Selling a bicycle race with a sexual assault joke

The Guardian's Suze Clemitson reports that an infamous sexual assault on the podium of the cycling event in 2013 has been parodied in a poster for the E3 Harelbeke race in Flanders.

The poster, apparently, reads “Who squeezes them in Harelbeke?” Har, har, har.

Meanwhile, assault victim Maja Leye, a "flower girl" who was groped by a man named Peter Sagan as she planted a traditional kiss on the cheek of Tour of Flanders winner Fabian Cancellara, says she was "frozen to the spot” in shock, and struggled not to react to avoid further embarrassment.

The problem with the poster, obviously, is that it communicates that unwanted sexual touching is a joke, and shouldn't be taken very seriously.

Ms. Clemitson reserves her most potent ire for the unknown agency behind the creative: "They’re like a bunch of little boys giggling at a glimpse of boob or arse, virtually masturbating over the idea of their campaigns going viral."

Well, here's your international attention, guys: You're assholes.

This could be the worst Facebook ad of all time

DIY Facebook ads have long been problematic. Cheap to buy (you only pay for the clicks) and easy to create, they lend themselves to the worst sorts of hucksters.

But even worse is the practice of stealing photos for Facebook ads. It not only hurts the credibility and privacy of people who find themselves appearing to endorse random and often inappropriate things. In some cases it can be downright cruel:

According to the CBC, this Facebook ad is for a German internet dating site. (I blocked out the URL. Please don't give them traffic or PR!)

If you don't recognize the face in the ad, that's Rehtaeh Parsons, a Canadian teen who committed suicide last April after being raped at a party while too intoxicated to consent, and experiencing extreme online sexual harassment and abuse when photos of the crime were circulated among her peers.

Whether the company used the photo accidentally or on purpose is unknown. The web site the ad directs to is no longer online.

After outrage over the ad, first spotted by a Facebook user in Toronto, caused outrage, Facebook pulled the ad:

"This is an extremely unfortunate example of an advertiser scraping an image and using it in their ad campaign," a spokesperson from Facebook wrote in a statement, calling this a gross violation of their advertising policies. "We apologize for any harm this has caused."

For once, an organization famous for being so afraid of women's bodies that it even censors the word "breast" in an a non-sexual context is doing the right kind of censorship.

Bar ad promotes drunken date rape

Via larryvillechronicles (from 2010), this ad is based on the old joke that sweet alcoholic drinks are "liquid panty remover."

Hey, I used to use the term too, when I was younger. But as I aged, I realized that it replied something rather ominous.

From teenadvice.about.com:

Bottom line, if a girl is intoxicated she cannot consent to sex and you could be charged with rape. It does not matter whether you knew she was intoxicated, it doesn’t matter if you were intoxicated too, all that matters is that she was not in a state of mind to consent and therefore it is rape. If you get a girl drunk or high and then “get together” with her you have committed a sexual assault. Again, it doesn’t matter if you are drunk or high as well. Your diminished abilities do not negate your responsibilities. A good rule to follow; if you are under the influence do not have sex. 

Obviously, there are people who get drunk together and have happy consensual sex. Like, all the time. But the idea of getting a girl/woman drunk to lower her inhibitions, specifically to sexually coerce her?

Rape. "Legitimate" rape. Whatever Todd Akin says.

Polish drink ads feature Mike Tyson, are bizarre #FdAdFriday

Wow. Poland's Black energy drink  hired convicted rapist Mike Tyson to play piano and sing about his lack of self-control in a room full of sultry models, then have a mild freak out.



There are just so many flavours of wrong here, not least of which is the brand's racialized use of phrases like "That's the power of black" — and going so far as to co-opt "Black Power".



Tip via BuzzFeed

Sin tax on strip clubs to fund rape kits

Via Google Image Search

Here's one for you to think about: Houston's city council has passed a new tax on strip clubs within the city, adding a fee of $5 per patron to their cover charge.

The author of the ordinance, Councilwoman Ellen Cohen, put the motion forward as a way to subsidize the processing of the city's massive backlog of rape kits for sexual assault victims.

“We have to do something to help the 4,000-plus women, children and men who have been sexually assaulted,” said Councilwoman Cohen. “I think we’ve waited long enough.”

The victims certainly have waited too long for justice that has been delayed due to tight law enforcement budgets. But the tax also makes an official link between the above-ground sex industry and sexual assault, which is troubling for some (especially those who make money from it).

According to the Houston Chron:

A study Cohen relies upon to make the link states: “Are sexually-oriented-businesses, alcohol, and the victimization and perpetration of sexual violence against women connected? An exhaustive review of the literature says yes.” 

Several paragraphs later, though, the same study states: “However, no study has authoritatively linked alcohol, sexually-oriented-businesses, and the perpetration of sexual violence.”

Sin taxes are popular and profitable tools of social engineering when it comes to vices like cigarettes and alcohol. But whether you like them or not, do you think that consumers of legal sexual entertainment should be legally compelled to adjust their karma by paying to help sexual assault victims?


The Texas rape kit issue is a government funding issue. Last year, at the State level, Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, introduced a bill that would require a police department to submit a rape kit to a crime lab within at least 10 days, and complete the DNA analysis no later than 90 days after the sexual assault was reported. But it has since been stalled by police departments' inability and/or reluctance to do the inventories that would inform the legislators.

Councilman C.O. Bradford also called the nexus into question. He said that according to Houston Police Department, apartment complexes are the most common location for sexual assaults, and that sexually oriented businesses are 10th.

Still, said Bradford, a former police chief: “Victims have waited too long.”

Indeed they have. But is this what they were waiting for? Or did they want their government to pay to fix the problem?

Via Texas Tribune

Tip via Consumerist
Related: Houston Strip Club Accused Of Racism

Slutwalk Presents: Slutwear

Slutwalk Denver, having joined Slutwalk Toronto's global movement against sex assault victim blaming, are now merchandising their cause with a line of clothing at CafePress.

While I clicked expecting (okay, "hoping") to see a line of really revealing attire, they have instead chosen to emphasize their movement's slogans on more traditional casual clothes. (It being cafepress and all...)

Here are some examples:

And the soon to be classic:

Why is it on the... ummm... back?

All proceeds from this shop will go directly to funding SlutWalk Denver. Any leftover funds will be donated to RAAP, a Rape Crisis Center in Denver, Colorado.

Learn more about Slutwalk's origins at Osocio.

Don't be that guy

Don't get me wrong. This is an important issue, and these messages need to be said.

But it's also scary for me to note that these same messages were pitched at me when I was a teen, more than 20 years ago. Has anything changed?

This campaign, launched yesterday by Sexual Assault Voices of Edmonton, is intended to raise awareness among young men that intoxicated women cannot consent to sex. In other words, sex with these women is rape.

According to the campaign site, this is a new approach:

"Typically, sexual assault awareness campaigns target potential victims by urging women to restrict their behavior. Research is telling us that targeting the behavior of victims is not only ineffective, but also contributes to how much they blame themselves after the assault. That's why our campaign is targeting potential offenders - they are the ones responsible for the assault and responsible for stopping it. By addressing alcohol-facilitated sexual assault without victim-blaming, we intend to mark Edmonton on the map as a model for other cities."

The "Don't be that guy" campaign has already picked up blog coverage from AdFreak and others. But curiously, the full ads have not been made available until today, when they popped up on SAVE's Facebook page.

According to the first article I saw on the campaign, in the Edmonton Journal, there is also a third ad that appears only in men's washrooms at bars and reads: “Just because she’s drunk doesn’t mean she wants to f***.”  [UPDATE: Here it is...]

As I said, an important message. But why has nothing changed in two decades?

When I started university in the late '80s, there was a very tense environment of gender politics at Queen's. The "take back the night" and "no means no" campaigns were in full swing, and the sensitivity about sexism was so hair-trigger that a student group prevented the Barenaked Ladies from performing on campus, just because of the band's goofy name.

It was one of those times in history when the pendulum of political correctness was hitting an apogee. And I daresay that there was at least one life-destroying rape accusation that didn't stand up in court.

Like I said at the start, don't get me wrong. Men who purposely get women blind drunk to take relatively lucid advantage of them are criminal rapists. They're little better than guys who use roofies.

But there is another side to this issue, and that is the mutually drunken hook-up. Young men my age were terrified by urban legends of women who would go home with them willingly, only to regret it later and claim coercion. Magazines like National Lampoon joked about not having sex with someone without a notarized contract.

Do young men still have this paranoia? As much as I wish we could move on from our instinctive sexism that views women as gatekeepers of sex and men as the barbarians at their gates, I doubt we've made much progress. Women are still seen as having more to lose from a casual sexual encounter than men are, even with effective birth control. Why is that?

And that's the thing that gives me pause about this campaign. Women are prey. Men are the predators. Therefore, we must scare away the predators through the threat of legal action and social shame. And the women are helpless in the face of male pressure and demon alcohol.

Won't it be great when we can have a campaign about fixing that?

You can access, and freely share, all campaign creative here.

Child abuse ads too hardcore for soft rock

"I want to talk to you about a subject many people try to ignore - child sexual abuse.

Each year in Pennsylvania thousands of children are sexually abused and most cases are never reported.

Without help these children may have a lifetime of mental health issues.

But there is hope - you. If you believe a child is being sexually abused, please visit heroproject.org or call 1-887-874-HERO."

That's the text of a 30-second radio PSA produced by The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) that, according to their press release and blog, has been rejected by WBEB 101.1FM in Philadelphia.

To hear the radio spots for yourself, click here.

According to PCAR:

"WBEB's General Manager Blaise Howard offered PCAR space only if it altered the wording to remove the word "rape" from the organization's name and say "child abuse" instead of "child sexual abuse," citing that the station's listeners would be upset by the words that are currently used.

Howard stated to PCAR's executive director that WBEB doesn't take "explicit ads" because they are a "straight laced" company. However, the station does play sexually suggestive music by artists such as Prince, Madonna, Lady GaGa and George Michael."

PCAR Executive Director Delilah Rumburg added:

"Child sexual abuse is not about sexuality. It's about violence to our children. If the station doesn't believe its listeners could handle hearing words about abuse, imagine what child victims of sexual abuse are experiencing."

"We believe that our message is important to Pennsylvanians. All we are trying to do is get information out to the public that there is help and healing for survivors and their families. We don't feel that modifying the language is an acceptable compromise. The station is asking us to censor information that could actually help their listeners. Their decision is appalling and perpetuates the veil of silence that continues to hurt victims in need of help."

I can understand parents having concern about their young children hearing these messages (my 5-year-old son runs away and hides when ads about abuse or child poverty come on Discovery Channel) but this is an adult-oriented radio station. If any good can come from this epic fail on the part of the station, it will be to make even stronger PCAR's point about the need to overcome "polite" denial in the fight to stop child sexual abuse.

PCAR is urging Philadelphia residents to call the station and voice their displeasure with the soft rock radio station and to ask the station to make a substantial donation to their local rape crisis centers. For those of us outside the City of Brotherly Love, perhaps it's worth considering if we would complain to a station that bruised our delicate sensibilities by telling the hard truth about abuse.

There are also TV spots (non-embeddable) available for viewing at the HERO project web site.