It’s official, sexism is alive and doing well in this country. An article in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph this morning, reported: “WOMEN were surrounded by a drunken mob of louts hurling sexual abuse in frightening scenes at a popular car show at the weekend.”
Sexist comments were hurled at women attending the Summernats car show in Canberra like, “Tits or rubber!” and one father was overheard telling his son “You will never look at your mum again after seeing these girls”.
One man was captured on film chasing a woman while reportedly screaming at her to get her breasts out. The Daily Telegraph also captured on film women who were all too willing to oblige the mob by exposing their breasts to the crowd.
Yes, it was bad behaviour all round at the Summernats in Canberra (see picture below), with kids in attendance and organisers doing very little to stop it.
Men’s magazines like Street Machine who sponsored the car show, have spent years encouraging this sexist mentality among motor bike and car enthusiasts. They present women as less than human, play things in their magazines and this disgraceful behaviour is the result.
Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick has condemned both the behaviour of the drunken mob at Summernats and the organisers of the event, she said: “The events have the potential to lead to sexual assault, sexual violence. They’re all on a continuum of violence against women. Potentially, there’s … law and order issues there.” source: Summernats ‘could lead to rape’
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Summernats 22 was the first time i’ve gone & i have to say that i loved it.
And that includes EVERY part.
The burnouts, the band, the saturday night entertainment, even the odd flash or two.
It’s whats to be expected at the event.
Everyone needs to stop bitching.
If you dont like it don’t go.
It’s as simple as that.
look here you ladies you must be very bored with your life or you were abused by your husband who cheated on you .in the history of summernats there has never been a rape but your so called politicians have been raping woman for years . night clubs have caused countless rapes muggings sexual assaults gang rapes bashing’s , people being glassed and people being drugged and what has been done about it ???????? absolutely nothing so stop picking on summernats have you had a look where summernats are being held ,in the porn capital city of Australia CANNBERRA where you can buy all the porn you want.
I believe this should not be occuring around children, yet if not around children I see no problems with this ocuring as the girl in question know what the situation is and choose of there own free will to do what they are doing. I think some previous comments are made by people with a far to feminist view, who need to take a step back and look at comments they are saying. Do you want the government to take control of your entire life, telling you what you can and can’t do. These ladys choose to do this as they like the attention it brings them. And who are any of you to negitively judge what theses girls/women/ladys are doing and there level of maturity. My wifes sister is a model and really enjoys what she is doing, she earns good money, lives in a stable household, and bring up her son with the correct morel skill required to live in modern Australia. You may believe I’m wrong, I’m not a sexist male who goes to see strippers and the like, But my family and I would like to make our own choices in life and not be forced into living a specific lifestyle. I have a step daughter and a daughter on the way, and hope they don’t make these decisions, but at the end of the day, it will be there decision to make when they grow up. Thankyou anyone who reads this and I hope it changes your judgement in a positive way.
P.S. Lyn the comment of “Men are men – fundamentally nothing’s changed since the caveman”. This is the attitude that we don’t need in society today as both men and women are capable of doing the same job of the same quality, and with this attitude continues the “men are the bread winner and women are housekeeper” thing. which I think is wrong, I was brought up by my parents to be able to do everything inside and outside the house, so this comes down to parenting.
Let us hope you never get to experience first hand how very wrong you are Sarah.
omg i seen these old post if you dont like it dont go it always been about nuts cars and half naked women stop wrapping people in cotton wool, ppl shouldnt stick there nose in if a girl wants to act like a slut let her mind your own god damn business damn im sick of people like you lot !
I’ve just read this while searching for my Australian Studies for school, on sexism in Australia.
I am so dissappointed at the thing girls think they “need” or “should” do to get “possitive attention.
What hope do us school girls have whilst these girls (notice i didn’t say women, they aren’t mature enought for that title) encorage this sexist behaviour?
Of course they aren’t completely at fault. I’m sick and tired of walking past the pub, on a saturday night, on my way to the bus stop after work, and been constantly asked to take my top off for drunken males. It’s disgusting the way I, and many other women, are treated!!!
Sorry about not closing the italics tag! The quotation ended at “IMHO”.
Helen’s last blog post..Hmmm, can’t think of a precedent for that, can you?
Reply from Deborah (admin) – that’s okay Helen, I fixed it up for you.
Men are men – fundamentally nothing’s changed since the caveman. But women carrying on like this is where the real shame lies IMHO.
With attitudes like that, nothing will ever change. Unless the boys are called on their behaviour and the girls not made to be gatekeepers of morality, we’ll be stationary with our wheels spinning.
And as for not attending events because of intimidating and abusive male behaviour? As Audrey says, what if a woman is actually a car enthusiast? Are we going to accept this kind of apartheid for our daughters?
Helen’s last blog post..Hmmm, can’t think of a precedent for that, can you?
I agree Audrey. The disgusting behaviour at Summernats shouldn’t be just dismissed nor should it be tolerated. The organisers of the event and the authorities should have done more to stop it. I can’t imagine how traumatic it must have been for the women who were harassed. And what really angered me is that children were in attendance and young boys (the next generation of men) were encouraged to participate in the bad behaviour. Men behaving very badly!
Lyn – I agree their was bad behaviour by some of the women in attendance at Summernats. But I don’t think we can simply dismiss the bad bahaviour of the men involved either.
As the mother of two teenage boys (aged 16 and 19) I never supported this whole notion of ‘boys will be boys and men can’t change’.
Deborah
I’m frustrated by the calls from its defenders that if ‘women don’t like it, they shouldn’t go.’ As one reader of my blog pointed out, pity if said women actually like cars or are, you know, working there.
Besides, I hate that dismissal of disgusting behaviour with simply saying not to go. It implicitly suggests that those objecting are overreacting and out to spoil it for everyone else.
audrey apple’s last blog post..Dirty Girls and the Folk What Hate Them
Oh dear …. I find it depressing from the point of view that these women must have an extraordinarily low self-esteem to allow themselves to be showcased in such a way.
It’s not surprising that any event that draws a majority male crowd is going to have semi-naked women prancing about – even supposed business lunches like those put on by CUB have lots of scantily clad women running about. I question why business WOMEN would go to these events knowing what will be on display.
But even more disappointing than the behaviour of a paid “dancer” is the behaviour exhibited by the Schoolies on the coast last year. My god the parents of those girls must be proud! THIS is the sort of thing we need to be addressing.
Men are men – fundamentally nothing’s changed since the caveman. But women carrying on like this is where the real shame lies IMHO.
Just because we’re not surprised by it Dave, it doesn’t mean we should just shrug it off and accept it. It was suppose to be a car show, not a titty bar. And it must be remembered that kids were allowed to enter this event.
Dave’s bias: for those of you who don’t know, Dave is on the board of Electronic Frontiers Australia, a civil liberties group.
Maybe I’m more pressimistic about it — I’ve always assumed SummerNats to be the sort of event that would feature strippers both amateur and professional, and a lot of sexist louts shouting “show your tits”. But then, I’ve never been – maybe its getting worse, maybe I’m just showing my bias.
I agree with you tigtog. We still have such a long way to go, don’t we? Very depressing.
I find these situations unutterably depressing. This is just the latest in a slew of such harassments of women attending allegedly “family friendly” sporting events.