So the Pussycat Dolls are looking for a new member. This means gaggles of girls dolling themselves up in their most outrageous underwear and heels and begging you to "loosen up my buttons," claws out as they clamour to out-pussycat each other with the most provocative dance moves.

This is, in the words of Channel 10 reality show The Search for the Next Doll executive producer McG, a "snapshot of the contemporary woman being everything she can be."

And swarms of ten year old girls are sitting at home tying their t-shirts up into crop-tops and imitating their dance steps, wishing that they could audition too.

Sure, it's all just a bit of harmless fun, but in a world that has come so far to enable women to be taken seriously as thinking and capable individuals, it seems a shame, a betrayal almost, to willingly revert to being nothing more than a sex symbol. We complain about being objectified, but then what does this sort of image do to propagate such an attitude?

Interestingly, the Pussycat Dolls and their promoters believe that they are "empowering" women by encouraging them to embrace their sensuality. No really. Robin Antin, founder of the group, says the reality show is inspiring for women, that expressing sexual desire and being craved by men is a form of liberation that should be celebrated.

And she's far from alone in this perspective. This is a paradoxical third wave feminism that has become engrained in contemporary culture, where young women believe that expressing themselves is synonymous with flaunting their bodies; promiscuity equals power and excessive sensuality is a way to project individuality.

Apparently, the taunting chant "don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?" is a philosophical musing. McG translates it as "don't cha wish your girlfriend could be free and comfortable in her own skin and do her own thing like me?"

Right.

I'm sorry, but I'm just not buying that this is all about doing your own thing'. So far, the weekly challenges' faced by the eager would-be-Pussycats in The Search for the Next Doll have included a pole-dancing competition at a strip club and joining the original Pussycat Dolls in one of their grassroots burlesque dance performances, challenges designed to build confidence.' Is this really about being comfortable in your own skin? Or is it just about putting it on display?

No, McG is firm that this is "in no way in service to men," and in fact, in one of their hit singles the Dolls

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