Activism

Petition: Sexist and objectifying Ryanair ad

Petition: Sexist and objectifying Ryanair ad

Ghada, a member of an airline cabin crew, started a petition on Change.org after Ryanair ran yet another sexist ad in last week’s Guardian, this one featuring a woman in her underwear with a finger in her knickers, the slogan proclaims “Red hot fares & crew!” Women throughout the airline industry are furious at Ryanair’s attempt to cast female flight attendants in a predominantly sexual role, undoing years of work to change their image — and possibly encouraging harassment and advances by male customers. Ghada wants to make it clear that sexist representations of women in the airline industry will not be tolerated. A public outcry can get the ad banned — and send a clear message to other companies considering similar marketing ploys. It…

Clicktivism Success: Collective Shout vs Diva’s selling of Playboy products

Clicktivism Success: Collective Shout vs Diva’s selling of Playboy products

You may remember that we invited you to sign a petition on change.org a few weeks via our Facebook page to asking you to sign a petition requesting Australian jewellery retailer Diva to remove all Playboy product from sale. The petition was started by Collective Shout, a group passionate about fighting against the exploitation and objectification of women. In a month they managed to collect 6,800 signatures to take on a company that sells over 10 million accessories every year, from over 200 stores in 22 countries. Educator and adolescent psychotherapist Collett Smart and founder of 7Wonderlicious Ines Almeida tried to deliver the petition in Diva’s Pitt Street Sydney store at the end of October. A member of staff there initially accepted the petition but…

FEM 11 conference in London this Saturday, November 12th

FEM 11 conference in London this Saturday, November 12th

This Saturday FEM 11 will take place at Friends House in London. FEM 11 is UK Feminista’s national conference to debate key issues facing women today and how to work towards a feminist future. The conference will feature workshops by leading feminist organisations including Fawcett Society, Abortion Rights, OBJECT, Southall Black Sisters, Women for Women International, End Violence Against Women coalition, Imkaan and Women for Refugee Women. Workshops at the conference will touch on various issues such as Strengthening black feminist voices in the 21st century, Ditching Dieting: Making peace with our bodies and how to eat happily ever after, The importance of women-only organising, Ending violence against women and girls and From rape to refusal: women and asylum. The event will be concluded by a pre-election debate with the candidates for Mayor…

‘The Playboy Club’ TV show gets cancelled

‘The Playboy Club’ TV show gets cancelled

NBC “Closed the Club” today as a result of dismal ratings and viewer outrage, cancelling a series that glorified the sexual exploitation of women and the Playboy philosophy that women are to be used, abused and then discarded. “It is great news that the ‘Playboy Club’ is cancelled after just three episodes. Clearly viewers are not interested in supporting the brand that normalized pornography and caused immeasurable harm to women, children and to the men who became addicted to porn,” said Dawn Hawkins, executive director of Morality in Media, organizer of the site www.ClosetheClubOnNBC.com. According to Hawkins, key NBC advertisers left the show after receiving more than 20,000 emails through Morality in Media’s site. “The efforts of Morality in Media, Parent’s Television Council, Gloria Steinem…

(UK) Lib Dems move to challenge ‘Page 3′

(UK) Lib Dems move to challenge ‘Page 3′

One story coming out of the UK political party conference season is that of a motion passed at the Liberal Democrat conference which seeks to end The Sun’s ‘Page 3′ by restricting publications that sexually objectify women to the top shelf. The motion was led by former-MP Evan Harris who reportedly held up examples of ‘Page 3′ during a debate at the conference in Birmingham, and argued they – and the Sun newspaper – should only be stocked on the top shelf at news retailers. Harris argued that while “these images can be available for adults if they want to access them, but they should have to reach up to a higher shelf than what is at the general view for young people.” The motion…

Clicktivism: Facebook and Violence Against Women

Clicktivism: Facebook and Violence Against Women

I would like to draw your attention to a couple of online petitions that many of you may be interested in signing. Both petitions ask for Facebook to remove pages that promote sexual violence and rape culture, with the larger of the two targeting CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, and PPCM Andrew Noyes directly. Facebook groups like “Raping your mates girlfriend to see if she can put up a fight”, “Kicking Sluts in the Vagina,” “Don’t You Hate it When You Punch a Slut in the Mouth and They Suck It.” “Punching Pregnant Women in the Stomach.” “I know a silly little bitch that needs a good slap,” A page about “throwing bricks at sluts” that includes a photo gallery of portraits asking “Bang…

Protest outside porn industry summit

Protest outside porn industry summit

Anti-porn activists gathered at the opening of the three-day XBiz EU suimmit to protest against the pornography industry. The industry’s treatment and portrayal of women as mere ‘pieces of meat’ was reflected in the feminist protesters staging of a ‘meat-market’, dressing as butchers in aprons smeared with fake blood and waving pretend meat cleavers. Kat Banyard of UK Feminista said: “Brutal, body punishing acts are now routine in mainstream porn and women are presented merely as a collection of body parts, deserving and desiring of pain. The pimps and porn moguls gathered this weekend are part of a global industry ruthlessly seeking new and profitable ways to carve up sexuality and trade away women’s equality.” The protest, organised by OBJECT, UK Feminista, London Feminist Network,…

Porn summit at London hotel this weekend

Porn summit at London hotel this weekend

The XBiz porn summit is being held at the London Radisson Hotel in Bloomsbury this weekend. Pimps and profiteers from around the world are meeting to plot how to expand their business and increase their profits off the backs of the violent and misogynistic exploitation of women that takes place in porn. Money at the summit is apparently referred to as ‘Pussycash’. Speakers include porn baron Berth Milton, Chairman and CEO of porn company Private Media Group, and Michael Klein, president of Hustler, publisher of Barely Legal magazine and Hustler magazine which published ‘Chester the Molester‘ and has featured spreads like “The Naked and the Dead”, in which a woman is forcibly shaved, raped, and apparently killed in a concentration camp. Feel free to call the…

New e-petition (UK) about porn in newsagents

New e-petition (UK) about porn in newsagents

by Steve Hawkins A new e-petition of possible interest to many of you. Printed pornographic material is obviously available much more readily these days. The days of the brown paper bag have long gone. Teens, younger children, as well as everyone else, have ready access to supermarkets and petrol stations. Supermarkets and newsagents sell a much wider range of goods these days. Wouldn’t it be great if venues such as these were porn free? Ideally I’d like to see printed porn only available through licensed adult stores. Porn is a multi-million dollar industry which hardly contributes to healthy attitudes to sexual relationships and behaviour. We COULD get a grip on this if the will was there. I feel strongly about this – I have struggled…

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