Profound experiences with W.A students on my last roadtrip.

Last month I spoke 27 times in three and a half weeks in the ACT, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales. I spoke on the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls in media and popular culture, the sexual world of the 21st century adolescent, pornography and young people, and the online life of girls to students, staff and parents at five schools, the Heads of Independent Co-Educational Schools conference, women’s events, a medical conference of 1000 medical professionals and at tour’s end a quick trip to the country to address the Upper Gwydir Landcare Association! (Was great to be out in the bush again, farmer’s daughter as I am).

There were many highlights – the privilege of delivering my message to thousands of people of course, along with  runs along rugged coastlines and catching up with friends and colleagues – including Co-editor of Big Porn Inc, Abigail Bray who I hadn’t seen for two years. Every time I do these long trips, I’m reminded again what an honour it is to do this work and engage with so many people, especially young people. I wonder how I got so lucky. A 14-year-old just emailed me to say how much she was impacted by the message and that now she knew the career path she wanted to follow to make a difference in the lives of other girls. And this from a Deputy Head of School in NSW: “I just wanted to say what a profound effect you have had on me today… I intend to return in term three with a renewed determination to build the voice and the rights of our girls and deliver a consistent message to the boys that the values of respect and understanding are not lost.” Messages like these make it all worthwhile.

Possibly the most affecting experience was with students in W.A. I was moved by how openly they shared their struggles. Girls revealing mistreatment and pressure to adopt pornified roles and behaviours. The issue of girls being threatened with blackmail to send sexual images was raised with me a number of times. At one co-ed private school, girls didn’t want to leave the session, and continued to talk through recess and even the next period, insisting they needed longer to discuss the issues concerning them. (Thank you teachers to allowing them to do so). A group of 30 Yr 12 boys chose to skip lunch to talk longer – I’ve never seen boys voluntarily choose to do this before! They disclosed some of the pressures they felt in a culture that judges them for their appearance and trains them in callous behavior early on. One boy stood and cried as he shared his experience of being bullied and said he had no friends. It was difficult to keep a grip on my emotions when another boy moved from the front row to the back to comfort him. To see that boy put his arms around the one who was in pain…something else I rarely see, given how this world knocks the empathy out of boys from their earliest days.

When addressing co-ed schools where I’m talking with the  girls, then boys separately (which is my preference), I often ask female students what messages they’d like me to pass onto boys. My colleague, W.A Collective Shout co-ordinator, Caitlin Roper, recorded the following messages from the W.A girls in Yrs 9-12 to their male peers. I’m hoping these might become discussion points to kick start conversations in other schools. I found them moving, some even plaintive and sad. What emerged for me overall was that while girls are distressed by the treatment of many (not all) boys, they really wanted to have good relations with them. Many lamented that in a sexualized world, everything had come to have a sexual meaning: they feared healthy friendships with boys might be lost if something didn’t change soon. Here’s what they asked:

• If we reject your request to send a sexual image, please don’t stop talking to us.

• If we are hanging out, don’t expect it is sexual.

• If we say no, accept it, don’t try to persuade us.

• Catcalling/ yelling out of cars/street harassment is not a compliment.

• If we are angry, don’t assume we are on our period.

• Stop commenting on our appearance. Value us for something else.

• Rape jokes are never funny.

• Porn and sex are not the same.

• Feminism is not female domination.

• If we cut our hair short, it doesn’t mean we are lesbians.

• If we have a close female friend, it doesn’t mean we are lesbians.

• We don’t all have the perfect body.

• We weren’t put on the earth for your entertainment.

• Think with your head, not what’s in your pants.

• Respect us more.

• Treat us like humans.

• Stop stereotyping us.

• Be a gentleman.

• Respect our boundaries.

• Don’t call us prudes for saying ‘no’/sluts for saying ‘yes’.

• It is never the victim’s fault.

• Just because we don’t say no doesn’t mean we are saying yes.

• Girls weren’t born to be decorative objects.

• Sex before the age of consent is illegal.

• Don’t make sexual advances based on how we are dressed- sometimes it is hot and we want to wear shorts.

• Stop making ‘kitchen’ jokes.

• We understand the boys are under pressure too.

Briefing on sexualisation, harms of porn with W.A MPs

While in the West, I was invited by the Hon Nick Goiran, W.A Legislative Council Member for South Metropolitan, to address a briefing of interested colleagues on sexualisation and the harms of pornography, and what they as legislators could do about the issue. Also with me were Collective Shout’s W.A coordinator Caitlin Roper and Victorian board member Coralie Pittman. I asked the reason for the hold up in the release of the W.A Children Commissioner’s report into the sexualisation of children, completed 18 months earlier. A week after my visit, it was finally released and tabled. (we are still analyzing the document and will report soon).

In a speech to parliament, Hon Nick Goiran said:

“I feel confident in speaking on behalf of all those who attended to say that we were all impacted by what we were told…We have to recognize that none of us has done enough in this space, and I feel somewhat energized by the briefing today to redouble our efforts. I hope that members who attended this briefing will join in this effort because if we cannot get things right in respect of the children of this state, frankly, I suggest that we should all pack up and go home. There is no more vulnerable group in our society than our children, and they are being continually bombarded with this imagery, which so much research has confirmed is harmful to them. I cannot think of an issue more important.”

 

See also: W.A Teenage Girls Sexually Harassed, The West Australian, July 7, 2014