our children read and watch the TV programs our children watch. By being aware of the ubiquitous nature of the sexualised media, we will no longer assume automatically that children's magazines or shows are appropriate in their content. We can train the next generation to be discerning thinkers if we ourselves remain discerning.

As a woman, I really feel that Christian men need to show women that they are on board with them on this matter and that it isn't "an angry women's" issue. What a wonderful opportunity to love your sisters in Christ. Here is an occasion when we can speak up for the vulnerable and for the young girls growing up in a hyper-sexu­alised world that wants to exploit them.

Furthermore, here is a way in which we need to protect the young men around us, by teaching them that the world's view of women can at times be shallow and wrong. God's word compels us to encourage young men to respect women. This is the kind of religion that is "pure and undefiled before God" according to James 1:27.

Of course, Christians who understand the importance of this issue will speak out about it as individuals. However, many people feel their voice is small and thus lost as they express con­cern about this subject. Consequently, they are looking for a vehicle by which they can amplify their voice.

One such means is the recently launched group, Collective Shout. This is a new grassroots campaigns movement mobilising and equipping individuals and groups to target corporations, advertisers, marketers and media which objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services.

After all, as an isolated incident, it is not the end of the world if Best 'n Less sell push-up bras to eight-year-olds. But moments like these indicate where our culture is heading, a culture we can successfully resist. Best 'n Less removed those push-up bras within a week of being named and shamed by Collective Shout. So, be encouraged and speak out to protect our culture and our women and girls from being objectified and sexualised. This is a "good, acceptable and perfect" thing to do in obedience to the Lord.