…Wicked Campers is a serial offender at the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB), which has formally considered dozens of complaints against the company since 2008. What is most striking over that time is that the ASB has completely failed to counter the campaign of derision and intimidation against Australian girls and women by the company. In fact, in the last two years, Wicked Campers has simply not responded in any way to complaints lodged with the ASB, or to determinations against its conduct by the Bureau. And the Bureau is powerless in the face of the company’s contempt for it….
One of the most egregious violations by the company did not even become the subject of a complaint to the ASB. During the 2012 Queensland state election campaign, a company campervan was painted with a garish cartoon of a naked middle-aged woman, with her legs spread wide apart so as to expose her whole body to the world, and her genitals obscured by two squares, marked as 1 (her vagina) and 2 (her anus). The caption to the cartoon shouted out to its audience, “Tick the Right Box!”. The cartoon represented Anna Bligh, then Queensland premier, who had earlier criticised the company’s use of a racist slogan on a van (“Save a Whale – Harpoon a Jap!”)…
In his book The Harm in Hate Speech, Jeremy Waldron argues that a flourishing and fair society rests on the equal standing and treatment of its members – and on the recognition and assurance of that equality in society’s “signage”. The Wicked camper vans assign girls and women to a place of inferiority and frustrate the assurance of equality to which we are entitled, in public places just as in workplaces. Read full article
As published on The Drum July 16 2014
See also:
‘The Pornification of Julia Gillard’, Dr Helen Pringle, MTR
‘Five things Wicked Campers needs to do online right now’, Mumbrella
One Response
Men created pornography because it not only provided them with sexual pleasure but also eroticises and normalises mens’ continuing belief women aren’t human. According to male (i)logic men can subject women to whatever sexual violence they wish with impunity. Mens’ pornography tells the truth about how males view women and girls. Pornographer and women-hating John Webb is no exception – he is not unique or ‘a bad apple’ he is an ordinary vile male who believes he is entitled to sexually degrade women and girls because they aren’t human.
I wonder why pornographer John Webb doesn’t have degrading images of males painted on this vans? According to women-hating Webb ‘Wicked Campers disagrees with the board’s findings that the slogan is misogynistic, demeaning to, and objectifies women.’ Therefore Webb you should have sexualised degrading images of males on your vans, to demonstrate when situation is reversed said images do not dehumanise or degrade men!
But men have always maintained and enforced their male belief man (sic) is human and he has certain fundamental rights including right not to be dehumanised because his sex is male! In addition men are the ones who create laws and institutions which reinforce their misogynistic belief only man (sic) has right to be accorded dignity and respect.
John Webb knows male dominated institutions such as the ASB do not have the power to curtail Webb’s continuing women-hating campaign. Men who created their ASB ensured this worthless institution would not deny male pseudo sex right to publicly sexually degrade women and girls, because the men in charge of ASB adhere to male pseudo sex right to dehumanise women and girls.
What must women do? Work collectively and use mens’ legislation to enforce women’s and girls’ right not to be routinely sexually dehumanised and degraded for male sexual entertainment. Men immediately recognise and know when their ‘precious rights’ have been violated so why should only men have this right? Oh yes it is because men are the ones who create; pass and enforce laws protecting male rights.
The Anti-Discrimination Act in Queensland, which incidentally is the same state wherein women-hati Webb resides is one such legislation which must be used effectively to hold women hater Webb to account.
Men are very quick to claim ‘wah you are violating my right to dignity and respect’ but at the same time men continue to deny and deny and deny pandemic male hatred/male contempt for women is a violation of all women’s and girls’ human rights. Male claims that their pornography is ‘harmless male sexual entertainment’ must be constantly challenged because such claims prove men believe only man’s (sic) lived experiences of his world are the definitive ones.
Newsflash – men are not the only humans women are the majority but because men continue to define their world from a narrow male myopic view this means male centered claims/views continue to be accepted as ‘gender neutral’ rather than evidence of widespread and institutionalised male oppression and male hatred of women and girls.