Professor S. Caroline Taylor AM is an internationally esteemed academic and researcher who provides specialist evidence in child abuse cases. She is recognised as one of Australia’s leading experts and consultants in the field of child and adult sexual violence and domestic violence and the criminal justice response to victim/survivors and social models of trauma and recovery.
She is Founder and Chair of Children of Phoenix Inc., a charity assisting survivors of childhood abuse to rebuild their lives through education and mentoring.
Dr. Taylor contributed the chapter ‘The Pornification of Intrafamilial Rape’ to Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry (eds MTR/Dr. Abigail Bray, Spinifex Press). She is also, herself, a survivor of child sexual abuse, which informs her life’s work in the field.
But none of these professional or (devastating) personal credentials mattered to the protestors who stormed the Australian Summit Against Sexual Exploitation (ASASE) at RMIT University Melbourne on Saturday. They rushed towards her as she was delivering a paper on her research into child sexual abuse material and efforts to achieve redress for the victims whose historic images are fodder in the global pornography industry. Their callous cruelty and disregard for a survivor of the most hideous abuse suffered as a defenceless child, was deeply disturbing. Here is a transcript of the exchange (via Caitlin Roper) and view the You Tube video for full effect.
Protester: Are you against sex work? Why? Why are you against sex work?
Taylor: I’m not talking about sex work. I’m giving a talk on child sexual abuse and rape. That’s the talk I’m giving, girls, and you’re disrespecting not only everybody here, I happen to be a person who experienced child sex abuse, for a long, long time, in horrific ways, I can’t have children because of what was done to me.
Protester: (cutting her off): Then why does it say ASASE?
Taylor: I am talking about-
Protester: (cutting her off): So you’re saying you’re not with the ASASE, even though you’ve got a lanyard around your neck?
Taylor: I am very proud to be talking at this conference to these people –
Protester: (cutting her off): Sex work is not child abuse.
Taylor: I’m not talking about sex work, I’m talking about the rape of children. That is my talk. You are interrupting a talk on child sex abuse.
Protester: Why are you part of ASASE?
Taylor: I don’t need to justify that to you darling, I’m talking about the rape of children. If you would like to be educated, you are more than welcome to sit here, but otherwise, please leave us.
Protester: Yeah, nah. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
You can see a collation of other video footage here:
and more video footage here.
While verbally assailing Dr. Taylor, pulling on her lanyard, and intimidating her, other thugs were destroying property at the back of the room and throwing lanyards at the back of the heads of women attending while brandishing placards such as the compelling: “Blow Jobs are Real Jobs”. (Now there’s a slogan you want to die in a ditch for). There was only one exit – the intruders blocked it.
Some women survivors were left shaking and crying. One said she was “shaking from head to toe” after an encounter with one of the intruders who yelled into her face “Are you a prostitute?” Dr. Taylor described the impact as we debriefed with friends later that evening. “They put vile posters in my face about sex acts that triggered what happened to me as a child, even when they knew I was a survivor”, she said. “These are people who shoved triggering messages into my face and the faces of other survivors, and yet claim a platform demanding respect all the while screaming hate speech at me at a venue where I was advancing the human rights of children to live free of sexual violence and exploitation. They not only disrespected me they disrespected every woman survivor of violence in the room today”.
Tom Meagher (husband of the late Jill Meagher) posted this observation about what constitutes ‘protest’ these days on my Facebook page.
Supporters will recall the pimp lobby (and its puppets and propagandists) have form. Remember the time they tried to hijack our launches of Prostitution Narratives: stories of survival in the sex trade (co-eds MTR/Dr. Caroline Norma, Spinifex Press), and even attempted to re-recruit our youngest contributor Alice (‘Charlotte’ in the book) back into the trade? You can read about their campaign of harassment in this piece by Jas Rawlinson:
All this group achieved was to show their true colours. You can’t claim to care about women while subjecting them to psychological warfare, cruel provocation and triggering traumatic memories of historic child abuse, which is exactly what this mob achieved.
See also: Pro-Sex Work Protesters Shout Down Sexual Abuse Survivors at Melbourne Conference
4 Responses
I was there, I saw it happen and it was distressing. These protesters had no clue what they were doing or what they were protesting. They were being used as henchman by a sex trade that has a vested interest in silencing anyone that speaks about sexual exploitation, child sexual abuse, violence against women, all necessary components of a flourishing sex trade. We know they were used by those in power, too cowardly to show themselves, but that doesn’t make their actions any less distressing.
I’ve never seen anything so callous, so lacking in empathy, so insane in my life. Imagine attacking a woman that is speaking about her experience of child sexual abuse and her work to help other survivors? What’s the next move? Pushing little old ladies down the stairs?
The only positive to come from their despicable actions is that we can see their true colours now. All this talk of womens choice and “agency” and “listening to sex workers” – we now know there is one narrative we’re allowed to listen to, the one that keeps the dollars rolling in for those in positions of power.
My question to these women and these men is – are you proud of yourself? Do you stand by what you did? Are you happy that people were afraid to even go to the bathroom because of you? Afraid to exit the building at the end of the day? You’re ok that women were huddled together in tears because of your verbal abuse and your physical violence, property destruction and theft? You protested victims of sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse. Its disgusting and nobody in their right mind would wish the same on you or their worst enemy.
Once again this was systemic male violence perpetrated against women and girls because the women-hating males know they are being held to account for condoning/colluding/justifying male sexual violence against women and girls.
Notice too the female handmaidens busily engaged in doing mens’ dirty work for them! But make no mistake the violence was male initiated and male co-ordinated as usual. These male women-hating thugs are threatened by women daring to speak out and hold violent male sexual predators to account.
Mens’ pimp industry advocates are determined to silence feminists who speak out against mens’ pimp industry but news flash boys – your male violence will never silence the women.
Shame on the vile women-hating male thugs and their female handmaidens. However these female handmaidens will swiftly discover their usefulness to the women-hating males will soon be ended because they too will be ‘used as males’ disposable sexual service stations!’
I am still in shock. I can hardly watch this footage again. I was the first one who saw them storming in as I was packing up our exhibition table. I thought they were part of the conference as they were wearing the conference laniards. The young man with them yelled’ It’s here!’, then one of them started to grab documents on exhibition tables and throw them in a bin and anywhere. They all proceeded to rush inside through the main theatre doors. My first reaction was to move away the boxes and bags from our exhibition table as started to feel scared and was shacking. My legs started to feel weak. I nervously put away my bags; they could have stolen them or smash them. I was scared for my life. Who knows what they were hidden or were going to do? They were destroying property, so in attacks of the kind no human being around is safe.
I assume the Victoria Police Force (or is that Farce?) were of no use whatsoever.