Books We Want: "The Lolita Effect"

The American Virgin recently posted our Mixed Message Roundup : stories of sexualization of very young girls in the service of consumerism.

Now M. Gigi Durham has come out with a book called The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It. Alternet did a long interview with her and here's just a small excerpt on one of our favorite topics, the virgin/whore doublebind:

Girls have had to walk that line for quite a while now, where the emphasis is on being sexually desirable but immediately being condemned if they actually act on their desire.

Girls are expected not to have desires of their own. This has been a problem for girls and women all along: They have not been allowed to express their own interest in sex or express their own desires or seek their own pleasure for quite a long time. … It's a terrible mixed message, and it's almost impossible to achieve it -- to walk around projecting desirability but to never be able to act on it, never be allowed to engage in it.

One of the other problems is that because of this idea, girls aren't given good information about actual sexual activity. They are not given information to make them understand the risks and responsibilities, how to be in control, protect themselves against STDs, unintended pregnancies -- that's missing from the way they understand sex.

My only questions is why are they using a young hot girl in a come-hither pose to sell a book condemning that very thing? Isn't there another way to do this?