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Episode details

Radio 4,29 Apr 2009,30 mins

Suicide - The Midriff

Thinking Allowed

Available for over a year

Laurie Taylor talks to Caroline Simone about her new study of the families of suicide victims, and hears how retelling stories of the experience can help people enormously. Also, how the 'mid-riff' has become a professional term in the advertising industry to signal a post-feminist generation who see no contradiction between sexiness and equality. The 'midriffs' get their name from the late 1980s Madonna-influenced style for exposed abdomens and pierced belly buttons. Laurie talks to Rosalind Gill about her study of the depiction of women in advertising, and asks whether the ad industry has rejected or merely repackaged its old sexism.

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