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Blog
A guest blog from Melinda Tankard Reist, first posted at ABC Unleashed.
Virginia Haussegger is right to lament the status of women in other
countries and the brutalities and indignities they suffer daily.
But attitudes towards women in our own so-called liberated western democracy desperately need an overhaul as well.
While I frequently write about the objectification of women and girls, this issue has been unrelenting of late. Sexism is alive and well. Is it really the 21st century?
Lynx sexual performance in Martin Place
Last Thursday global brand Unilever staged a 'Pop-up spadate' in Sydney's Martin Place to promote its 'man-cation' travel destination, the Lynx Lodge. Young bikini-clad women splashed about in a hot tub. The amply breasted models had shower gel splattered across their chests (a reference to ejaculation, for those unfamiliar with the porn genre).
Nina Funnell described the scene in the SMH yesterday:
"... Martin Place was transformed into something resembling a cheap porn filmset...The hot tub was placed on a raised platform, blocked off by rails. Male suits pulled out iPhones to take photos through the rails... Other Lynx models pranced around in tiny French maid outfits. Another had set up a masseuse table and was busy giving a semi-naked man a massage."
Unsurprisingly men ogled the women, slapping each other on the back, while making comments like "she's a bit of all right" or "I wouldn't mind a bit of that".
I felt like I'd walked into a middle aged man's seedy buck's night. It was
9am on a Thursday morning.
Did Sydney City Council and its female Lord Mayor approve this sexual display in the middle of Sydney city? No qualms about sending men off to work all aroused? No second thoughts about the message to boys that they are entitled to ogle women in public places?
The Lynx Lodge appears to be parent company Unilever's foray into the sex industry, with all the trappings of a brothel without identifying it as such. "Lynx Lodge - Get Laid Back" declares the website.
"The ultimate man-cation destination to get you back to your primal roots"
"Get laid back, as lodge staff pamper you with breakfast in bed and on-the-spot massages"
"Golf range: Grab your wood"
"Pool hall: Scared of being beaten by a girl? Some of our guests quite enjoy it."
"Ball Games: Teamwork is everything, so be sure to focus on your partner's backside to make out her block signals."
Women are advertised as ready to do a man's bidding and to entertain and excite him.
A video ad shows young women lonely and desperate for men to arrive at the lodge. Helpless and passive, they need a man to serve and give them attention. One girl wades naked into the lake waiting for him to arrive.
You can see just how mainstream sexism has become. Woolworths is in bed with Lynx, co-branding in Lynx promotion of borderline prostitution at the Lodge.
Yet Woolies claims a "high level of social responsibility".
How is supporting a view of women as subservient sexual slaves acting responsibly? Woolies the women-as-fresh-meat-people?
Does this look like one of your fresh food mums, Mr Michael Luscombe,
Managing Director and CEO?
Evidence of the Lynx Effect can be found on its Facebook fan page
"DO I WIN A BLONDE, NICE ASS, LARGE NATURAL BREASTS, NICE EYES " asks one man.
About the spa girls:
"you no [sic] that you would ruin that all night long"
"nice PAIRsonality!"
The Gold Cost Turf Club: Parading women like animals
The Gold Coast Turf Club is planning a special summer carnival in which
women in bikinis take the place of horses. Herded into horse barrier stalls, they will be released to sprint down the straight for a prize.
The entry form calls entrants "mares and fillies". The club takes no responsibility for "injury or death" (150 women in how many stalls?). Women must wear a bikini and "acceptable running shoes". Of course, her feet must be supported but her breasts need be free to bounce around for the entertainment of male punters.
The responses from Women in Racing and the Brisbane Women's Club were lamentably weak. Women in Racing Director Jennifer Bartels said: ''We love anyone who will promote racing, but perhaps this isn't quite racing. Good luck to them though.'' Good luck to them?
Turf Club CEO Andrew Eggleston wants to see elite sportswomen take part. Just not in their usual sportswear.
Calvin Klein violent billboards
Then I was sent this billboard image from a woman in Sydney. Another example of violence against women being promoted as sexy, with intimations of the gang rape of an inanimate young woman. Where the hell is the Advertising Standards Board on this and others like it?
Yesterday my sister contacted me from Byron Bay about the three Wicked Campers she'd just seen with slogans: "Jugs" "Random Breast Testing" and "Shaved Pussy" across their vans. Sexism on wheels.
Everywhere they look, women and girls get the message that they exist for male gratification and pleasure. Their reason for being is to serve men and meet their every need. They should enjoy sexual harassment.
Fortunately there is a grassroots uprising against this. You can find it at
www.collectiveshout.org. We've had enough. Vive la revolution.
Melinda Tankard Reist is a Canberra author, commentator, blogger and advocate for women and girls. Her latest book is Getting Real: Challenging the sexualisation of girls. She is a founder of Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation.
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Melbourne PEN secretary Jackie Mansourian reflects on Fethiye Çetin's recent visit.
Fethiye's Çetin's last public appearance during her 12 day visit to Australia was an event organised by Melbourne PEN with the theme 'Towards dialogue, justice and reconciliation'.
Melbourne PEN has long been committed to promoting dialogue between diverse
communities. This was especially significant as people from Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, Assyrian linguistic and cultural backgrounds have been deeply divided through history because of horror and genocide - and most importantly because of the ongoing denial of these horrors.
We were committed to initiating this process in Fethiye's presence, in the spirit with which she had shared her stories with us during her visit. Her courage, her warmth, her generosity, her humanity, her love of her grandmother, Heranush-Sehar, her lack of fear (or perhaps her ability to have overcome her fear), her commitment to justice for her grandmother and for Hrant Dink - all of this has touched us all very profoundly – and I believe has opened up the space for us all.
Over 100 people sat together on Sunday 12 September at the Wheeler Centre; Australians from Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, Assyrian, Pontian backgrounds – all of whom Heranush-Sehar’s story touches directly. Our histories are directly connected with her history. And there were many others in the audience who found connections with what Fethiye has said for many other reasons: because we too love our grandmothers, or because we too have a history that has been affected by denial and injustice, or because we have a strong identity based on our own mixed ancestry and proud of that ‘mixedness’ or because we know the healing power of storytelling both as writers and as readers...
Sitting together, whether we knew each other or not, whether we were Armenian or Turkish Australians, or whether we were Australians from all the rich diversity of cultural and personal histories that we carry ... we sat sat together and listened and talked with one another.
For Melbourne PEN, this is part of our ongoing work; for communities from Turkish and Armenian backgrounds, it is hoped this is the beginning of reaching out and building dialogue and trust for mutual recognition and reconciliation.
We thank Fethiye Çetin for her courage in speaking out and her generosity in bringing us together.
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Fethiye Çetin spoke alongside a stellar cast, including Ma Jian, August Kleinzahler and Amanda Lohrey, at yesterday's Poetry of Rebellion session at the Melbourne Writers Festival.
Each reader gave their own take on the theme of rebellion, with offerings from poets as diverse as AA Milne, Blaise Cendrars and Sydney-sider Joanne Burns.
Fethiye read poems on war and injustice, fear, violence and denial - topics that fill her moving memoir, My Grandmother and her work as a human rights lawyer. This was her statement:
"Ceylan Önkol was only 13 when she was killed by a mortar thrown from the military battalion at a rural area of Lice county of Diyarbakir city, while she was shepherding. Her mother, while collecting the pieces that were left from her body to her lap, was crying and yelling in pain: 'What did she do to whom?'.
U'ur Kaymaz was only 12 when he was killed in front of his home in Kiziltepe district of Mardin city, by the security forces of the state. Thirteen state bullets were removed from his corpse.
I chose this peom of Ece Ayhan as it reminds me of Ceylan Önkol's eyes, the flung out thongs of U'ur Kaymaz as he was being shot by the state's bullets, of our vulgarity, of our children that we commit to memorise the death before they even begin to spell the life, and that it reminds us of our shame.
I chose Kemal Özer's poem as it evokes to revolt against injustice and awakens hopes."
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Melinda Tankard Reist on the DJs lawsuit and designer Alannah Hill's response.
When a woman makes a joke about sexual harassment and claims she wishes she had been "touched up" by the man at the centre of harassment claims, you see just how entrenched is the idea that harassment is just a bit of fun and that women really want it.
When that woman is leading fashion designer Alannah Hill and she’s making the comments at a fashion show to parade the works of a major department store facing a massive sexual harassment claim, then you see just how far we have to go.
Two days ago, former DJs publicist Kristy Fraser-Kirk launched a record claim against former chief executive Mark McInnes and the company. She alleged McInnes made repeated and unwelcome sexual advances towards her. McInnes resigned mid June and admitted behaving as a manner “unbecoming of a chief executive”.
According to The Australian, three victims of alleged sexual misconduct referred to in Kristy Fraser-Kirks legal action have resolved their claims and still work for the department store.
"I wish he’d touched me up"
Only a day after lodgement of Fraser-Kirk’s claim, Alannah Hill leapt to McInnes’ defence at the launch of DJs spring/summer 2010/11 collection. She said she had always had a crush on him, that she wished he had touched her up, wished he had invited her to his Bondi apartment, and that she threw herself at him, but he resisted.
She claimed to be the brunette McInnes told Fraser-Kirk he could have had, but rejected because he wanted her instead. She described the case as a “glitch”.
But it’s not the first time Hill has gone to McInnes’ defense. In June she told the Daily Telegraph she was “devastated” Mr McInnes had been forced to resign.
“It’s a total overreaction. It seems such a shame that this incident has brought him down,” she said.
“I had utter respect for him and I liked that he liked women.”
I commented on the issue on Sunrise and The Morning Show (included both because I was more awake in the second one. Some readers might also like to see Alex Perry appear with me on Sunrise, given I’ve had a little bit to say about him recently).
I argued that the comments trivialised sexual harassment and provided permission to those in the community to view women as up for grabs in the workplace. And while Perry tried to argue that David Jones was made up of many people, the fact that Mark McInnes was the Chief Executive Officer (and not the teaboy), is significant. The rot starts at the top.
Now She’s Sorry
Hill has now apologised on Melbourne radio, though I don’t think she’s got the tone quite right:
“I’m here with a priest, I’m on my knees and I’m doing my confession,” she told Melbourne’s Fox FM.
“I’m so gutted … I feel like such an idiot.
“Look, I know they are really serious allegations and I’ve never really worked in the corporate sector, and I understand sexual harassment would be unbearable.
“I know people get so stressed they can’t even go to work. I feel terrible for that girl and I feel stupid for myself and I really, really humbly apologise.”
Hill said her business partner was “so furious” about her comments that she would hold a “sorry sale” on Saturday, and donate half the proceeds “to some sort of a women’s shelter or sexual abuse (charity)”.
Asked what she would do with the other half of the funds, she said: “I might pass them on to the nice girl with the hyphen in her name. I’ve forgotten her name.”
The girl with the hyphen in her name (and I acknowledge the claims have to be proven) reminds us that sexual harassment is unlawful. Sexual harassment contributes to a hostile working environment. I’ve written about this before.
See also:
Why didn’t the DJs board act against McInnes Sooner? Amanda Gome in Crikey.
Clive Hamilton’s opinion piece on the DJ’s case.
This blogpost originally appeared on Melinda's site.
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Far be it from me to be overly optimistic, and sometimes being a feminist means being cranky at cranky-making stuff out there, but it does seem that the F word is making a comeback of sorts – or perhaps it never really went away, it was just drowned out by bad press!
Obviously working at a feminist press and having a degree in women’s studies, I’m attuned to “women’s talk”, but everywhere I turn at the moment the words “feminism” and “gender” are being widely used. And not just at events like the one to celebrate the brilliant essay, Temple of The Female Eunuch: Germaine Greer Forty Years On, by Monica Dux in Kill Your Darlings (in response to the cranky-making essay by Louis Nowra in The Monthly) or in a phone call to the wonderful Women’s Bookshop in Auckland, whose owner Carol says she’s spoilt for choice at the moment.
In the letters pages and opinion columns of the paper; on TV shows as distantly removed as The Circle to Q&A. In writers festival and film festival programs. In books and essays. From an acquaintance who’s part of a “women’s group” and on the tram. Not to mention as the buzzword of Election 2010 here in Australia. But more of that in a minute.
And I’m not the only one feeling positive. Author Emily Maguire commented on Radio National’s Book Show yesterday that she doesn’t brook the question “What’s wrong with feminism?”, countering that she sees feminism in all aspects of life: “There isn’t just one monolithic movement, but it’s out there everywhere…”.
So have the feminists taken over? With a new female PM it kind of feels like it. Not that there’s a sudden flurry of feminist legislation or the like, but certainly a sense of “It’s (about) time”. The “gender agenda” is being questioned in the campaign, and despite attempts to sledge using the F word (Julie Bishop on Julia Gillard “coming from a background of a left-wing feminist”) the general consensus seems to be that it’s about the policies not the sex of the candidates that really matters.
Despite real, cranky-making stats about women’s participation in industry and pay inequity etc, there are plenty of strong, feminist women in our businesses, unis, schools and media, so it makes sense that “feminism is everywhere”. Let’s hope we can see this as a strength in our politicians and leaders. That strong, intelligent women are seen as critical to a strong, intelligent society.
But back to the fun stuff. It’s gatherings of women using the word feminism as a means of coming together that excites me. I don’t think this would have happened a decade ago, when the F word seemed stigmatised, deemed bad, at least in polite company. Two great new Melbourne initiatives are Cherchez la femme and Women of Letters. The first, a salon, with the emphasis on women and the issues of the day. In a pub, fun! The second, a monthly forum which “brings together Melbourne’s best and brightest writers, musicians, politicians and comedians in celebration of the beautiful lost art of letter-writing”. So popular is it that tickets sell out within days and a bigger venue is being sought.
And these gatherings are not just full of lefty 30-somethings weaned onto feminism at the breast of Greer, there are loads of younger women, happy to grab onto the label or not, but all up for a good yarn, interested in power, strength, intelligence and, even, humour. So it seems feminism is thriving in multitudinous and multifarious ways and that women (and men) of all ages are getting into the mix.
Kate Jennings concurred at a recent talk in Melbourne, saying she has hope for future generations and that “every generation comes to feminism in their own way”. She even joked about the “pepto-bismal pink” she sees little girls dressed in left, right and centre, predicting a backlash: “they’re the radical feminists of tomorrow!”.
So with all this positivity, I’m somewhat bemused by the upcoming IQ2/Wheeler Centre debate entitled, “Feminism Has Failed”. Ok I realise debates need to be oppositional, yet this premise seems overly negative. But it’s the line-up that mystifies me most. I won’t name names, but take a look and draw your own conclusions. There is however one place remaining, so my recommendation: email the organisers with your suggestions of who you’d like to see on stage!
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Out Now
 In the cold winter of 1875, two rebellious spirits travel from the pale sunlight of England to the raw heat of Australia....  Beautifully written by First Nations women on Gurindji country where the fight for equal wages began. This book...  I am seen by many as a danger. As having failed to understand the new rules, the new paradigm of successful motherhood.
 NEW EDITION
The women in this book may be among the last to have babies without the medical stamp of approval.
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