Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2013 08:09 AM PDT
The recent BBC Three documentary Sex, Stags and Prague claimed to uncover the ‘darker side’ of Prague, and enlighten us to ‘what really goes on’ during a stag weekend in the Czech capital. The modern manifestation of the stag do is, in some respects, a natural corollary – or perhaps the older brother – of ‘lad’ culture. Or, if you prefer, objectification, degradation, tacit acceptance of rape and violence and plain old sexism dressed up under an achingly transparent cloak of ‘banter’. The much-maligned stag events of popular culture; the mankinis, the excessive boozing, the strip clubs, the noise, the vomit and the sexism, are anathema to many, but they have recently taken centre stage and are seen as the accepted version of what men do on their ‘do’. If some press coverage was to be believed, this documentary promised to confirm our worst fears. A certain stalwart of manufactured tabloid outrage immediately latched onto some generalised and sensationalised sound bites from the programme and blew them up to screamingly disproportionate levels. If such coverage was accurate, all British ‘stags’ in Prague pay for sex. And, if we stretch credulity, British men now get their thrills from a little known but burgeoning new extreme sport: having unprotected sex with a woman they know to be infected with HIV, and subsequently experiencing the adrenaline pumping thrill of waiting for their test results back home. Obviously, if this is a genuine phenomenon, and young men really do equate this to ‘bungee jumping’, as one Czech-based NGO worker described it, then things are worse than we thought. In 2013 there is a possibility that men are willing to risk their own health, and that of others, due to either a starkly uneducated attitude to sexual health or an intake of alcohol so high they genuinely have no conception of risk. It is certainly the case that incidents of HIV infection have risen in the Czech Republic in recent times and this has largely been attributed to a lack of government funding for prevention and education services. It was unclear whether the woman interviewed for this documentary was referring to ‘stag’ tourists when she spoke of the apparent lack of concern for HIV contraction, or whether this is something more localised; a symptom of the funding and cultural crisis within, and contained within, the country itself. However I am, at the best of times, a sceptic, and so rather than bin a whole generation of young men I decided to first watch the documentary and try and peel away the facts from the sensation. There was first the task of ignoring what seemed to be presenter Stacey Dooley’s tabloid-baiting raison d’etre: repeating what has been said to her but with a whiff of what could be called ‘wonky reasoning’. At one point she said: "I’m not saying all stag dos are like this but some stags are [a brothel's] best customers. That is a fact". Dooley also claimed the sex workers are "always asked to have sex without a condom a fair amount of the time". Beyond this, what initially struck me was that stag do revellers behaved – or were presented as behaving – exactly as expected. There were the appalling ‘comedy’ outfits; the drunken, pack-like mentality; the abhorrent clamouring for ‘tits’; and the whiff of entitlement (‘I’m in a foreign country so I’m naturally going to ‘get’ lots of sex’). Nothing nice, but nothing new. This side of the programme left me, while wishing to avoid both pessimism and moralising, feeling faintly depressed that this is how some men behave, but at the same time wondering how many of them really enjoy it, and if the cultural pressure and expectation to act like a ‘lad’ has eclipsed the reality. Possibly the target demographic of a BBC Three documentary wasn’t quite ready for an analysis of expected gender roles, the cumulative and cultural impact of casual misogyny and the pressure of the pack. The documentary did, however, leave ample space for Prague’s sex workers to speak for themselves – often a rarity in depictions of and debates about sex work. Stacey Dooley’s self-effacing, wide-eyed interview technique did seem to elicit honest responses from the women she spoke with. However, she seemed to fall into the trap of the small-scale sample, presenting the few women she spoke to as representative of sex workers in general, veering towards presenting a homogenised view of sex work in Prague. This ran counter to what seemed to be a very subtle overarching theme of the programme: the humanising of women engaged in sex work. Albeit only after seeing one woman, Lara, removed from the surroundings in which she worked and in a ‘domestic setting’ at home, Dooley did reach the epiphany that ‘she’s just like us in so many ways’. Dooley wondered whether the British men watching at home would see this and think ‘actually she is somebody’s girlfriend, she is somebody’s mother’; a point that, frustratingly, wasn’t pursued. Those against sex-work suggest that the very act of purchasing sex commodifies and thus dehumanises the sex worker; something hard to protest against when faced with punter review websites such as those Dooley trawled through on the programme, where women are graded and rated. In the context of British men on a stag do it would be interesting to know whether, alongside the othering that may occur as a part of the sex-for-money transaction, the nationality of the women – foreign, so ‘not-me’ – and the unreal state of suspension fostered by a drunken weekend in a foreign city add to a man’s willingness to see women as available for their pleasure, and not as ‘real’ women. Having said this, it would also have been pertinent to remind Dooley that continually referring to a group of probably very disparate women engaged in sex work as ‘prostitutes’ is equally dehumanising. While we’re on that topic, perhaps a word in her ear saying "if my boyfriend got carried away and found himself having sex with a prostitute and then came home and had sex with me and gave me an STI I’d be devastated" is whoreaphobic wouldn't have gone a miss either. This is indicative of how patchy the approach to sex work was in this documentary, and added to the lack of coherency about what it was trying – or wanted – to say. Dooley’s ‘investigation’ did, perhaps unknowingly, seemed to traverse both sides of the sex work debate. The women at one strip club tell her it is a job, and ‘they wouldn’t do it if they didn’t want to’, leading Dooley to conclude the women are ‘reasonably happy with the set up’. The pressures of the labour market in a middle-income country mean that many sex workers can earn three or four times the amount they could in many other jobs. Whether this is gendered economic coercion or a sensible choice in a free-market economy was clearly not a subject for this documentary. Similarly, due to the pressures of an economy subsisting largely on the profits of tourism, Prague’s local businesses have what could be termed an ‘antagonistic toleration’ of British stag dos; their behaviour may be notoriously bad, but they spend notoriously well. So the urine and the vomit and the nakedness is a necessary evil. Dooley did, though, make the salient point about the potentially crowded market of Prague’s sex industry, worrying that the proliferation of sex workers could lead to prices being driven down, and sex workers feeling forced to do things they might not necessarily want to do, or feel comfortable with. The introduction of 19 year-old Lucy, who works 18 hours a day in a small room that forms part of Showpark, a sprawling ‘adult entertainment complex’ just outside of Prague’s centre, brought us to the other side of the coin. The managers of the complex were a shadowy presence during the interview, refusing to let Lucy speak except in their presence. When Lucy was asked what she didn’t like about her job, she hesitated and then looked askance off-camera, saying ‘I can’t say you know what’. We then hear a manager tell her ‘you have to say you work nights and get tired’. I suppose saying you don’t like having sex with the customers is bad for business. This level of engineering and control was disturbing, and chimes with one report from Bliss without Risk, an organisation originally set up to provide sexual health services to trafficked women, which estimated that 70 per cent of a sex worker’s earnings are retained by the brothel owners. Lucy is very definite that she did not work for Showpark because she liked it, and revealed that she got into debt while homeless, and is working there to pay back this debt. If ever there was a case for the concept of ‘choice’ being meaningless in the context of many sex worker’s lives Lucy’s assertion that "It was my decision to do this as I simply didn’t have any other choice" makes it well. While recognising that some women enter sex work freely and autonomously, I wonder how punters could ever know this. I wonder whether, if the stag ‘lads’ were shown Lucy’s distaste for her work, or saw Lara at home, or were informed that some women working in brothels are trafficked, beaten or otherwise forced into this lifestyle by horrendous life events, if they would even care. As sensationalist as Sex, Stags and Prague aimed to be, it told us nothing new about stag dos, or the cult of masculinity or about men’s attitudes to sex workers. In fact it probably conformed to our opinions, which is possibly part of the problem.  |
| Posted: 15 Oct 2013 03:00 AM PDT
Triathlon: Britain’s women put in an extremely strong performance at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii on October 12. Britain’s Rachel Joyce came in second, covering the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycle and 26.2 mile run in a time of 8 hours 57 minutes 28 seconds. Fellow Brit Liz Blatchford finished third with a time of 9:03:35. Defending champion Leanda Cave came in 13th place, but Jodie Swallow did not finish. The race was won by Australia’s Mirinda Carfrae, whose time of 8:52:14 broke the world record previously held by Britain’s Chrissie Wellington. Cycling: Newly-elected UCI chief Brian Cookson, who campaigned on a platform including the development of women's cycling, has lost no time in announcing several new measures to implement his manifesto. Speaking ahead of the Tour of Beijing, Cookson confirmed that the UCI would remove the age limit of 28 currently in place for women's cycling teams, and would set up a commission to help support the growth of women's cycling. The UCI also announced this week that the women's Tour of Britain, which will take place for the first time in May, has been given the same status as the men's race. The race is to be categorised 2.1, the third of four categories available to elite road races. This makes it one of the highest rated women's races in the world, and will allow it to attract the best riders. Football: Following the departure of long-time coach Hope Powell last month, it was announced this week that interim coach Brent Hills is to continue in his role for England's next two World Cup qualifiers. The Football Association confirmed on October 9 that is had deferred appointing a new permanent head coach until after the team's fixtures against Wales and Turkey later this month. Tennis: British women's tennis endured another bad week, as first Heather Watson and then Laura Robson lost in the first round at the Japan Open in Tokyo. Defending champion Watson fell in straight sets to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico on October 7, 6-4, 6-4. After a run of strong form at the end of the 2012 season, including her first tournament victory a year ago , the British number two has struggled to regain her momentum after a bout of glandular fever earlier this year. British number one Robson followed Watson out of the tournament the very next day, losing 6-4, 6-4 to Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm. Robson reached the quarter finals at Wimbledon in June, but has since failed to progress past the fourth round at any tournament.  |
| It is up to us all to shout back Posted: 15 Oct 2013 01:09 AM PDT
A season kick-started by Sinead O'Connor's epistles to Miley Cyrus, and continuing last week with Laura Bates of EverdaySexism giving five reasons why men shouldn't shout at women in the street. In the same spirit, here's a missive not just to the gobby yobs but to everyone who happens to walk down a road. Dear Everyone (Including the bloke who just yelled: “Get yer tits out for the lads” at a passing school girl), Here's five reasons why blokes shouldn't randomly hurl abuse when a woman happens to come into view: 1. It's threatening 2. It's abusive 3. It objectifies 4. It stereotypes 5. It tells everyone that you are complete prick Now having made these points, it should be enough to sign off 'yours sincerely', convinced the message has got across. But it hasn't, and it won't for many a decade. This is not a case of women requiring "rescuing" by the bobby on the beat, or avoiding walking in certain places at certain times, or even given "protection" by some legislation drafted by a parliamentary committee. It's not about women covering up so they don't attract such comments. All these measures would mean a loss of freedom and an acceptance that this behaviour is 'part and parcel' of life. Instead, it's going to need the will of us all to bring about a seismic shift in society’s attitudes. This is one area where we really are in it together, including the blokes who never shout at women (but probably never shout back at the men who do either). Because a society that promotes fear and loathing among the genders is not one where equality, culture, compassion, open debate, political discourse and love can easily flourish (not to mention the economic impact on sidelining half the population). Seismic shifts have a habit of starting small. Just look how the action of Rosa Parkes challenged racism. We can all take steps such as email-bombing the Daily Mail with complaints every time they use the words "walk of shame" when reporting on a female celebrity being papped after a raucous night out. That is just slut-shaming wrapped up in the Mail's tittering prose which tries to pass as middle-England/Middle America respectability. Other small steps include offering support when you witness a female enduring harassment in the street. Objectification has got to stop because Generation Z (that's our kids) think it is normal. It is normal to switch on to TV music channel and get wall-to-wall coverage on a 40-inch screen of young women gyrating seamlessly 24-hours a day, every day. It is now normal for six-year-old kids to watch this stuff as they spoon in their breakfast Cheerios. It is normal for Robin Thicke to reinforce rape myths in his best-selling single Blurred Lines. On Tuesday this week Object and UK Feminista, who are heading the Lose the Lads Mags campaign, are holding a meeting in Parliament to directly call on Tesco, who say they don’t stock adult magazines, to stop selling Zoo and Nuts. At this meeting Polly Neate of Women’s Aid will show statistics backing the idea that the impact of lads mags encourages sexual hostility and – ultimately – violence. Tesco would be standing by their female staff and female customers if they agreed to stop selling these two magazines. For every little helps in this ongoing fight to stop the tide of misogyny and sexual harassment surging forth on to the streets where our sisters and daughters walk each day. Yours sincerely.  |
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