Last year we had quite a debate about this parade – freedom of speech or degrading to women and society generally? Your thoughts?
Boobs on Bikes man indignant at injunction threat
3:45PM Thursday August 14, 2008
Steve Crow
The Auckland City Council have gone to court to try and stop a topless parade from travelling down Queen St.
A majority of Auckland City Councillors have today voted to seek a court injunction to prevent the Boobs On Bikes parade from happening in Auckland’s CBD next week.
However, the parade’s organiser says he won’t stand by and let a court injunction prevent the event from going ahead.
The display is to promote the Erotica Lifestyles Expo.
Organiser Steve Crow says it is not against the law to ride on the back of a motorbike topless, so there is little the council can do. He says he does not have a permit for the parade, and has never needed one.
Mr Crow says it is hard to see how the District Court could issue an injunction which would overturn the Bill of Rights.
Some members of the city council, however, are unimpressed.
Councillor Cathy Casey says the organiser’s claim the parade is about freedom of expression is “absolute crap”. She says it just free advertising for a porn show, and the council finds the parade offensive. Ms Casey is confident the District Court will grant the injunction.
However, councillor Bill Christian believes the council is overreacting, saying the parade attracts a decent crowd.
“It’s simply an aspect of life in the 21st Century that we have to accept there are times when women will bare their breasts, let’s hope it stops at that.”
– NEWSTALK ZB
it seems almost irrelevant whether or not the parade is an advertisement for the erotica expo (which it is) or just a parade espousing “freedom of expression”, rather my objection to the parade is that it further equates women as sexual objects and to be judged on account of their bodies, and ‘sexiness’. It is not alright for a whole street to be stopped in order for sanctioned ogling to occur, this is an activity which ought to be treated with disdain. pornography and strip clubs exist, but this public expression of womens bodies is unnecessary and demeaning. it is not offensive, there is nothing offensive about nudity, what i find problematic is the public nature of what ought to be a private issue.
Using breasts to advertise further equates women with possessions, as could be seen by the presence of motorbikes in the parade, which gives the impression that women are no more or less than another male plaything.
I agree that women should not be used for advertising and be objectified. There were hundreds of thousands of people (mainly men) who turned up just to see some breasts. That is rather sad. However I am not sure I agree that nudity is a private issue. Everyone is born without clothes on and if that is how people decide to express themselves then they should be able to. Clothes are just a social implement which are used as a method of control. Women used to have to wear corsets and big dresses which restricted their movement and therefore restricted their ability to be free. If clothes were never “invented” then it would be normal not to wear clothes and then this would never have been an issue. It would also link to females being called a slut/skank etc for not wearing “enough” clothes. Again, clothes are used as a method of making women conform into a social norm. Anyway, thats just something to think about