Testimonies have also helped to create a sense of solidarity amongst women who have been exploited in the sex industry who often feel isolated in their experiences. Throughout the lap dancing campaign we were approached by former lap dancers who expressed relief at seeing the other side of the story being put forward and who wanted to share their experiences about what they consistently described as an exploitative and soul-destroying industry. After identifying a clear need for support, OBJECT has been awarded funding to work in partnership with a women’s service provider to establish provision for women who have experienced harm in the lap dancing industry.
• Partnership work
Partnering with Eaves and the Fawcett Society and building coalitions with NGOs, unions, politicians, activist groups and survivors of the sex industry has allowed us to share expertise, divide the workload and effectively reach audiences less accessible to us as a single organisation. It has also provided an inspiring model for joint working and helped establish a unified force committed to ending the sexual objectification of women.
• The importance of activism
Grassroots activism has been pivotal to OBJECT’s success as a campaigning organisation. As well as influencing policy, activism empowers the individuals and groups who take part. It ameliorates feelings of isolation and powerlessness and provides opportunities to unite and make change.
In spreading anti-porn activism, it has been important for OBJECT to set a tone that is bold and unflinching in our demands whilst providing a welcoming and uplifting experience for those involved. Creativity, visual stunts and the use of songs and chants have been instrumental in terms of making noise, taking up space, and creating a sense of solidarity which has characterised our protests and inspired ordinary people to take action.
Examples of our activism include a protest outside the lap dancing industry awards ceremony in which placard-holding OBJECT activists descended upon the red carpet queue of men in suits, banging tambourines and chanting ‘Women, Not Sex Objects!’, then enacting and filming our own awards ceremony outside the venue. We awarded the lap dancing lobby for, amongst other things, ‘promoting sexist attitudes’, and ‘the biggest misuse of the word gentlemen’ in reference to ‘Gentlemen’s Clubs’!
OBJECT’s monthly Feminist Fridays involve targeting high street retailers, writing anti-sexist slogans on brown paper bags, and covering whole displays of lads’ mags with messages such as ‘love women, hate sexism’ and ‘FHM – For Horrible Misogyny’ (see Long, Thompson, this volume). The displays are followed by songs, sit-ins, and congas as we hand out leaflets and collect signatures.
Monthly activist meetings give opportunities for activists to brainstorm ideas and take ownership of campaigns whilst providing guidance to ensure that campaign messages remain consistent.
As well as organising protests and stunts, OBJECT develops diverse ways for people to get involved in campaigns. This includes devising ‘Lobby Your MP Weekends’, organising ‘National Days of Action’ to collect signatures, and producing template letters, consultation responses, toolkits and ‘Joint Statements of Support’ to facilitate individuals and NGOs to take action. Politicians and policy makers often refer to campaign actions they read about in the media, or to the number of letters they have received urging them to support our campaigns.
The power of persistent lobbying, campaigning and activism should never be underestimated!
• Use of the media
OBJECT press-releases our actions and regularly uses the media as a tool to spread awareness, garner support and help put issues on the political agenda. We have built a media contact list and made relationships with key journalists who support our work. However, when campaigning against the multi-billion pound sex industry the playing field is uneven in terms of access to media coverage. This makes utilising alternative media outlets such as online discussion groups, social networking sites, email newsletters and YouTube videos a crucial part of anti-porn activism.
Challenges
Challenging the sex industries which groom society into accepting the objectification and commercial sexual exploitation of women as normal, is threatening to those who profit and/or benefit from this multi-billion pound system and the sex-object culture that it promotes. It is therefore not surprising that there is widespread and structural opposition to feminist activism on this issue. An important part of the OBJECT campaign has been to provide arguments to counter the claims and accusations used by those who defend sex-object culture and seek to silence anti-porn activists.
This involves exposing the truth about the sex industry to challenge claims that it is ‘harmless fun’ or glamorous. It involves moving beyond arguments centred on ‘individual choice’ to provide analysis of the power imbalances and structural inequalities which influence our choices; refuting accusations of being ‘anti-sex’ by demonstrating that sex-object culture is more related to sexism than sex; challenging charges of censorship by making it clear that objecting to an industry which normalises sexual violence and discrimination against women is taking a political stand against sexism; and revealing the harms of representing women as sexual objects who are always sexually available in a society in which sexual violence is endemic and inequality between women and men is rife.
Grassroots anti-porn activism provides a powerful vehicle with which to take on and win these arguments.
Conclusion
Feminist activism means challenging the institutions, mechanisms and attitudes which promote, legitimise, and keep sexist practices and beliefs in place. The intensification of the sex industries represents a vicious backlash against gains made by the women’s movement. As anti-porn activists, we refuse to stay silent whilst women are objectified, sexualised and dehumanised.
There are important battles to be won, but our experience is that the tide is turning in favour of feminist activism. Standing united as women is vital to achieving the changes we are fighting for. This unity requires facing and challenging the oppressions which can divide us so that our diversity, as women, becomes our strength. It will be our ability as a movement to continue to grow in strength, diversity, and numbers as we continue to speak out and take action against sexism that will resoundingly put to rest the notion that feminism is dead. Our wins demonstrate the power of collective action. They show that treating women like sexual objects is neither inevitable nor unstoppable, and that there are growing numbers of women and men who are willing to stand up and object.
Get involved!
Bibliography
British Crime Survey (2005/2006). Prevalence of intimate violence by category among adults aged 16 to 59, Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence. Supplementary Volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales.