Carolyn Leckie MSP's column in the Scottish Daily Mirror

IT'S TIME FOR US TO BE GROWN UP ABOUT SEX

WE'RE weird, you know that? On the one hand, we won't even discuss sex, especially if there are minors present. On the other, we're obsessed with it. How many front pages have you seen lately, emblazoned with photos of women's bottoms, perched provocatively, flashing a bit of knicker? Sometimes you might even be able to identify the head the bum belongs to. From all corners, we're assaulted by images of women reduced to body parts. Body parts raring to go, just switch on the ignition. Worse than that, in any newsagent you can buy magazines that boast of "barely legal teens" gagging for it. That may sound shocking but these days, equating school uniforms with precocious sex appeal is mainstream stuff. An example? The same papers that went gaga over Russian pop duo TATU, a pair of supposed schoolgirl Lolitas, go ballistic at the idea of open debate on sexuality in schools.

"Women's" magazines are no better. "Be yourself!" they shriek, as long as your real self has the body of a supermodel and the face of a movie star. It's no accident that eating disorders are now appearing in countries where TV has just arrived. Young women grow up checking out their rear view in the mirror and young men grow up thinking sex is something you do to someone. It's not cool to complain. You're supposed to join in and pretend it's all a laugh.

A woman who refuses to engage is written off as a prude, someone scared of sex and hateful of the human body. As a midwife, I've probably seen more vaginas than even the most obsessive porn fan. My beef is not with anatomy. But I've a problem with the world we live in.

In some deprived suburbs of France, gang rape has become a sport called "tournante" - turnaround. Relationships have become so distorted young women are hunted like deer. Women in Dol Dol, Kenya, have found the courage to accuse the British army of years of similar "sport". It's all part of the same continuum. The commodification of women has reaped huge profits for the beauty industry, the media industry and the in-your-face sex industry. But it's a rather less lucrative affair for women.

We still earn only 80 per cent of male earnings. We still dominate in the low-paid, part-time end of the employment spectrum. We still struggle to find a level playing field and to be treated as equals. IT doesn't help that, everywhere you look, you see images of doe-eyed women in various states of undress.

On billboards, in magazines, in adverts on the bus you take into work. It doesn't help that male-dominated business - and that's all business - has an interest in keeping women in their place, in thrall to the power of men. Showing men and women in all their diversity, having equal relationships, would upset the status quo. There's too much money in insecurity. And that's too much power to give up.

We do need a debate about what is erotic and what is abusive. What sort of relationships do we wish for our children? What sort of society do we want to hand to them? One that's tilted in favour of one sex? Or one of equals? It's a debate we desperately need to have, and keep having. Without being constantly red-carded by, on the one hand, the anti-censorship brigade who equate Penthouse with the free press, and on the other, by the Victorian revivalists who'd rather leave sex education till the wedding night. We need to start being grown-up about sex. Or how can we expect our children to be?

SUCH A BAD IDEA

YOUNG people are under siege. As if the government's fixation with academic testing wasn't bad enough, now they're considering "Fat Report Cards". Yup, you heard right. Lining 'em up at school for regular, humiliating weigh-ins. Like teenagers weren't self-conscious enough as it is? Quite how this will address the rising rate of obesity is beyond me. Junk food has been revealed to be addictive. But just along a corridor from one of these proposed weigh-ins, you can bet they'll be serving up chips as normal. Obesity is now costing the NHS in Scotland £150million a year. But the Scottish Executive, it seems, cannot bring itself to spend just £24million more to introduce a measure that wouldn't just take the strain off the NHS, but immeasurably improve the well-being of our children - universal, free, nutritious school meals. Meanwhile, on Planet Holyrood, there are concerns that the seats in the new parliament building's "contemplation chambers" won't be big enough for MSPs' bums. Maybe we should line them up for a weigh-in? It's time the Labour gang stopped bullying our children and did something to help them.

COST OF PERIODS IS A PAIN

EVERY 28 days, Mother Nature gives women something to think about. Something painful, inconvenient, messy... and expensive. In Scotland, we spend £10million a year for the privilege of periods. There are three menstruating women in my house; that's £20 a month out of the household budget. What happens when your purse is empty? How many of us have resorted to rolled up toilet paper when we've been caught short? Sanitary "protection" is a multi-billion pound industry that, like all businesses, is ever on the lookout for new ways to make money. Its advertising preys on women's insecurities, using words like "discretion" and "invisibility". They don't care about the health risks, the environmental impact, or the cost to women struggling to makes ends meet. Towels and tampons should be free. And they should be comfortable, chemical-free, safe for women and safe for the environment.

CENTRE STUPID

IF you see a pink elephant drifting over Glasgow today, do not adjust your set. It's here to protest against BT's decision to shift thousands of call centre jobs to India. Directory Enquiry services have already been "remotely sourced" to Bangalore and New Dehli, and thousands more jobs could follow. The CWU, who represent many of the 10,000 call centre workers in Glasgow alone, have nothing against the people of India. Far from it. This move is bad news for everyone. For the UK, it's tens of thousands of lost jobs. For India, where call centre workers earn around £3,000 a year, it establishes them as a low-wage economy, to be abandoned the minute an even lower-wage economy becomes available. If you've got time in your lunchbreak today, pop down to the BT centre on York Street and give the call centre operators your support.

FAME ACADEMY FOR REAL PEOPLE

FAME Academy is back! I'll be glued to the TV talent show... looking for people who actually have talent. Of course David Sneddon was really discovered at the Edinburgh People's festival last year. I was there. In the front row. Colin Fox MSP is organising an even bigger People's Festival this year. A festival not just for Hooray Henrys or pampered Penelopes. A festival you won't need a bank loan for. A festival of culture for the many, not the few. I'd like to see the whole Edinburgh Festival becoming a Scottish People's Festival - with prices everyone can afford. In the meantime, get your tickets from Colin at the CWU club: 0131 556 8869 or at www.edinburghpeoplesfestival.org.uk

NURSE CASH

DRAWINGS of nursery nurses my children loved adorned my fridge for years. Their investment in our children is immeasurable and the return invaluable. But their pay packets suggest anything but. Despite two years' training and over 10 years' experience, the maximum pay for a nursery nurse in Scotland is £13,800 a year. They're asking for a modest maximum of £18,000. Labour"s Margaret Curran recently laid claim to feminist credentials, promising she'd fight to improve women"s lives and close the pay gap. Well, here's an opportunity for Margaret to put those principles into practice. By not only supporting the nursery nurses' pay claim, but also making it her business they get the wage they more than deserve. Meantime, I hope you'll join me in cheering on the valiant and determined Nursery Nurses. They've been striking since May and are really skint. The proceeds of the column go to them this week. You can help by sending donations to: UNISON Nursery Nurses Campaign c/o Joe Di Paula, Douglas House, 60 Belford Road, Edinburgh. Tel: 077996 42929. Cheques payable to: UNISON Nursery Nurses Campaign.