Campaign against City Beach

It's finally underway, our campaign against City Beach surf clothing store. City Beach has been selling porn t-shirts for over a year, with near naked, gagged and even battered women. One shirt pictured a naked woman with a black eye, crying, alongside the slogan 'It's only illegal if you get caught'.

In just a year, what was just porn t-shirts has now grown to include boardies, hoodies, caps, thongs, underwear, and other merchandise like pencil cases, drink coolers, iPhone covers, air fresheners and other sexist novelty items.

City Beach also sells TITS brand clothing, a brand of the pornography industry. Not only do they use famous porn stars to pose on their clothing, they were nominated for Best Apparel award at the 2012 AVN (Adult Video News) Awards, and had their own booth at the AVN expo, where fans could meet their favourite porn stars.

Collective Shout wrote about the campaign here.

Please visit change.org and sign the petition.

If you are on twitter, don't forget to use #boycottcitybeach when posting about @CityBeach

David Warner's porn t-shirt debacle

A couple of weeks ago, new cricketing legend David Warner wore a Death By Zero porn t-shirt with a print of a topless woman. Being that he has risen to fame and popularity quite quickly, this made the news.

If you check out the comments, you can see that his choice of t-shirt combined with his inevitable role model status as a talented athlete was not appreciated by a lot of people.

I and others shared our disappointment for his sexist and objectifying t-shirt via twitter. Much to my surprise, David offered what I believed to be a genuine apology for was likely simply a poor choice.

Good on ya, David. We appreciate your apology and your sincerity.

Article in Take 5 magazine

It's been awhile (again!)

Thought I'd share this one quickly. Take 5 magazine approached me awhile back and asked to interview me for a story. Here it is, written by Take 5 (not me) with some mildly amusing 'quotes' from my husband. Happy to have more publicity for the campaign though- apparently the magazine goes to around 796 000 readers.

Look out for big things coming up soon!

Does the Human Rights Commission really care about gender quality? : one woman’s battle against porno and violent fashion

This post is about my sexual harrassment complaint against City Beach, made to the Human Rights Commission, from Melinda Tankard Reist's blog.

Does the Human Rights Commission really care about gender quality? : one woman’s battle against porno and violent fashion

Get it off your chest, guys, but dirty shirts just make slogans for bogans

I am pleased to report that the porn t-shirts campaign has been getting more media attention. Last week, Melbourne newspaper The Age published an article on the subject.

It was also very encouraging to see a Letter to the Editor published about this issue, written by well-known psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg.

I am also getting used to speaking to journalists, usually with no notice, while in the process of getting dressed, with children fighting in the background, or during three hour car rides (once again, with children fighting in the background!) Fun stuff.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/get-it-off-your-chest-guys-but-dirty-shirts-just-make-slogans-for-bogans-20110826-1jekg.html

More media coverage on the 'porn t-shirts' campaign

I am pleased to report that the open letter to retailers has been receiving some media attention. Here's to interviews that take place with kids fighting in the background, and the much nicer ones when the kids are in daycare! Sighhhh.

I have had three radio interviews, one in Sydney, one in Adelaide and another in Melbourne, where Dr Michael Flood from the White Ribbon Foundation (both of them signatories) spoke also. He is brilliant. Listen here. Brianna did a wonderful job.

The Herald Sun wrote an article about the issue here, although it had a definite angle, and this angle was "Religious leaders are freaking out because they are so easily offended". Despite the fact that out of fifty nine signatories, only two were religious leaders. Perhaps a more appropriate angle would have been "Fancy well-educated experts agree that foisting sexual imagery on kids in a new medium is harmful, and just plain stupid". I'm just saying.

My local paper published an article this week. Thanks Brooke for the great article. I also found out the other day that small articles were published in another five newspapers around the country, anywhere from page two to page thirty.

Melinda Tankard Reist, one of the founders of Collective Shout (and a signatory, of course!) wrote specifically about Cotton On on her blog.

The facebook page is up to about 840 supporters. It is very refreshing to know that there are so many people who care.

Booyah!

Hello cyberspace! There has been some great progress with the Say No To Porn T-shirts campaign. Check out this article from page 3 of The West Australian.

Today, after much back and forth-ing on my part (I'm new at this, okay?) the completed joint signatory form was published, including a statement about this clothing and the impact on women, children and communities in general, signed by almost sixty of Australia's leading academics, psychologists, advocates and organizations.

I have been interviewed on radio today both in Melbourne and Adelaide, discussing this issue. From the comfort of my home and my comfy house clothes, that is.

Say No To Porn T-shirts page on facebook has 622 supporters at present, steadily growing. There are plenty of people who also feel strongly about this issue which is encouraging. So, ignoring the criticism and feeling optimistic.

Don't you just love it when...

...you google your name and find an article written about you?

I don't actually do this often, I was trying to sign in to my google account, and I started typing my name into the search engine by mistake- then my curiosity got the better of me!

Say no to porn shirts- Facebook page.

Hi friends. I have created a facebook page called "Say no to porn shirts". That's what you do when you feel strongly about something, right? You make a facebook page about it.

It will be a place where those who feel strongly about this issue can keep in touch and support each other, as well as to learn ways to take action.

Please like my facebook page! It has one like so far...and guess who that is.