The Stun Spoof Porn Paper

TSSA - the union for people in transport and travel

"Display of offensive pictures, posters or written material "

"A procedure designed to deal with complaints of sexual harassment should be regarded as only one component of a strategy to deal with the problem. The prime objective should be to change behaviour and attitudes, to seek to ensure the prevention of sexual harassment."

Second Letter to Boris Johnson

Since the mayor hasn't replied. I thought I'd write again:

mayor@london.gov.uk

Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 7:54 PM

subject Re: Publicly viewing pornographic material on London Transport.

Dear Boris Johnson,

Again, I am asking for you to consider the effect that men viewing pornographic material on public transport, without censure, has on female passenger's sense of safety and inclusion.

Women live in constant fear, whether consciously or not, of rape, sexual harassment or sexual assault, especially when we are travelling alone. In my personal experience I have had a number of intimidating experiences from men on public transport including harassment and feeling 'cornered', unwanted physical contact and lecherous behaviour. My experiences are not exceptional - just ask any woman you know.

You have given funding to rape crisis centres, which is a small comfort, but considering that only 5% of reported rapes end in a conviction, there are many rapists wandering London, freely able to commit their crimes again, knowing they would be incredibly unlucky to have to pay for their crime. Funding rape crisis centres does nothing to prevent further attacks, it only lessens the traumatic aftermath of having been raped.

I have written to the London Assembly and Andrew Boff assured me that he knows "the Mayor takes the issue of violence against women very seriously and [he] would be happy to forward on any suggestions [I] may have to make London a safer place for women to live."

I ask you to take a stronger stance on the prevention of sexual harassment, humiliation, intimidation, sex-assault and rape of women, firstly by examining the links between the sexual objectification of women, the open tolerance for men arousing themselves publicly by sexually objectifying women in pornography, the sexual crimes against women and the fear of rape women experience.

The commonality that all these things above share, is a disrespect for women and a culture that implies that men's wishes take priority over women's wishes, male sexual indulgance and expression takes priority over women's safety and dignity.

You may ask "what difference does it make if we ban porn on public transport, or class the viewing of it on public transport as anti-social behaviour and campaign accordingly against it- afterall men who harass, sexually assault/rape women are different from 'normal' men and they will do it anyway?".

It would make a huge difference. Primarily because it would increase women's sense of belonging and safety on public transport. Secondly it would encourage passengers to challenge men who are behaving disrespectfully towards women including brazenly arousing themselves with porn in front of them, and also encourage them to intervene if a woman appears to be harassed. Thirdly, it would put out a strong message that the disrespectful treatment of women is not acceptable, to the very men who behave in a callous way towards women. Fourthly, it would help women to feel that the law and politicians are on their side.

Leaving this behaviour un-challenged puts out the exact opposite message, simply by its absence. Surely this is more important than 'not eating smelly food'? Is there any reason why women should have to put up with men viewing imagery that would not be tolerated in the workplace on public transport?

Please could you explain your reasons for non-action on this issue

Yours sincerely...

If you feel similarly outraged that behaviour that is no longer acceptable in the workplace (ogling over porn or displaying it the the form of calenders, etc) yet women are expected to put up with this on public transport, please join me in writing to the Mayor, TFL, the London Assembly and/or your local MP to complain.

Together we can change things!!!

My Letter to Harriet Harman

I'd like to thank all the people who have commented or emailed so far to support me in this cause. Cause a Stir -I've taken up your suggestion to try to get the support of female politicans and written to the Minister for Women herself. Deborah, I have quoted from your comment... I hope you don't mind.

Big kisses

The Bug

Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 5:32

Gender Inequality on Public Transport

harmanh@parliament.uk

Dear Harriet Harman

I would firstly like to thank you on your stance on tackling demand for prostitution as this has been a cornerstone for gender inequality. While men are free to buy the use of womens bodies for sexual gratification including womens intimate sexual and reproductive organs-, all the while knowing that they are not breaking any laws (as long as they do not curb-crawl), they can be left with the impression that the world is a sexual playground for men where women are their amusements. As you yourself have emphasised, in the case of buying sexual use of the bodies of trafficked women, this culture leads directly to rape. This is a profound expression of gender-inequality - to have a culture that allows one sex to pay money to rape and abuse the bodies of the other sex.

In order to bring about true gender equality, the 'boys-clubs' of power must be changed to firstly include women, then become more welcoming environments for women by changing their andro-centric cultures so as not to exclude women. Great strides have been made in this direction. The workplace is no longer seen a sexual playground for men. We now have sexual harassment and equal opportunity legislation. It is no longer acceptable to put up pornographic calenders or imagery in the workplace. Since men now know that they are not allowed to put up sexist imagery of women or sexually harass women at work, cultures of the workplace are becoming less andro-centric and women feel entitled to expect respectful treatment whilst at work.

However the world is very different when a woman leaves her place of work and takes public transport to get home.

Currently on public transport there are stickers up saying "please give up your seat", poster campaigns saying "do not play your music too loud" and laws that make it illegal to smoke or consume alcohol, yet strangely nothing to suggest that it is anti-social for men to arouse themselves in public by using porn, and nothing to suggest that men should be considerate about the images they are exposing other passengers to and nothing at all on sexual harassment. In other words there is no indication to suggest to men that public transport, like the workplace is not their sexual playground, it is in fact a place where women belong just as much as them, and where women should be respected and be free from sexual-harassment and intimidation. This suggests that TFL are doing nothing to challenge an andro-centric culture which humiliates and threatens women who must travel alongside their male passengers. Being a public service, public transport is an unacceptable arena for such gender inequality in 2008.

As The Star, The Sun, Nuts, Zoo, etc become more explicit and prolific in their images of women in states of undress and sexual invitation, female passengers have to increasingly face a daily offensive of pornographic imagery, while men can quite proudly look at these images, arousing themselves. As a result, public transport is turning into something similar to a 'boys-club' culture where women have to simply swallow their offence (otherwise they cannot get home or to work), just as she once had to do in the workplace. I have created a blog http://nomorepornonlondontransport.blogspot.com/ to raise awareness on this issue. One woman commented on the blog that "I've also been intimidated by men reading porn on the tube - in one case even being followed off the tube by one man who was looking at some pretty hardcore stuff while in the carriage with me".

It is considered indecent exposure for a person to expose their primary or secondary sexual organs on public transport, yet considered 'normal' to expose passengers to indecent images on the printed page - this is an unacceptable double-standard. Just yesterday morning I was standing on the Piccadilly Line and a man sat quite brazenly beneath me with the Page 3 spread, right under my gaze. I said "Excuse me, could you cover that up please" and he became quite flustered and immediately turned the page. His reaction was that he knew the image was offensive to women, but he was surprised that he was being challenged. This proves that there is a culture of sexual inequality on public transport otherwise he would not have been surprised by my challenge at all.

I am writing to you as The Minister for Women, because I hope that you might support me. I am campaigning for either an outright ban on viewing/exposing others to porn on London transport, or strong guidelines in the form of sticker/poster campaigns to expose this behaviour for what it is: anti-social. I have already written to TFL and Boris Johnson on the matter but am waiting for a reply.

Yours sincerely.....

If you feel similarly outraged that behaviour that is no longer acceptable in the workplace (ogling over porn or displaying it the the form of calenders, etc) yet women are expected to put up with this on public transport, please join me in writing to the Mayor, TFL, the London Assembly and/or your local MP to complain.

Together we can change things!!!

My Letter To Boris Johnson

After writing to the London Assembly to ask them to pressure Boris Johnson to choose advisors who represent the diversity of London, only one London Assembly member wrote back. It was the Conservative Andrew Boff. Although he was dismissive of my belief that women are the best people to advise on womens issues, he did say "I know the Mayor takes the issue of violence against women very seriously and I would be happy to forward on any suggestions you may have to make London a safer place for women to live". I was inspired to write the following email to the Mayor as well as a similar email to Transport for London:

mayor@london.gov.uk

Publicly viewing pornographic material on London Transport.

Dear Boris Johnson

Yesterday on the 106 Bus in Hackney on the way to work, I sat next to someone who was looking at the Star newspaper. On the front it had a very large picture of a sexually provocative woman in stocking and suspenders. I asked him to cover it as I did not want to see his pornography. He was unable to hide it because every effort to fold it or hold it a different way exposed me to another pornographic image of a woman. I found this very distressing as I do not want to see such material that should only be viewed in private. It is intimidating sitting on the same carriage/bus as a man when you are aware he is deliberately arousing himself by viewing this pornography even if it falls into the misleadingly benign category of 'soft-porn' - this includes page 3 of The Sun. It feels very disrepectful to the other passengers, especially women. Also, it is considered a form of child sexual abuse to expose children to pornography, yet someone viewing such material in public gives no thought to this. This situation is entirely commonplace, and it is only recently I have developed the courage to start confronting people about it.

We have the crime of 'indecent exposure' to stop people exposing their primary and secondary sexual organs to the public. This protects us from intimidation and distress, however there is no law to stop us being exposed to indecent images on the printed page. I feel that you should make an effort to ban the viewing of porn on public transport, or at least provide guidelines of acceptability, such as for men to cover it in brown paper for example, making sure that no other passengers are exposed to it.

There are public transport campaigns to 'give up your seat', to 'not eat smelly food', etc, yet I notice a glaring lack of advice to transport users to prevent this anti-social behaviour, which makes me and I'm sure many other women feel very uncomfortable.

You recently banned alcohol from being consumed on the tube, which did not really affect me (I feel more intimidated when groups of loud, already drunken men enter, than I do when there is a solitary alcoholic sipping away on a can), so it is obvious that you do prioritise the comfort and safety of passengers on buses and trains in the capital. Please could you bring this insidious but corrosive 'normality' to a halt. As The Sun, The Sunday Sport, The Star, Nuts, Zoo etc, are becoming increasingly explicit, whilst trying to market themselves as newspapers/magazines no different from any other, public exposure to pornography is now a pretty much daily experience for public transport users. Please do not leave this anti-social behaviour unchallenged. Public transport is for women too.

Yours Sincerely....


If you feel similarly outraged that behaviour that is no longer acceptable in the workplace (ogling over porn or displaying it the the form of calenders, etc) yet women are expected to put up with this on public transport, please join me in writing to the Mayor, TFL, the London Assembly and/or your local MP to complain.

Together we can change things!!!