I looked back on this and thought "time for an update".
A short bit of googling later...
The origonal article has dissapeared, but can now be found at
http://www.dadi.org/just8sex.htm
Condemnation came from a psycologist: "It's almost like prostitution to be representing a child in this way" (
http://ad.au.doubleclick.net/adi/N13...ea,WImpAheWxa?)
Another forum had this wonderful comment posted: "she looks like a burned out 40 year old who's been smoking since she was 8... she doesn't look very healthy either."
Another choice quote from the forum was "How can a parent not be bothered that their little girl only gets picked for a photo shoot because she pulls off the kind of street-walker look that would've made Kate Moss blush during her heyday?" and, rather disturbingly, "When I was working retail last year, I saw a child who couldn't have been older than 6 years old wearing platform shoes, tight black pleather pants, and a halter top that said "flirt" across the chest. We all just gasped. She was such a pretty girl regardless. It's one thing to play dress up at slumber parties, it's another to go out in public and become drool bate at the age of 6. I don't care how fashionable her outfit was, it certainly wasn't age appropriate."
A german retailer called bonprix selling provocative clothing had "morgan featherstone" in small writing at the bottom of the page, along with loads of other terms, for the purposes of getting hits from search engines. One of the others was "latex fashion".
The most interesting article I found was this:
http://www.todaytonight.com.au/stories/665543.html
It has a picture of her:
and many choice quotes from another psycologist, such as:
-- "What's happened to Morgan Featherstone smacks of cultural paedophilia ... it's all through the media and so we're engaging in a kind of symptomatic sexual abuse of a young child"
-- "We tend to think of pornography as being the absolute extreme XXX-rated type of stuff but pornography comes in all shapes and guises and this is very close to the line"
And another great one from her dad: "And if anyone's going to try and begrudge a little girl making some pocket money by having make-up done, well, there's something wrong with us if that's what it's come to"
At very least her dad's not making money from her: "He says every cent she's made has been kept in a trust account set up for her"
But possibly the most mind boggling thing I was able to dig out of google was entries on her school website: (
www.kelvgrovshs.qld.edu.au)
In the section entitled "Weekly Awards to be presented at Assembly each Friday at 9am"
Yr 4/5 : Morgan Featherstone
For excellent progress in most areas. Good work! Keep it up!
and JUNIOR SCHOOL WEEKLY AWARDS - 21/03/02
Morgan Featherstone: Polite and courteous and regularly performs well in a variety of areas in class.
Bloody hell, what is this world doing to itself...
