US supergroup Switchfoot will be performing and signing posters at City Beach Queen Street store in Brisbane this afternoon.
While band members are at it with the pen and the posters, we’d like them to sign our Change.org petition calling on their special hosts, youth surf store City Beach, to remove porn-themed merchandise from sale.
It is a mystery to us why such a respected band would want to lend its good name to a company which trades in hyper-sexualised images of women and conditions and socialises young men to think of women only in terms of sexual gratification, as always available and ready for sex.
We don’t understand why a band known for its ethics in the industry would want to associate itself with a store selling a t.shirt with the image of a woman with a black eye, crying, under the wording “…It’s only illegal if you get caught”. Or the Hustler t.shirt “Talk Shit Get Hit”.
Why doesn’t Switchfoot come out and condemn these?
And is the band accepting money from the sale of porn and violence-themed t.shirts to do their gig today?
In a response to women who have protested Switchfoot lending their good name to City Beach in this cross promotion, the band says it has asked City Beach to remove porn themed products from the store while they are performing.
I wonder if there will be anything much left after that?
And sticking a pile of pornified tees behind the counter for an hour – what difference will that make? City Beach will be back pimping the same merchandise within seconds of the amps being unplugged.
Remember, this is a store which flogs ‘Two In The Shirt’, TITS brand, which uses famous porn stars on its clothing designs. TITS was also nominated for ‘Best apparel’ award in the pornography industry’s annual awards ceremony, the 2012 AVN Awards (alongside ‘Best double penetration’ and ‘Best young girl scene’, in case you didn’t know).
If you enter the URL on TITS t.shirts you find a series of blog posts of images of women, including one in underwear with a bag over her head with hole in it and ‘free blow job’ written on the bag.
Meanwhile back at City Beach HR, Anita Dorwald appears blissfully unaware of any connection with porn images or brands. (City Beach defends sale of porn themed clothing )
Last year Collective Shout published an open letter urging retailers to stop selling pornographic menswear. Signatories included Child Advocate Noni Hazlehurst, The White Ribbon Foundation and authors Steve Biddulph and Maggie Hamilton.
Here is Switchfoot’s response to our complaints
We received your email regarding the objectionable merchandise sold at City Beach. We appreciate you bringing your concerns to our attention.
Although we are not responsible for what a retailer promotes or sells to its customers, we are responsible for creating an enjoyable atmosphere for our fans. With this in mind, we have asked City Beach to remove these items during our performance.
We’ve always tried to bring our songs of hope across the globe to everyone- regardless of nationality, race, religious belief, or any other categorization. With this in mind, there are a wide variety of people with a wide variety of lifestyles represented at our concerts. That is our goal. And of course, not everyone who attends will agree with every other person there. Even the venues we play are dramatically different from night to night. If you are offended by an aspect of the venue or the crowd, we respect your decision if you choose not to attend; we hold you and your convictions in high regard.
However, we believe that these songs of light were meant to shine everywhere, including the dark. Thank you again for your concern. We hope that we’ll see you the next time we pass through Australia.
Switchfoot
They’ve missed the point.
Here’s a reply from activist Nicole. She nails it.
Dear Brandon,
Thanks for your reply.
Your response, however, is incredibly disappointing.
It is not the concert venue which is offensive. It is not even the presence of explicit and degrading material which is offensive. What is offensive, is the notion of a rock band with a youth following, promoting a company which unapologetically and deliberately sells p*rnographic material to Australian teenagers. What is even more offensive, is the notion that this band is doing so in the name of Jesus.
By playing this gig with the merchandise removed, you are creating an enjoyable atmosphere for your fans for one hour. But in doing so, you are losing the opportunity to create an enjoyable and safe atmosphere for them to live and grow in beyond that moment.
Please, look at the links which I have sent you. Consider the message you are sending about the acceptability of the way City Beach make their mark on the minds and bodies of young Australians. Shine your light by taking a stand, not by taking part. It’s not too late.
Sincerely,
Nicole
As Professor of Law at Flinders University and Vice-President of the Australian Council on Children and the Media, Elizabeth Handsley commented yesterday:
Nobody said they were responsible for what a retailer promotes or sells, but they ARE responsible for the retailers they choose to support and promote.
Nor is anybody suggesting it’s about people in the audience disagreeing with each other – like some people are going to be offended by the ABSENCE of porn?
And if you don’t mind me saying so, all this ‘songs of light’ business only clouds the issue.
We’re all into shining light into dark places.
But shining light doesn’t mean a co-branding exercise where lots of young people who come to see you perform are brought into a store trading in porno-inspired images of women and encouraged to see it as worthy of their custom because Switchfoot performed there.
Switchfoot needs to switch feet and back out.
See also:
Switchfoot please manage your responsibility to young people wisely, Family Factor
Collective Shout calls on Switchfoot to pull out of City Beach event
How City Beach conditions boys to porn: one dad’s plea for something better for our boys
Does the Human Rights Commission really care about gender equality?
Switchfoot meets with Collective Shout activists outside City Beach in Brisbane. Read more at Collective Shout.
Picture: Jon Foreman from Switchfoot meets with Melinda Liszewski during our City Beach Brisbane protest.
Read about Collective Shout’s recent protests in Sydney and Brisbane here.
And don’t forget to sign the petition calling on City Beach to stop selling porn-themed products to young people.
9 Responses
I am so disappointed in Switchfoot. I had really hoped they might stand up for women and our rights to feel safe and to be treated with respect. Their music spout some hopeful ideals, but such a shame when the opportunity is there they choose not to act on them.
As a huge fan of Switchfoots, hugely, hugely disappointed.
I am absolutely astonished that this band looked at their money or sales they would make from attending this venue. and not realise what a huge stand and positive role model they would of become, even more if they decided to pull out from their appearance outside this disgusting high street shop.
Their fans are young and they would so totally respect what Switchfoot would of done if they had said NO to City Beach. They could of shown so many fans accross Australia and other countries like me in the UK that they had respect Women more then their money in their pockets. It disgusts me that such t-shirts and other merchandise is even sold at all!!!
I was just at that gig and saw the protesters. As a band, you play where your management books you. It was a free plug for the Soundwave tour. 90% of those people that came and saw them play were all churched kids anyway, of which no-one took any notice of the protesters.
Don’t take it out on the musos. Take it out on the company City Beach.
This happened with Cotton On in an online campaign, and “we” the people won, so that may be the best way of targeting City Beach – not the guests in their stores. 🙂
Switchfoot were guests in the store. You don’t come to someone’s house and start criticising everything you see in their place that isn’t right. Besides, the guys had just stepped off an aeroplane and have probably never really heard of City Beach, or even looked at the merchandise in question that was for sale.
I didn’t see any porno t-shirts while I was there. Only on the placards the protesters were displaying – of which I didn’t want to see those images. thanks. not.
Steve, I’m sure you are right when you said ‘As a band, you play where your management books you’. Also agree that Switchfoot would have had no idea about City Beach and their history of promoting porn to young people- why would they, they are musicians from a different country?
Except that Switchfoot had been receiving numerous emails and tweets from fans to educate them about City Beach and why it might be in their best interest to avoid any association with CB. I could even accept that Switchfoot may not have received tweets or emails to their booking manager and distributers- except that they responded through their booking manager Brandon.
They had an opportunity to send a strong message- that misogyny is never acceptable. They could have pulled out of the gig, they could have put the pressure on CB to remove stock, or they could have stated that they were contractually obliged to perform, while still publicly decrying pornographic clothing for youth. Instead, they missed the opportunity to effect change. Switchfoot endorsed City Beach by working with them.
BTW, if you didn’t like the shirts you saw, remember, they are sold to teenagers who wear them in all kinds of public places, like the supermarket, the movies and shopping centres. If you’d never seen one until now you could probably count yourself lucky. It’s only a matter of time before you or your kids see the next one.
Hi Steve,
I was one of the protesters there today and I don’t think we did take it out on the musos at all. In fact, we didn’t really start discussing the issue with people until after they finished their set. After that, we began handing out flyers to those exiting the store. We also eventually pulled out some signs to show people. Difficult to discuss issues if people don’t know what we’re talking about and a picture speaks a thousand words.
We weren’t there to protest Switchfoot – although we were disappointed they didn’t pull out – we were there to protest City Beach. I’m sorry that you’re offended about the shirts and placards we had – you’re right to be. They objectify women, they are sexist and unfortunately they are available in City Beach stores and through their online store every day of the week.
But I don’t have to go into City Beach to see them and neither do you, you simply have to go shopping, or to a restaurant, or to the pool. (I saw a man wearing City Beach’s porno shorts in the Wiggles Pool at White Water World the other day. My kids didn’t want to see those images either.)
You may not have seen these shirts today in store because apparently Switchfoot asked management to move stock away for their performance. While we understand and agree with their reasoning for doing this, (protecting their fans) simply moving stock for the duration of a performance doesn’t go far enough. We would have liked Switchfoot to go further than this. We actually had a great chat with lead singer about this after they did their signing. He shared his point of view, we shared ours. He agrees with our position on these issues, but obviously didn’t agree that pulling out was the best course of action for them. He also thanked us for speaking out on these issues and acknowledged how important it is to do this.
I also reject your claim that the kids at the show took no notice of us. We had a great time chatting with a group of teenagers who came over, high fived us all and told us how they agreed with what we were doing. They also told us about the issues that concern them and the sorts of things they’re doing in their communities.
Melinda L – great job today!
I’m so glad you got the chance to talk to some of the teenagers there. I’ve had chats with different groups of teenagers about CB & their clothing and what always amazes me is that they often feel uncomfortable about it but since adults don’t say anything they think its ok. It’s great that some of them got to see adults standing up against this today.
Elizabeth is right “switch feet and back off” . Internationally, nations use sanctions against offending nations to encourage them to desist from wrongdoing. Switchfeet could use the occasion after the performance to ask City Beach to bundle up the offending merchandise and “return to sender” with a message of condemnation saying they will boycott the brand from hereon in, citing Professor Elizabeth Handsley’s commentary.
If you are a fan of Swithfoot on facebook then tell them. But if they are committed to this new direction then maybe that won’t help either.