When disgraced AFL player manager Ricky Nixon attacked his then fiancée Tegan Gould, he grabbed her by the throat, pushed her against a wall, hit her in the head then fled police custody. In her victim impact statement, Gould said the assault left her suffering headaches, bruises, nightmares, panic attacks, and that she was intimidated, paranoid, introverted. She said she lived in fear of him hurting her again. With five serious offences against him – along with a pattern of inappropriate behaviour towards women over time – what sentence was applied to Nixon? A grand total of 200 hours community service. Domestic violence is the leading contributor to death, disability and illness in women 15-45 years in Australia. It costs this country $8.1 billion a year, estimated to rise to $9.9 billion by 2012 if appropriate action isn’t taken. But even where guilty verdicts are achieved – which is rarely – the consequences seem minimal. When will these crimes against women be taken seriously? Here’s what I had to say on the subject on Channel 10’s The Project last night (starts at 3.46).

Ricky Nixon pleaded guilty to beating ex-fiancee Tegan Gould to ‘protect’ his and her family

But women’s advocate Melinda Tankard Reist said domestic violence was too serious an offence for perpetrators to be let off lightly.

“My fear is that this will send a message to other victims that domestic violence isn’t that serious – that if someone beats you, they will just get a community service,” she said yesterday.

“This is a vulnerable woman being attacked by an older man in a position of power and authority. It’s a concern when he gets off so lightly.” Full story here. 

Nena and Pasadena encouraged jokes about raping women with their reply, ‘Keep em coming guys – this is very entertaining!’

The Australian Football League proudly partners with the White Ribbon Campaign to stop violence against women.

According to the White Ribbon website :

The AFL (Australian Football League) is committed to tackling the issues of violence against women. Their support of White Ribbon has been long standing with many AFL managers and players participating in White Ribbon’s Ambassador Program, and their commitment to driving change is also reflected through their respect and responsibility programs.

Their commitment to driving change is reflected through their respect and responsibility programs.

Really?

The fact is that the AFL is neglecting its responsibility to address and discipline Buddy Franklin for depicting women in degrading and sexist ways in a clothing line he co-owns. I wrote about it in my Sunday Herald Sun column.

White Ribbon gets money from the AFL. In turn, the AFL gets White Ribbon Day endorsement which makes them look good.

Of course we support any efforts to eradicate violence against women. We believe it is imperative that good men speak out against this epidemic. We commend White Ribbon for continuing to educate and create awareness about this issue and for “denouncing initiatives that objectify or exploit women.”

Last year White Ribbon joined 64 other experts and organisations as a signatory to an open letter Collective Shout published, titled ‘Retailers urged to cease the sale and distribution of porn t.shirts’. The letter protested the growing trend of men’s clothing with porn- themed and sexually objectifying images of women’s bodies. We were pleased to have White Ribbon on board.

It’s therefore troubling to us that campaign heads have said nothing about Franklin or about the AFL’s refusal to act. We hope sponsorship doesn’t buy silence.

We wrote to White Ribbon back in July about this. There has so far been no reply.

We also had the opportunity to raise the matter directly with the AFL in September. Still no reply.

‘Our Say’ invited readers to post a question they would like to have asked at the AFL Grand Final lunch at the Melbourne Press Club September 20. Collective Shout’s WA coordinator Caitlin Roper sent in this question, which attracted the most votes to be asked at the function.

The AFL’s Respect and Responsibility Policy “represents the Australian Football League’s commitment to addressing violence against women and to work towards creating safe, supportive and inclusive environments for women and girls across the football industry as well as the broader community”. Hawthorn player Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin is part owner of Nena and Pasadena and Neverland (clothing) store, a brand renowned for its clothing with sexually objectifying and degrading imagery of women. Franklin currently features in promotional videos and images both on the brand’s website and in national clothing retailers like City Beach. Despite protests, the AFL have failed to address Franklin’s continued breach of the R&R policy. Why has the AFL failed to address this?

However the lunch was cancelled following the tragic death of AFL footballer John McCarthy. ‘Our Say’ have told us they asked the panelists to answer Caitlin’s question, but so far she’s heard nothing. The following article by Caitlin is an expanded version of a post that appeared at Our Say (they censored some of the more distressing stuff). Here’s the uncensored version.

Caitlin Roper

Picture women naked on all fours, topless, headless and faceless, women handcuffed and bound, naked on the ground. Or even just various body parts, a naked backside, exposed breasts, a torso. Women sexually objectified, posed in weak, vulnerable poses and reduced to mere sexy body parts. Apparently this is Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin’s idea of respect for women.

I first came across ‘Nena and Pasadena’, Franklin’s pornographic fashion line, in February of 2011. It was hard to miss, given a billboard featuring the AFL star wearing a shirt depicting a women’s backside.

Feedback to the brand resulted in mockery, and retailers selling the items were not interested in consumer concerns. Working with grassroots organisation Collective Shout: for a world free from sexploitation, we discovered the AFL’s Respect and Responsibility policy:

The Respect and Responsibility Policy represents the Australian Football League’s commitment to addressing violence against women and to work towards creating safe, supportive and inclusive environments for women and girls across the football industry as well as the broader community.

The Respect and Responsibility Policy is about shifting attitudes – ensuring that people throughout the Australian Football industry are aware, and have structures in place, that recognize that violence against women and behavior that harms or degrades women, is never acceptable.

Surely t-shirt images that depicted women as objects to provide sexual gratification could not be in line with this policy? Concerned citizens, including supporters of Collective Shout, contacted the AFL back in February of last year, with no response. As a mother of a six-year-old beginning Auskick, I became uncomfortable with the supposed role models my son might be looking up to.

Nena and Pasadena’s own website listed Franklin as a ‘co-director’, as well as using his modeling images for marketing purposes. Franklin’s twitter named himself as ‘part-owner’ of the brand and the Neverland Store, a Melbourne store where he sold these and similar items. Franklin’s AFL profile was used to promote the brand on their website and Facebook page.

Fifteen months later, still with no response from the AFL regarding Buddy’s blatant breach of their policy, Collective Shout published a blog post containing evidence of Nena and Pasadena’s misogyny from their Facebook page. Pictures of semi-naked women were frequently posted, where fans were invited to rank them. Slogans like “F*ck bitches, get money” and a pornographic campaign video were shared. Fans were asked their best strategies for getting women into bed. Here are a few responses:

“Drop a roofie”

“I like to call it ‘the fight and struggle’”

“The skull drag to the bushes and then duck tape the mouth move”

“I hope to God they can’t run faster than me down that alleyway”

Nena and Pasadena encouraged jokes about raping women with their reply, “Keep em coming guys – this is very entertaining!”

Once the Herald Sun had picked up the story, and after fifteen months of ignoring the issue, the AFL suddenly felt compelled to condemn Franklin’s clothing line and claimed they would be “considering their options”. Franklin issued a statement the following day denying any significant involvement with the brand he had previously tweeted as ‘my brand’, ‘my store’. You can find photographic evidence of Franklin’s damage control here.

Months later my friends and Collective Shout Melbourne reps, Calvin and Lisa attended a game at the MCG along with a banner that read “Give porn tees the boot Buddy”, and within minutes, security had confiscated and destroyed it.

Members of the public continued to protest via twitter, using the official match hashtag. Hundreds of people signed an online petition to Hawthorn Football Club and the AFL.

It has been almost two years since the AFL have known about Buddy’s porn t-shirts, yet they have remained essentially silent, taking no effective action to uphold their own policy. When will we see the AFL taking sexism seriously? After countless allegations of players involved in sexual assault and now Franklin profiting from the degradation of women, maybe we don’t need to hear from the AFL. Their silence is deafening, telling us all we need to know.

From Collective Shout    Why you should spend your Christmas dollar elsewhere

You’re about to be bombarded. Bombarded with junk mail, TV, radio and outdoor advertising all competing for your Christmas dollar. Before you purchase gifts for your friends and loved ones, lets remember those brands that have excelled in sexploitation this year, the brands and companies that do not deserve your hard earned money. Cross ’em off your Xmas list! For our third year running (see lists from 2010 and 2011) we are making it easier for you to make ethical decisions rejecting of companies which have not demonstrated corporate social responsibility.

As a first this year, we’ve added a positive alternative: Toward the Stars, an inspiring on-line global marketplace for products for girls. And we’re hoping to be able to add our first major corporate to sign on to our Corporate Social Responsibility Pledge. (Watch this space!) Here’s our list for 2012.

City Beach

The popular youth surf store continues to push pornified products to young people. City Beach sells what we’ve called ‘porn t-shirts’ -clothing with pornified images of naked and semi naked women.

The range extends to thongs, hats and at the start of the year even pencil cases 
were available at its ‘back to school’ sale. We’ve held protests outside City Beach stores in Brisbane and Sydney.

We’ve taken City Beach to the Equal Opportunities Commission and yet they refuse to budge. While City Beach insist on pimping porn accessories to the youth market, you insist on taking your Christmas shopping elsewhere.

Diva 

Jewellery and accessories retailer Diva began selling Playboy branded jewellery
in 2011 to its target market of tween girls. (also read: The Age)

A petition through change.org accumulated over 8000 signatures and Diva withdrew much of its Playboy advertising and stock from the shelves.  But dodgy Diva continued to sell their Playboy range from underneath the counter and stock has slowly crept back out on display in stores again over the past year. 

When challenged again, Diva defended their Playboy range as marketed to their ‘mature’ customers. No matter their age, girls and women deserve better than being sold the merchandise of the global sex industry – when it comes to your Christmas shopping, drop Diva.

Lynx 

Lynx, men’s deodorant has continued to churn out their trademark sexist ads throughout 2012.

Lynx’s ‘controversial’ promotions – including the “Rules of Rugby”  and the ‘Washes Your Balls’  promotion – are the perfect demonstration of how a company can misuse advertising industry self-regulation to its advantage. Create a ‘controversial ad’, wait for the complaints to roll in, cross promote with sexist ‘lads mags’ then cash in the dollars from the increased exposure. Lynx seems to think this manoeuvre will stop us from speaking out – it won’t.

More reasons to ditch Lynx – the Mouse pad stunt, ‘Scrub away the skank‘, Can she make you lose control. Further examples here.

And while you’re boycotting Lynx, you might want to give this brand a miss too…

Dove

What? Dove? The brand that brought us the campaign for real beauty? Absolutely! Dove is owned by Unilever, the same company who owns and markets Lynx. But the sexploitative hypocrisy  doesn’t just stop there – under the Dove label, Unilever also sell a number of ‘skin whitening’  products, as well as anti-cellulite, breast-firming and breast growth creams. Making money off body dissatisfaction, sexual objectification AND positive body image campaigns? We’re not buying it Unilever.

Mossimo

In February this year, Mossimo ran a competition asking people to upload photographs to their Facebook “peep show” campaign. Images of Australia’s Miss Universe contestant in her underwear were given as examples, with the ‘peep’ which received the most votes winning a digital camera.

Despite the clear references to the sex industry as well as (the crime of) keyhole peeping on women, Mossimo denied any wrongdoing. The Advertising Standards Board saw it differently, upholding complaints about the campaign.  Read about the online protest (and how we won a lovely new Canon camera!) against Mossimo here.

General Pants

We wrote about General Pants explicit, sexist, and degrading advertising campaigns last year. They have a history of sex industry inspired stunts including live pole dance shows in their shop front windows. We have continued to hear from supporters about shop window displays and the images they display inside their change rooms.  Give General Pants a miss.

The Buddy Ball

The Buddy Ball is the creation of AFL poster boy Lance “Buddy” Franklin.  When Franklin’s not busy flogging over priced footballs to youngsters, he spends his time ‘co-directing’ Nena &Pasadena, a line of overpriced porn-inspired shirts, popular in surf stores such as City Beach.

In the past 12 months Franklin has brought us (caution when opening links) this, this and this. Posing as a role model for young boys, and then selling them the degradation of women to wear across their chests? We’re not buying it.

The AFL

Despite being aware of Lance Franklin’s clothing line for almost two years, the AFL has refused to enforce their Respect and Responsibility policy and discipline Franklin. The AFL claims to be committed to addressing sexism and violence against women, but their silence and lack of action indicate they are not serious about these issues. Thinking of purchasing tickets, a membership or items from the AFL store? Think again.

Lovable

Lovable is not so loveable following its ‘Besties’ campaign, which encouraged women to upload ‘selfies’ to its Facebook page. Jen Hawkins and fellow models, posed in their underwear, featured in the promotion. While the terms and conditions stated that participants didn’t need to upload images of themselves in underwear, the promotion sent mixed messages about cyber safety, prompting the Ad Standards Board to ban the promotion on this basis.

Of course, this is not the first time Lovable has objectified women – previous campaigns have also been so sexualised  that they’ve been featured in the now defunct ‘FHM’ magazine.

Typo

Typo’s ‘back to school’ 2012 promotion pimped a wide range of porn-inspired travel mugs, iPod covers and notebooks to students. After parents complained and media caught on, Typo agreed to remove the ‘Porn is my saviour” and  ”Dirty” ranges. While they withdrew these items,  other items, including notebooks with sexual themes intended for school, remained in stores.

Typo are owned by the Cotton On group, who are serial offenders  for selling porn t-shirts and sexploitative advertising campaigns.

Repeat offenders

These are companies that appeared on last year’s ‘crossed off’ list last and which have continued to use sexploitation throughout 2012.

Roger David for sex slavery ad campaign and t-shirts featuring images of objectified women.

Supre for its ads featuring a topless girl and sexualised clothing for girls. Supre has been criticised for selling adult styled fashions in sizes small enough to fit children. 

American Apparel for its pornography themed advertising.

Companies promoting Playboy brands

These companies continue to market the major brand of the global pornography industry, in effect normalizing the abuse and degradation of women.

 Bras n things  (read more here  and here)

 Adairs (read more here)

 Priceline (see photo)

A positive alternative – Introducing Toward the Stars 

Created by Inês Almeida, Toward the Stars is an online market place and a safe haven from the commercialisation and sexualisation of girlhood, from the toxic gender stereotypes that dominate the marketing, media, and products targeted to children and young adults.

A place full of gifts that inspire and enable girls to reach for the stars. Offering a venue that motivates and supports artists, business and craftspeople to innovate and explore new products that have the potential to change the world.

If you’re looking for gift ideas that will inspire and empower girls, check out Toward the Stars.

Now over to you!

Which stores will you be avoiding this year and why? Are there alternatives to the brands we’ve listed above? Please join the discussion in the comments section below and at Collective Shout. 

As the AFL Finals get into full swing, the Melbourne Press Club will be holding its annual Footy Finals Lunch on Thursday 20th September. OurSay is working with the Melbourne Press Club to give you the chance to put forward a question for the panel.

So we did.

Here’s Collective Shout’s question, which so far is in the lead with over 800 votes! 

“The AFL’s Respect and Responsibility Policy ‘represents the Australian Football League’s commitment to addressing violence against women and to work towards creating safe, supportive and inclusive environments for women and girls across the football industry as well as the broader community’. Hawthorn player Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin is part owner of Nena and Pasadena and Neverland (clothing) store, a brand renowned for clothing with sexually objectifying and degrading imagery of women. Franklin currently features in promotional videos and images both on the brand’s website and in national clothing retailers like City Beach. Despite protests, the AFL have failed to address Franklin’s continued breach of the R&R policy. Why has the AFL failed to address this?”

Will we get more AFL spin? Will the sporting body that gives money to the White Ribbon campaign against violence against women continue to demonstrate it doesn’t really care that one of its key players trades in objectified and degrading images of women?

Let’s see. In the meantime, please vote!

For more on Buddy and his porn tees, read ‘AFL must act on Buddy Franklin’ 

Last week we wrote about AFL player Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin, owner and director of sexist fashion label Nena and Pasadena. Our post resulted in significant media attention.
Within hours, Nena and Pasadena had removed all traces of Buddy Franklin from their facebook page. Franklin’s profile picture was replaced by their logo. All reference to Franklin (or the AFL) was removed from their page information along with all photos of him.

Read update here

HAWTHORN star footballer Lance “Buddy” Franklin has released a special footy for kids called the Buddyball.

Using his award-winning profile, Franklin markets the “ultimate training buddy” to young lads who turn up at Auskick events.

But is he the kind of friend – or role model – boys need?

Franklin is co-director, owner and model of Nena and Pasadena, a clothing brand specialising in porn-inspired T-shirts.

It’s a company he is proud of.

In Franklin’s “fun and vibrant” brand, women are depicted naked or semi-naked. Some are headless or unclothed on all fours. His latest campaign video shows a fully naked woman.

An image on Nena and Pasadena’s Facebook page bears the slogan “F— bitches, get money”. Is that Franklin’s idea of fun?

On the same page, the street-wear brand encourages fans to send their tips for getting sex, offering prizes for the best strategies.

There are jokes about drugging and assaulting women. A few examples: “I like to call it the ‘fight and struggle’,” “the skull drag to the bushes and then duct tape the mouth move”, “I hope to God they can’t run faster than me down that alleyway”.

Another fan tweeted about a Nena and Pasadena T-shirt of two women kissing, that he would “like to smash there (sic) backdoors in”. That’s a reference to violent anal sex, if you didn’t know.

The company heartily encourages them: “Keep ‘em coming guys – this is very entertaining!”

Sharing your desires to brutalise and degrade women is “entertaining”, apparently.

This kind of everyday sexism is so normal and mainstream that objecting to it attracts a torrent of abuse.

The company says we don’t need to buy its products. No, but we are forced to see their porn-themed T-shirts in the public spaces we all inhabit. And positioning women as existing solely for male gratification harms all women (note, encouraging women to buy into their own objectification with a women’s range doesn’t make it any better).

But the entitled mini gods of the sporting world don’t like being called to account – even when they are in breach of their codes’ policies.

The AFL’s Respect and Responsibility Policy “represents the Australian Football League’s commitment to addressing violence against women and to work towards creating safe, supportive and inclusive environments for women and girls across the football industry as well as the broader community”.

“Violence against women and behaviour that harms or degrades women is never acceptable,” the code states.

Strong words. But when will Franklin be pulled into line?

Some of us have been trying to get the AFL to act on what appears to be Franklin’s normalisation of sexual representations of women for more than a year. Such depictions of women erode the AFL’s efforts to change the disrespectful attitudes of many of their players.

Buddyball reps say some of the proceeds from the ball’s sales go to help indigenous communities. That’s all good, but Franklin is effectively giving permission to men to treat women badly, including in those communities.

Franklin has now said he had asked his company to “remove all offensive imagery and comments that do not reflect my views, which they’ve done”. But he is still selling his offensive T-shirts, including from his Chapel St store.

You’d think the AFL would act more quickly, given its code and past efforts to rein in bad behaviour. Remember the AFL’s interactive DVD to help players understand that perhaps it’s not a good idea to pretend to be your best mate so you can have sex with his girlfriend?

Of course, disrespectful behaviour toward women isn’t the preserve of AFL players alone.

Sexual misconduct, harassment, indecent exposure, violence and other acts of contempt for women have been seen in all codes. The NRL has been rocked by sexual misconduct and allegations of sexual assault by high-profile players, exposed on ABC’s Four Corners in 2009.

SPORTSMEN continue to be implicated in crimes against women. Only this week Victoria Police has confirmed it will review the brief of evidence in the case against star St Kilda forward Stephen Milne, accused of rape in 2004. A 19-year-old accused Milne of raping her at Leigh Montagna’s house after a St Kilda club family day in 2004.

In the minds of too many sport stars, women are up for grabs, a conquest of the game.

In Channel 9′s player revue, before last year’s Grand Final, footballers from various teams “performed”. The show featured scantily dressed women with legs spread, a pole dancing scene and players with their hands down their pants simulating masturbation. All for the mad-keen boys watching the show before the big game.

It is time to address the culture of collusion in which sporting clubs offer little more than faint damnation for sexist behaviour.

The chief executives of sporting organisations should develop a code of conduct that would treat offences against women even more strictly than taking performance-enhancing drugs.

Franklin is a football ambassador. Boys look up to him. His personal code of conduct should be beyond disrepute.

By profiting from the degradation of women and hosting content intimating violence against them, he fails himself and the sport he represents and all the young men who see him as a hero.

AFL corporate affairs manager James Tonkin said the AFL didn’t condone the images used in Franklin’s clothing range.

“We consider it inappropriate and inconsistent with our respect and responsibility policy and we’ll be considering our options.”

Many women – including those whose sons are keen to play the game – will be waiting to see what that really means.

As published in the Sunday Herald Sun May 6, 2012

AFL footballer Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin has released ‘The Buddy Ball’ football for kids. But what else is he selling?

We’ve posted about AFL Hawthorn player Lance “Buddy” Franklin before. We’ve written about his sexist clothing brand Nena and Pasadena, of which he is Co-director. Take a look at some of his designs below.

 The women on Nena and Pasadena t-shirts are frequently topless and sexually objectified, positioned in weak and vulnerable poses. What message does this clothing send N&P’s target market of young men about women? What does it say about men and women when clothed men wear t-shirts of naked women?

Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth said, “Cross-culturally, unequal nakedness almost always expresses power relations.”

Gail Dines, sociologist and author of Pornland said, “It’s no accident that in prisons the first thing a prisoner has to do is strip naked, because to be naked in the presence of somebody clothed is to be in a vulnerable situation.”

Young fans look up to their favourite footy players. Children as young as five who sign up for ‘Auskick’ receive a bag full of AFL branded paraphernalia, including trading cards with the players pictures, and a height chart with the heights of famous players already marked. From a very young age, children can consider how they literally measure up to their role models. Unfortunately, some players are not worthy of this honour.

The AFL has the Respect and Responsibility policy in place to cultivate a safe environment for women. Has Buddy heard of it?

The Respect and Responsibility Policy represents the Australian Football League’s commitment to addressing violence against women and to work towards creating safe, supportive and inclusive environments for women and girls across the football industry as well as the broader community.

The Respect and Responsibility Policy is about shifting attitudes – ensuring that people throughout the Australian Football industry are aware, and have structures in place, that recognise that violence against women and behaviour that harms or degrades women, is never acceptable.

Despite this, the AFL has refused to even acknowledge Franklin’s blatant disregard for the policy, leaving many to question its effectiveness. (Read Melinda Tankard Reist’s piece on ABC’s The Drum “Showing respect for women the AFL way” ).

Nena and Pasadena’s facebook page has become a forum for sexism  and misogynistic comments. N&P habitually post pictures of semi-clothed women, inviting fans to rank them, as well as photos of young women kissing, while offering prizes to fans who share the best strategies for getting women into bed. Here are a few examples:

“Drop a roofie”

“I like to call it ‘the fight and struggle’”

“the skull drag to the bushes and then duck tape the mouth move”

“I hope to God they can’t run faster than me down that alleyway”

Nena and Pasadena’s response? “Keep em coming guys- this is very entertaining!”

Buddy’s new  Campaign video is under investigation by the Advertising Standards Bureau. Make a complaint here.

Screenshot of video

Tobacco Control have also confirmed N&P are once again under investigation for allegedly breaching anti-smoking laws, already having had two t-shirts banned.

Franklin uses his high profile as an AFL player to promote his business on N&P’s website and Facebook page, as well as in generating media attention for his brand. From N&P’s Facebook page info:

“Nena & Pasadena was birthed, after AFL superstar Lance “Buddy” Franklin joined forces with one of Australia’s leading menswear labels, to create a fun, outgoing and vibrant street wear label that captured the attention of thousands!”

This month, Buddy released the ‘Buddy ball’, a football along with an instructional dvd for kids. It is to be sold at toy stores and other retailers. Buddy is marketing his brand to children, milking his role model status to sell footballs. This is the man who designs porn themed t-shirts, produces  campaign videos featuring an image of a naked woman and provides a social forum on Facebook for men to joke about drugging and raping women. He is not a role model for our sons.

TAKE ACTION!

Share this post widely so others can make informed decisions about what they choose to spend their money on.

Contact the AFL

Some points you might like to make are:

- Buddy Franklin uses his high profile with the AFL to promote sexism

-Buddy Franklin continually disregards the AFL’s Respect and Responsibility policy

-Buddy Franklin is the public face of a company renowned for degrading and objectifying women in their products, advertising and conduct

-Ask the AFL what action they intend to take

Feedback form (Select ‘Contact AFL’, then ‘General’) or Facebook or Twitter

Contact these retailers and ask them not to endorse Buddy Franklin products.

Rebel Sport

Email: customer.relations@rebelgroup.com.au or Facebook  or Twitter

Kmart

Feedback Form   or Facebook  or Twitter

Target

Feedback Form    or Facebook   or Twitter

Big W

Feedback form  or Facebook or Twitter

Toys R Us

Feedback form  or Facebook

SportsPower

Feedback form

Toyworld

Feedback form

More on Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin’s business venture:

Buddy’s Chapel Street Fashion goal

And what Buddy Franklin does while he’s not selling over priced footballs to children

Hookers Ball gets kick out of Buddy

SEE ALSO:

Retailers urged to cease the sale and distribution of ‘porn t-shirts’

Mixed Messages: AFL talks respect for women but stays silent on Buddy’s sexist tees

Nena and Pasadena: Objectification on a shirt

Reprinted from Collective Shout 

Porn: the wrecking ball of authentic intimate relationships

Came across this piece in the New York Magazine on the impact of pornography on male sexuality.

It’s rare to see a man talk so honestly about how frequent on-line porn use impacts real world relationships. While of course the author appears to be writing from a purely selfish perspective: this is how porn screws with my sexual relationships and why I gave it up for four days – rather than a realisation of its mass industrialised dehumanisation of women – at least it may give other men cause to examine their own compulsive habits. And, hopefully, for women to seek men who want something more than porn sex.

David Rothbart relays how porn re-shaped the desires of a number of men – men who previously had happy, loving relationships with their partners. Here’s what some of them told him.

Perry, 41, lawyer:

 “I used to race home to have sex with my wife… Now I leave work a half-hour early so I can get home before she does and masturbate to porn…Not to be mean, but they’re younger, hotter, and wilder in the sack than my wife…Me and her, we still ‘do it’ and everything, but instead of every day, it’s maybe once a week. It’s like I’ve got this ‘other woman’ … and the ‘other woman’ is porn.”

Stefan, 43-year, composer:

“I’ve got to resort to playing scenes in my head that I’ve seen while viewing porn. Something is lost there. I’m no longer with my wife; I’m inside my own head.”

Ron, 27, architecture student:

“I guess I’ve been fading from her. It’s like all that time with these porn stars was subduing any physical desire for my girlfriend. And, in some weird way, my emotional need for her, too.”

And here’s what one woman had to say.

Sadie, 29 real-estate agent:

“There is no glory in trying to make love to men who only know how to f**k—man after man after man after man raised on porn…A lot of guys have come to expect P.S.E. [the ‘Porn-Star Experience’] as a common thing… A few [women] might enjoy it, but for most it’s harrowing. I think there’s a fear that if they can’t make it happen, their boyfriend will retreat online.”

Read the full article here.

Porn’s socialising effect on boys: girls pressured to provide naked images

In a piece titled ‘They Know What Boys Wants’ by Alex Morris, the New York Magazine also gave us an inside look at how porn is shaping the attitudes of boys towards the girls in their lives. Rarely is there the slow-burn of a relationship developing: girls are treated as living sexual performances from younger and younger ages. Porn conditions boys to becoming sexually demanding. Girls have to pay for relationships with sexual tokens. In an account relayed to me last year, a schoolgirl was told by a boy: “If you give me [oral sex] I’ll give you a kiss.”

This extract from the New York Magazine piece:

“I wouldn’t mind if they said, ‘Send me a picture of you,’ just a regular picture, with everything on,” says Samantha…“But it’s like the way they ask for it? Naked?”

Tricey nods. “It affects them, the Internet. The guys expect to just chat girls up online, but when y’all see each other and y’all go out or whatever, the only thing that they want to do is get in the bed.”

Star, who’s 14, rolls her eyes. “Yeah, that’s the only thing they talk about.”

“I think they’re pressured by the Internet,” says Tricey. “When you see some of those things, you actually get a negative mind.”

Samantha frowns. “They see a pretty girl on the computer, big boobs or whatever, so they’ll be like, ‘Okay, I want a girl like that.’ ”

Read the article here.

Do you relate to any of these accounts? Willing to tell me about it? You can post as a blog comment or contact me through the form at the top of this page.

Kanye West petition update

Well wasn’t that fun. After being attacked and ridiculed in The Punch on Wednesday, I woke yesterday morning to find 2000 additional signatures on our Care2 petition protesting Kanye West’s horror porn music video Monster. Another 3000 were added during the day, which meant we had surpassed our goal of 10,000.  There are now 13,500 signatures.

There is still time to sign if you haven’t already! You can do so here.

Buddy Franklin and Nena&Pasadena and their porn inspired tees update

The AFL has had nothing to say to my question asking how Hawks star Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin’s porn-inspired t.shirts fit in with the League’s ‘Respect and Responsibility policy. See my piece from ABC The Drum Unleashed here .  Hello AFL, we’re waiting! Or don’t you think it matters that your players are flogging t.shirts which reduce women to sex objects?

Dull, derivative, repetitive

While we’re waiting for a response from the AFL, you must read this from a fashion industry insider, posted in comments to my ABC piece:

Fashion Merchandise Planner, 16 Feb 2011 9:07:28pm

You are seriously deluded if you think what you produce is fashion. Having worked in the industry for over 20 years for some of Australia’s leading retailers and fashion houses (both high end and mass market) I can tell you that what you produce is barely a blip on the Australian fashion scene and you wouldn’t rate a mention anywhere it counts… ‘edgy’ give me a break… bogan streetwear more like it. Maybe a Design Degree would give your ‘designers’ a richer troff to plunder from. The t-shirts are dull, derivative, repetitive and would do well in the markets. I don’t normally get personal but to sell your two bit company as an Australian success story is really stretching it. You produce unimaginative dull T-shirts for 20 somethings who think that a naked woman on a T-shirt is an artistic statement.

I am neither a Christian nor a prude just a highly successful and respected retail professional who has seen people like you come and go in droves. Believe your own marketing spin at your peril.

Lets have this conversation in two years time… or will you like the hundreds of other ‘talented designers’ crying into your beer and complaining that no one understands how you suffer for your art.

You produce unimaginative cheap T-shirts lets just call it what it is. You know sex sells and you are too dull to come up with anything better that tits and arse… congratulations you just discovered sex… like no one has ever done that before…

Go to www.collectiveshout.org for details on where to complain.

Nena + Pasadena’s fashion statement celebrating the objectification of women

Wondering how some of our footballers are putting their Code’s ‘Respect and Responsibility’ policies into practice?

Curious as to whether all the effort that has gone into addressing sexual misconduct, harassment, indecent exposure, violence and other myriad manifestations of disrespect for women? (You’ll find some here)

Perhaps Hawthorn star Lance “Buddy” Franklin can help us answer these important questions?

Here’s some t.shirts he has designed – and is seen here proudly modeling – for his Nena and Pasadena brand.

Franklin is headless wearing in the t.shirts above. But of course it’s him.

Because there just aren’t enough porn-themed t.shirts already stuffing the racks of numerous stores, all the way from City Beach to Roger  David, our buddy Lance has got into the act, teaming up with Men’s Fashion Label Kiss Chacey and Sushi Radio to create the new label for young men to “appeal to a broader cross section of their fans and the ever growing fashion conscious youth of Australia”.

A topless women, with her breast and nipple visible, has her head wrapped in a scarf. Perhaps that’s because her face – and her full humanity – don’t count that much. A headless woman, her butt cheeks glowing and emphasised. Because, again, no need to bother with her face. The man in the photo with her is not revealing his backside. They pretty much never do.

Another image depicts a topless woman covering her breast with her hand. ‘Angel of silence’ reads the slogan. The best kind of women right? They let their bodies do the talking and keen their mouths shut. This image features on billboards.

Up until a short time ago the same ‘Angel of Silence’ image was also the profile picture for Nena and Pasadena’s facebook page. It’s been replaced with a new one of Franklin in a t.shirt with a bearded man on it. That man has clothes on.

The AFL’s Respect and Responsibility Policy “represents the Australian Football League’s commitment to addressing violence against women and to work towards creating safe, supportive and inclusive environments for women and girls across the football industry as well as the broader community”.

In serious tones, the Code informs us that ”in March 2009, the AFL, in cooperation with State League/TAC Cup Clubs, commenced delivering a State League Respect and Responsibility Module. The aims of the Module are to:

• Promote safe and inclusive environments for women and girls at all levels of Australian Football and the wider community;

• Increase players understanding of how sexual assault, violence, harassment and abuse can affect the lives of women and girls;

• Provide practical information that assists players to understand the meaning of consent, and identify situations that have the potential to go wrong; and,

• Provide players with information that may assist them to build and maintain social relationships with women that are healthy and respectful.

I asked anti sexual violence campaigner Nina Funnell, who trains other elite sporting codes on their attitudes towards women, sex and consent, what impact she thought these t.shirts could have:

It is vital that sporting codes and individual athletes who undertake and commit to respectful relationship courses are consistent in their behavior. To superficially pay lip service to respecting women while simultaneously perpetuating attitudes or behaviors that either objectify or harm women is not only disingenuous and insincere, it is destructive as it undermines respect for women as a value. To send a confusing message on this topic is worse than sending no message at all.

AFL players are recognisable public figures. They get paid the big bucks for a reason and it is their responsibility to exercise due diligence in thinking through the issues and brands they endorse. Like other athletes and public figures, they must take responsibility for this. “

The t.shirts are a form of harassment. They normalise sexualised representations of women and send a message that women are merely ornaments and decorations whose sole role is to bare their flesh and gratify men. They erode efforts of the AFL to change the disrespectful attitudes of many of their players. And they make the work of women like Nina Funnell even harder.

Does Franklin share the patronizing and dismissive views of his business partner Tim Arandt who has been sending this reply to Collective Shout members who have voiced their complaint?

Thanks for your comments and views but we feel we know what young people want to wear so we choose to continue our design concepts in full. I have three teenage boys of my own and have discussed your email with them, they were humored by your thoughts and added that the 6 o’clock news contained far more adult contact than a tshirt!! If you feel that we degrade women or promote violence against women please further your emails to the editor of the herald sun.

So teenage boys are now the leading experts on understanding the nuances of how the repeated sexualisation of female bodies affects young women’s self esteem and experience of public space? They are the arbiters of cultural standards regarding young women? The same boys whose views are reflected in a recent White Ribbon foundation report which found that one in seven teen boys thinks it is permissible to hold a girl down and force her to have sex if she has flirted or ‘led the guy on’.

But back to Buddy Franklin. Interesting to see he weighed in on the St Kilda nude photo scandal.

“I know that the AFL puts in place things at a young age, as soon as you get drafted, where you’ve got to be smart enough to know what’s going on in your private life and not to do things that are going to get out in public.”

Maybe Lance buddy, you should have kept those t.shirts of yours in a cupboard.

Published today on ABC’s The Drum.

For details on where to complain see Collective Shout website.

Zoo didn’t deserve my commendation says Girl With a Satchel

Interesting exchange yesterday with my friend and fellow blogger Erica Bartle of Girl With a Satchel.

Erica sent a tweet re a blog post in which she awarded points to Zoo magazine for including AFL footballer Brendan Fevola – he of the leaked Lara Bingle naked picture scandal – in a pre Australia Day list of those Zoo deemed guilty of ‘un-Australian’ behaviour. I responded that I didn’t think the feature genuine – that it was, in fact, a mockery given that Zoo attributed Fevola’s action to causing everything from the breakup of Bingle’s relationship with Michael Clarke, Australia’s subsequent cricket losses and drought in Africa.

By releasing a nude photo of his former fling Lara Bingle to a women’s gossip mag, the Brisbane Lions goose caused the break-up of Aussie golden couple Lara Bingle and Michael Clarke.

(This) caused Clarke to become a rubbish cricketer, and caused the demise of the national cricket team, and caused the value of the dollar to fall, and caused drought in Africa and caused the continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Zoo is making a mockery of Bingle’s experience by saying that what was ‘un-Australian’ was that it ruined their enjoyment of cricket; what was horrific was not how it affected Bingle, but what happened, as a result, to the sport. And I doubt they give a stuff about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, unless it involves pics of ‘hot’ Israeli female soldiers with rifles. There’s little doubt Zoo’s readers regret seeing Fevola’s snap of a vulnerable younger Bingle naked and wet. More likely, Zoo and its readers see men like Fevola and Shane Warne as legends for their behaviour.

Erica then posted this piece, revising her original stance. Where others would dig their heels in and not admit they called it wrong, or conveniently eradicate all traces of the original blog post, Erica wrote a new one with a revised conclusion.

Commendations GWAS. (Maybe one day she will blog about discovering my soft and cuddly side).

Monday Media Study: Lad-mag endorsement v talking point

Media commentator, author and Collective Shout co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist and I had a DM marathon this morning. We often do. Since meeting Melinda last year, we’ve become regular online sparring partners; she thinks I’m soft, I think she’s too hard-line. But we generally respect each other’s opinions. What’s more, she has research to back up her opinions. Piles of it. And books. And co-collaborators, such as Clive Hamilton, University of NSW academic Nina Funnell and her fellow Collective Shouters.

Read entire blog here.