Stripping the Illusion on Lapdancing Clubs

OBJECT are launching a campaign: Stripping the Illusion: The Re-Licence Lapdancing Campaign.
Tuesday April 22nd, 12-1pm House of Commons, London, then 1-3.30pm protest in Parliament Square.

Our campaign calls for lap dancing clubs to be recognised as part of the commercial
sex industry and licensed as Sex Encounter Establishments, rather than in the
same way as pubs, cafes or karaoke nights as they currently are.

Current licensing is INADEQUATE and makes it easy for lap dancing clubs to obtain licences and
difficult for local authorities or residents to oppose them.

OBJECT is working with MPs, Peers and colleagues for a re-categorisation of lap dancing
clubs.

This will take the power out of the hands of club operators and put it back in to the handsof local authorities.

Re-catergorisation would give local authorities the same licensing powers as apply to sex shops and sex cinemas. Importantly, it will also give people a greater say in the licensing of lap dancing.

Changing licensing is a crucial step in challenging the increased sexual objectification of women.

Speakers at the launch will include:

Baroness Gould
Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods MP
Gill Mitchell; Brighton and Hove City Councillor,
Julie Bindel; researcher and journalist
Kat Banyard; Fawcett Society
Professor Marion Roberts; night time economy specialist, Westminster University.
To RSVP email sandrine[at]object.org.uk
Join the Object Activist group

Bin the Bunny Film against Playboy

The Bin the Bunny campaigners, in their campaign against Playboy, have made three short films called Bin the Bunny- The Trilogy, to highlight the true nature of Playboy.

Our aim is to illustrate the fact that Playboy, while being marketed to young women and girls as a ’stylish’ and ’sophisticated’ brand, is a pornography company. The films use satirical humour to expose Playboy Enterprises’ exploitative practices against women and girls as well as demonstrate some of the objections raised by the public against the company.
Bin the Bunny website

Kilmacolm Campaign against Lads Mags

Margaret Forbes, from Kilmacolm in Scotland, has been leading a succesful campaign urging supermarkets and retail outlets, to stock lads mags on top shelf, and partially concealed. She has managed to encourage Morrison’s Supermarket to display lads mags on top shelf.

She has collected almost 200 signatures from Kilmacolm residents supporting her campaign and will continue by urging the Scottish Government to take action.

A lot of women, and men, have said they back me all the way and this stuff shouldn’t be displayed in front of children. I’m still going to keep fighting.

Read the full report from here

Sue Me…for Objecting to Your Sexism

 

Linda subvertises a sexist advert by the Law Society at Manchester Uni. Nice one!

Anti-Porn UK Protest outside Playboy Shop

The London branch of Anti-Porn UK held a successful protest outside the new Playboy store on Oxford Street, two days after it officially opened.

 

Their campaign, Bin The Bunny, aims to inform people of the misogynistic face of Playboy…and remind them…that Playboy is a porn enterprise. Protestors handed out hundreds of leaflets, stickers and quizzes to an interested public. They reported that very few people went into the Playboy store during their demonstration- well done! They intend to hold monthly protests outside the store, so watch this space!

Anti-Porn UK are screening their short film about Playboy October 20th 2-4pm at Phoenix Cinema, London.

For more details about the film and the demonstration, see Bin The Bunny website.

 

York Feminists challenge FHM Freebie

Freshers week is when lads mags go into recruitment mode. Desperate to capitalise from the inaugaral week of partying and getting laid, they hold babe competitions and club nights, ensuring that they will be the magazine that student lads will buy to reassure themselves that men are not obsolete.

This year at York Unversity, Freshers were greeted with a goody bag at Freshers Fair. Men were given blue bags; women given pink bags…

The pink bags included cellulite cream, moisturiser, deoderant and a half-sized tin of baked beans…

The blue bags included a bar of chocolate, a copy of FHM and a full sized tin of baked beans!

What the fuck!

The Women’s Commitee at York University and the LGBT complained about this. The decision to hand out the bags was put to a vote within the Student Union, and passed by a majority of one.

…the bags clearly discriminate men from women, which is contrary to University and Student Union policy. Further,
the inclusion of a magazine considered to be sexist and misogynistic in the male packs is incredibly insensitive and disappointing. Additionally, placing FHM magazine in packs specifically aimed at males assumes that all male students are interested in consuming sexually explicit photographs of
women, thus discriminating against gay men and others who have no interest in nor desire to see such material.
Member of Women’s Committee York University

Unfortunately I recevied this info too late to complain prior to Freshers Week. I do think it is still worthwhile complaining to the Equal Opportunities Office of the York University.

Contact them at equalopportunities@york.ac.uk

Full details and a model complain letter can be found here

East Midland Feminists protest against The Daily Star

East Midland Feminists recently held a demonstration outside Marks and Spencers, calling on them to stop selling The Daily Star newspaper. Marks and Spencer refuse to sell lads mags, but still sell The Star, despite its similar pornographic content to lads mags.

 

It was a brilliant day and a great success- we got 96
signatures for our petition which asks M & S to stop
selling the Daily Star because it is sexist and
normalises degrading & exploitative attitudes towards
women. We only did it for a couple of hours, and managed to
get a lot of signatures in that time which I think
represents just how much support there is out there.

 

We were targeting M & S shoppers in particular. Older
women agreed with what we were saying and there was a
lot of support there; it was really heartening to see
women- including young women- coming up to our stall
of their own accord and wanting to sign the petition
without us even needing to ask them. I think there is
a lot of opposition to all this sexist imagery we have
shoved in our faces every day, and doing actions like
this is a way of realising that.

Of course there was some indifference and mocking
looks and comments from some men; we were particularly
disgusted by one man who came up to our stall with his
wife and young daughters and said he would be proud of
his daughter if she looked like a glamour model and
became one! Another woman approached us and seemed
interested, but was deterred from signing because her
husband had her by the hand and was literally pulling
her away, which was unsettling to see.

On the whole though, there was a positive response and
next we’ll see what M & S have to say.

Em Fems will send the petition to Marks and Spencer to indicate that there is public support for them to withdraw sale of The Star newspaper. Lets hope Marks and Spencer respond to public concern, and take the lead as responsible retailers, by withdrawing the pornographic newspaper.

Well done Em Fems! Thanks to all those who attended the demo.

FHM publish topless photo of a fourteen year old girl

I’m sure most of you will have read that FHM published a topless photo of a fourteen year old girl in their April 2007 edition. The photo was taken by her boyfriend and sent to the magazine without her consent. FHM couldn’t be bothered to take it seriously, and came up with the unbelievable excuse that she didn’t look 14 and that they get thousands of photos of every week, and they can’t check them all.

Well, isn’t that kinda the point? FHM along with all the other lads mags, get thousands of photos of young women/girls every week- but how do they prevent photos of underage girls slipping through the net..? The answer is they don’t. They don’t ID these girls who they publish half-naked. They get photos sent to them via post, email and mobile phone…but they don’t ID these girls. They don’t come with a photocopy of their passport or drivers licence, or in deed a signed declaration that the young woman consents to the photo being published.

Now if a fourteen year old girl tries to buy herself an alcoholic drink in a bar, she would most likely get asked ID, cos most likely she looks under 21. But if she sends topless photos of herself to a lads mag, she won’t get asked ID. If the bar got caught serving her alcohol, they would be prosecuted. Saying she looks over 18 wouldn’t work, cos the law requires proof of age before serving her. So how is it that lads mags can just get away with assuming a young woman is over 18, just by looking at her photo? So you need ID to get served alcohol, but no ID to pose topless. It’s seriously fucked up.

I for one think FHM should be prosecuted, and there should be action taken against other lads mags to prevent this happening again. If the average man had in his possession a topless photo of a fourteen year old, he would be prosecuted. Why should FHM get away with it? They could argue that they did not know she was fourteen, but the alcohol industry wouldn’t get away with this excuse, nor should they. FHM did not have in place measures to prevent photos of under 18 year old girls from being published in the magazine. It is an offence under The Protection of Children’s Act 1978, to distribute indecent photos of a child. It is an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, to publish a sexualised photo of a person without their consent.

FHM publishing a topless photo of a fourteen year old girl is by no way an isolated incident. It is easy for an underage girl to make herself a profile on the Nuts and Zoo messageboards, and upload topless photos of herself. They don’t even have to lie about their age, they can register as 14 years old. Go onto the Myspaces of lads mags, and browse through their ‘friends’. You will find many girls under 18 posing seductively, and underage girls who actively message lads mags saying they want to pose for them. Do they screen these girls? No. It doesn’t bother them that underage girls are desperate to pose for lads mags. They couldn’t impose all the measures needed to ensure every woman featured in lads mags was over 18…because they would crumble. They wouldn’t be able to get away with most of their features in their magazines. Lads mags would lose the steady influx of free photos sent via post, email or mobile that they rely on. The way it is now, when you read a lads mags, you have no idea if all women you are looking at are over 18. If they did their job properly in line with the law and child protection, they would have to verify each photo on age and consent, and they wouldn’t be able to sustainably do this.

I think if you look under 21 and have to show proof of age to buy alcohol, then you should have to show proof of age to pose topless for lads mags. Makes sense.

Please complain to your MP and demand that lads mags should ID girls and have their consent before publishing their photos. Or specifically Harriet Harmen, Diane Abbott and Claire Curtis-Thomas.

Please lodge a complaint with the local police station to the FHM office.

HolburnPolice Station

10, Lambs Conduit St, London, WC1N 3NR

+442074041212

Protest Against Opening of Playboy Store

Playboy are opening a shop on Oxford Street, London in September.

The shop will sell the usual Playboy merchandise and will have a room where they will show Playboy archive footage…

The London branch of Anti-Porn UK have launched a campaign against the opening of the Playboy store- Bin the Bunny

Anti-Porn UK are opposed to the continuing expansion of Playboy as the acceptable face of porn, its increasing cross-over into everyday culture under the guise of ‘cute’ products; often targeted to appeal to young girls, and the continuing attempt to promote the message to girls and young women that being a playboy ‘bunny’ is to be desirable and successful.

Bin the Bunny campaign will begin with a protest at the opening of the Playboy store. There will be monthly protests thereafter- the next being planned on October 27th.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Write to Westminister City Council stating you object to the opening of the Playboy store and request they reject applications from similar shops in the future

Write to your MP to complain about the expansion of Playboy and the sexualisation of girls.

Hand out the leaflets from This Is Playboy or leave leaflets next to Playboy merchandise in shops.Sticker Playboy merchandise

Download Pervboy sticker

Complaint about Torture Porn Film Adverts

About a month back, Hostel 2 and Captivity were out in the cinemas. As you may remember, the films eroticised and made entertainment out of violence against women.

What Mark Kermode, a film critic, said about them:

…misogynist claptrap…of which all involved should be deeply ashamed.

What Nuts magazine said about them:

…’the definition of torture porn’… sounds right up our street.

There was a lot of promotion for these two films. Anyone remember the advert on tv for Hostel 2, with the woman hung upside down by her feet..? Buses and billboards all round the country held huge posters advertising these two films.

In the US, adverts for Captivity were withdrawn after feminists campaigned against them. Here in the UK, people complained about them, including a SWAP campaigner who complained to ASA and Lothian bus company for advertising Captivity.