AROUND TASMANIA : MISOGYNY ON TOUR WITH WICKED CAMPERS

 

 

I am on holiday in Tasmania with the wonderful Isla MacGregor after speaking at the public forum at Parliament House on the 1st April. I have never been here before and I was excited to begin a journey to see this very beautiful emerald isle.

In one day it felt like we travelled through five different countries with ever changing ecology and light which shone intermittently through dramatic clouds, mists and gentle rain. We stopped many times leaping out of the car to take photographs of stunning vistas, iridescent, golden button grass plains, gasping at fresh fungus specimens in their hundreds, seemingly emerging before our eyes, in the aftermath of rain after the long drought here.  Our shoulders relaxing after we left the controversy of the sex trade forum behind us.

I was breathless as we entered the Linda Valley and the open cut  Mt Lyell mine loomed ahead, pink and raw in the distance, such a contrast to the western wilderness areas.  And then we descended down the long windy road into Queenstown.

Our mood began to change as we came across several Wicked Camper vans in the town centre and spoke with several international tourists who had hired these vehicles.  A couple of these tourists were as disgusted as we were at the blatantly vulgar misogynist graffiti on them.  Two people complained that they were very reluctant to hire from Wicked Campers because of their reputation and the graffiti on the vehicles.  Having no affordable or timely alternative they hired the vehicles all the while feeling uncomfortable about the slogans surrounding them as they drove. They were highly aware these slogans were in-congruent with their own personal integrity and that they were party to distribution of this blatant misogyny.

Women having cancer is sexy now?…

 

And how’s this for a laugh? Our favourite. Promoting pedophile culture really had us in stitches…

 

Too witty, I nearly died. We all know ‘beaver’ is slang for ‘vulva’, ( Okay,  not all perhaps; men don’t always know what a vulva is so may say ‘c*nt*,’hole’, ‘pussy,’slash’, gash’ and if we are lucky, ‘vagina’)…

 

Paula Orbea kick started an Australian campaign and for two years has been appealing to Wicked Campers to remove these slogans – a campaign that is growing across the world.  Please read the latest update on her gruelling and eventually high-profile campaign here:
http://questionsforus.com/2016/04/03/wicked-campers-a-test-case/

Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner has also made statements on Wicked Campers here:

http://www.themercury.com.au/news/warning-about-wicked-campers/news-story/e846b15ba5e828908cb22bbc04fda246

I am still in beautiful, breath-taking Tasmania, grateful to be at a quiet caravan park, which has provided me with the time to write this article. Tentatively hopeful, that John Webb of Wicked Campers will finally understand the impact he has had in his almost gleeful disregard for Paula’s activism.

She has never wanted to take down Wicked Campers, all she has ever asked, on behalf of women, men and children everywhere, is for the company to display the very basics of integrity – respect for women.

Should this article reach him, perhaps he will see, that a lot of his customers are deeply unhappy campers.

 He may reflect and take a simple action to resolve this distress.

If he does, Isla and I will be the first to suspend our own boycott of Wicked Campers.

Until then, we all need to keep pushing John Webb and Wicked Campers, just as Paula and the individuals and groups she mentioned in her above piece, have done and are doing.

Please sign the petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/qld-attorney-general-remove-wicked-campers-offensive-slogans-and-legislate-to-allow-fines-for-breaching-advertising-signage-codes#delivered-to

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For more information on Paula, please see here:

Paula Orbea is a warrior for balance. She is a high school teacher of twenty years, who now runs workshops with students tackling Media Literacy using Critical Thinking. The way males and females are represented and the toxic undertones that come with it, are some of the important issues covered in workshops; important for anyone – including parents, teachers and businesses.

The business is called: Questions for You and Paula can be contacted on questions4you@outlook.com or 0416 823 234.

 

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