Why does it appear that some young women today feel empowered by letting it all hang out?

Kate Holmquist

A SECOND-YEAR girl photographs herself topless on her mobile phone and sends it to her boyfriend, who forwards it on to his friends until nearly everyone in school has seen it or heard about it. Is she embarrassed? Devastated? Not at all, one of the girl's schoolmates says, "She thinks it's great."

On YouTube, a troupe of prepubescent girls in black and red bikini lingerie gyrates suggestively to Beyoncé's Single Ladies at a world dance championship. As the children simulate the lap-dance choreography of the adult singer, are they aware of behaving seductively or are they innocently interpreting the grown-up image they aspire to, an image as oppressive as the 1950s image of the apron-wearing well-coiffed housewife?

Girls and women objectifying their own bodies to create a male chauvinist's wet dream has become so fashionable, that this year's Miss USA pageant features topless girls in skimpy knickers - the women's movement never having succeeded in having such contests banned in the 1970s. The participants feel empowered rather than exploited, the organisers say.

In her thoughtful expose, Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture (2005), author Ariel Levy makes the argument that the influence of mass market porn has made some women feel proud to be predators who use men and other women for emotionless sex and who hang out in strip clubs to celebrate women as objects - the reverse of traditional feminist philosophy.

Young women may feel empowered by showing off their sexuality, says Ursula Barry, senior lecturer in the school of social justice at UCD, but the "incredible pressure" of today's hyper-sexualisation affects young men too. At TCD in the androgenous 1970s, Barry was part of a generation of women who wore jeans (itself a rebellious act), had long hair parted down the middle and rejected obvious make-up - if not shaving of body hair - in favour of the natural look. Today the dolled-up students in her women's studies classes turn up at 9am having invested a lot of time in their highlighted hair, make-up and outfits, she says. "They look wonderful in a lot of ways. The pressure is very particular to this generation," says Barry.

The confident pursuit of personal grooming goes against what we know about how young women really feel inside

Yet the confident pursuit of personal grooming goes against what we know about how young women really feel inside. A survey of Irish women aged 20 to 30 by Kellogg's - which markets its cereals as a part of a weight-control regime - found that 61 per cent are unhappy with their bodies.

The mothers and grandmothers who campaigned for contraception and divorce and kept the sexual health guide Our Bodies, Ourselves on their nightstands are seeing their daughters and grand-daughters feeling less confident about their appearances, rather than more.

"It's more about women dressing for other women and dieting for other women as they try to measure up to the ideal of what society says you need to look like. It's peer pressure," says Suzanne Horgan, director and founder of the Eating Disorders Resource Centre of Ireland. "It's really challenging for a women in western society to feel good about herself. Research shows that 49 out of 50 women are unhappy with their bodies. I say that the one remaining is in denial," she adds.

You can be one of the most beautiful women in the world and still feel inadequate, like Marks & Spencer underwear model Noemie Lenoir, who tried to take her own life earlier this month. The pressure is so intense that Dáil na nÓg, the young people's parliament, has called on the Department of Education to introduce life skills courses at senior cycle to help young people deal with these issues.

One of those involved is Dara Dunne-Lambe (18), from Leitrim, who says: "Not many 18-year-olds are happy with the way they look . . . most feel you can't go bare-faced into the world. It would look unnatural not wearing make-up and would be breaking social rules."

She and the majority of Dáil na nÓg would like to see legislation ordering mental health warning symbols on "fake, airbrushed, over-the-top images". Dunne-Lambe is concerned that young women are self-harming and even committing suicide in reaction to pressure and bullying about appearance. "I really do think girls are much more sexualised at younger ages. Girls think there's no difference between self-expression and sexual exploitation. They think it's artistic," she says.

April Duff (17), a Dáil na nÓg member from Waterford, thinks that young women spend so much time in front of the TV and on the internet being "bombarded" that "it's having an effect on mental health. The pressure is from the media and every day in school. We have to change the whole culture, the whole idea of having to be a certain way, the idea that the good people are always the beautiful people."