Been thinking about this subject a bit of late. Can’t really help it as it has been splashed all over the national news all week. But I have a few thoughts on this subject.
Firstly, congrats to you Steve Crow, you went to court and came out the sucessor. Brilliant strategy for the Erotica Expo that is also your brainchild. You not only got an injuction saying that you could go ahead with this parade down Queen Street, but you’ve also managed a ton of free publicity, thanks to the local council and all the anti porn fan clubs out there.
This was so well done that I, at one point, thought that it was a scam that was cooked up by someone in your regime and someone in the council to bring financial equity into the region, as well as give you all press coverage that would have cost an awful lot of money. However, I realised that the council and yourself would never have tied the courts up for so long, and put everyone in the country through all of that torment, just for free publicity. But it was very well timed, on both parts.
Secondly, I would like to say how accommodating your parade were to those that decided to use your hard work and efforts to bring to the podium their gripes and groans about how the sex industry brings about such things as violence, rape and other socially unacceptable behaviours that humans partake in. I thought this was very kind of you all to let those people have their say as well. I am almost certain, had the shoe been on the other foot, those same people would not have been as accommodating to your cause, and willingly let you march in protest of what they were doing.
Now, my views on the whole deal. I am not one who condones or condemns the pornographic industry. I believe, in part, that the sex industry may cause those with violent tendencies to bring out that part of them in society. They may see something that has been glorified in a magazine or on a XXX movie and then go out and find some unwillilng party to fulfill those carnal urges they have.
I also believe that if it were not for the sex industry that there could possibly be worse crimes being commited. Prostitutes, in part, do a service to humanity. They put their bodies and their lives on the line so people who can not, or will not, find a willing partner, can relieve their tensions and calm those carnal desires for a limited time, until they need to relieve themselves again. This, surely, has to be helping to keep the crime levels down a tad.
The freedom for women to show their bare breasts in public? Although I personally would not do this myself, I can fully understand that women are constantly after equal rights and if it is ok for a man to walk around wherever he wants to topless, then why can’t women? After all, a body is a body.
Finally, I would like to say … if that parade was pornographic because there were bare chested women around, then how can those antipornographic lobbyists justify their summer visits to the beach?
I am pretty sure that not one single person in that march that preceded that parade has never been to the beach during a hot summer’s day. And those who have children I am almost certain have taken their child to the beach or the pools for a swim to cool down.
Unless you’re all completely blind, there are worse sights on the beach and in the pools that what would have been in Queen Street that day. Men with bare chests and skimpy swimming trunks. Women and even teenage girls wearing enough cloth to barely cover their god given assets, some which are even see through once water is applied. And more often than not, neither of these places are as heavily policed as that parade was.
Personally, I might take offence to anyone wearing anything less on a summer’s day, than a t-shirt, jeans or long skirt, black sweater, beanie or other type of headwear, long socks and fully covered footwear. This may seem extreme, I know, but I believe that more is better in some instances, especially when bare flesh is concerned. And with the ozone layer depleting so rapidly, level 750UV protection way suits me better than getting skin cancer because I want to show my body off.
I do not take my children to the beach, and very rarely will take them to the pools, because of some of the sights that are there. It is not right to subject your children to this kind of thing, in my opinion. If I were in Auckland on that particular day, I would not have let my children go within 50km of that area, because there was enough notification that the parade was happening to be able to have enough sense to keep them away. And if there were important appointments that meant having to take them near there, I would have rescheduled unless it were a life or death situation, in which case, I wouldn’t have cared how many people were baring their breasts.
Seriously, if you’re going to be an anti-anything lobbyist, then, for God’s sake and the sake of humanity, be consistant in your protest. Don’t be hypocritical about it. Live by what you say. Don’t just jump on a bandwagon because it is there at the time and have the rest of the country have to foot the bill so you can all get a bit of free publicity.
