For a couple of weeks recently, the ritual in our house was to switch on the TV at 7.30am, whereupon the girls and I would watch the previous day's Tour highlights. This year, there was much to like, including Cadel Evans's uplifting victory. Still, my five-year-old had a question. ''Can girls ride in the race?'' she asked one morning. Hmmm. Evans is an exceptional role model; wouldn't it be great to have a female equivalent? Perhaps it won't be long. A few days before Evans completed his victory lap of the Champs-Elysees, a young Aussie named Ellyse Perry scored a remarkable goal in the quarter-finals of the Women's World Cup of football against Sweden. At just 20, Perry is a dual international. When she isn't kicking goals with the Matildas, Perry plays for the Australian women's cricket team. Meanwhile, she's also forging a media career. One morning, however, after a thrilling 15 minutes of Tour highlights, I flicked over to Rage on ABC TV, where, at 8am, my daughters and I were ambushed by a phalanx of Elizabeth Halseys.

In a rap video, some wannabe wordsmith was gesticulating harmlessly, before the scene switched to a room full of near-naked women dry-humping the camera. I fumbled for the remote. Five minutes later, I flicked back to Rage. Another rap video, another room full of barely-clad women gyrating like dancers in search of a pole. Sigh. Click. A few minutes later, I tried for a third time. Yet again the men were clothed and down with it; yet again the women were unclothed and up for it. The discrepancy in the depiction of genders was startling. The men were singing, rapping, doing; the women were titillating, baring, flaunting. The men were subjects; the women were objects. This is the grammar of our culture. He does; she is done. By this social construct, women have nothing but their looks, which are useful primarily for attracting a mate. Granted, there has been a shift in the paradigm, as revealed by Elizabeth Halsey and the rap bimbettes. In the past, women were expected to look pretty and await attention. Now, women are allowed to be predatory. Our culture needs more female protagonists, but not like this. We need fewer rap pretties gyrating like porn stars, fewer Elizabeth Halseys exploiting their appearance. Predatory as they are, these women are no more emancipated than '50s pin-up girls. Their identity is defined entirely by their looks.

Which is not to say that it is wrong for women to want to look good. Male or female, the human body needn't be hidden away behind sackcloth. The problem stems from the avalanche of objectification, the stifling weight of material that portrays women as valuable only for their looks. Take a glance at this week's glossy magazine covers. ''Gwyn and Katie: Sexy or Scary?'' asks Famous beside shots of stars in swimsuits. ''Katie Holmes Wasting Away?'' wonders Who. ''Bikini Special'', trumpets OK!, ''We love our new bodies''. Last week cosmetics behemoth L'Oreal made headlines when ads featuring Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington were banned in Britain for being too airbrushed. Further proof of the paramount importance of female looks - and also the ever-receding horizon of the unattainable ideal. Even these icons were not considered beautiful enough, and so needed a technological touch-up. It needn't be this way. In recent decades, French thinkers including Luce Irigaray have tried to elaborate a feminine subjectivity that can co-exist alongside masculine subjectivity. Irigaray proposes a theory of difference, in which the feminine subject and male subject are equal, but distinct. On similar lines, Irigaray's compatriot Helene Cixous has raised the notion of jouissance, or female pleasure. For Cixous, female sexuality is vital and is linked to agency. Elizabeth Halsey's exploitative, destructive promiscuity doesn't fit the bill.

Bad Teacher has already taken $4 million in Australia. Its gold-digging protagonist would be delighted. And the worst of it is that ultimately Elizabeth gets away with being cruel and self-serving. Indeed, she positively prospers. Taken in isolation, she is just a tasteless curiosity; but in the context of all the rap videos and magazine spreads, she is yet another soldier in an army of bad role models. As my daughters grow up, I hope the Ellyse Perrys begin to outnumber the Elizabeth Halseys. For my girls, as for society as a whole, the rewards would be rich and far-reaching. And besides, Ellyse is so much more attractive than Elizabeth. That's the ultimate irony. Much more than a sex object, Ellyse Perry is a fascinating subject. Sacha Molitorisz is a Fairfax writer. Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU