Archive for February, 2011
Feb
23
And it has nothing to do with € 145 billion (+/-), or job creation, or any of that other boring stuff.
Oh no.
Grafton street this morning:
In the midst of putting up the ‘Labortion’ posters, they seem to have remembered that there is indeed another important issue:
The ‘Labortion’ party wants marriage equality too!
That allowing gay people to marry is bad is seemingly self-explanatory, so they just slapped up a piece of an article.
Next week’s slogan: ‘A vote for Labour is a vote for Satan.’
Tagged: Abortion, Anti-choice, LGBT, Marriage equality, Politics, Pro-life
Feb
17
Last week I wrote a post about the UCC Tramps ball after receiving an email from a UCC student branding the event sexist.
Opening the feminist.ie email yesterday, I was delighted to find the below email from the UCC equality officer (whom I sent a link to the blog post):
“Please see below the reply from the Entertainments Manager and Officer.
“I am writing to reply to the issues raised with regards to the UCC Students Union Tramps Ball 2011. Having reviewed the text and tenure of the advertising for this event the Students Union has decided to cease all association with Tramps Ball in the Savoy 17-02-11.
We are in the process of having the Facebook page promoting the event closed down. We have asked the Deputy President of the SU to have all references to the Tramps Ball in the Savoy removed from the www.collegeroad.ie website.
We are removing the event from the Raise and Give Week entertainments itinerary. We expect to have all of these measures completed by close of business today ( Feb 15th).
We deeply regret any offence or upset caused and will do all in our power that there will not be a recurrence of this.”
It’s brilliant to see that the issue has been raised and dealt with. A decision Trinity could definitely learn from.
Tagged: naked for charity, Sexism, sexist college events, Sexualised society, Trinity College, University College Cork
Feb
11
Sexist ad of the year, brought to you by AA Patrol. From today’s MetroHerald.
Tagged: Gender stereotyping, Sexism, Sexist ads
Feb
09
Looks like students at UCC and Trinity have equally poor taste when it comes to organising events.
And it looks like staff and boards members (and indeed the equality committee) of UCC, like Trinity, don’t seem particularly bothered by the fact that their own and their employer’s name is associated with events featuring playboy strippers, photo booths with playboy bunnies, strip shows, and strippers playboy parties.
And as if the above stripping galore wasn’t enough for one week, they’ve managed to squeeze in the inevitable naked calendar for charity as well.
Tagged: naked for charity, Sexism, sexist college events, Sexualised society, University College Cork
Feb
02
‘Turn Off The Red Light‘, a campaign to end sex trafficking and sexual exploitation in Ireland, was launched in Dublin today.
The main goal of the campaign is to reform Irish legislation on prostitution.
The more than 30 groups running the campaign, including Ruhama, Immigrant Council of Ireland, ICTU and Barnardos believe that the best way to end prostitution is to tackle the demand.
By criminialising the people who buy sex, rather than the ones who sell it, the high numbers of trafficked and prostituted people will decrease, according to the members of the alliance.
David Begg, General Secretary of ICTU said “Having legislation in place that says we, as a society, do not believe it is acceptable for someone to buy another’s body for sexual gratification, exploiting the poverty, past history of abuse or limited life choices of the person being bought, would send a very clear message that we are a society committed to equality”.
The approach of targeting buyers has proved successful in Sweden, Norway and Iceland. According to Ruhama, the number of people exploited in street prostitution in Sweden has halved since such legislation was introduced in 1999. The organisation also highlighted the powerful fact that Barcelona and Stockholm, two European cities with approximately 1.5 m citizens each, have respectively 20,000 and 200 women involved in street prostitution.
Last year, the UN identified Ireland as a destination country for victims of trafficking.
Mr Cunningham, (Chair, Immigrant Council of Ireland) said: “Our current approach to tackling sex trafficking is not working. Women and children continue to be trafficked into prostitution in Ireland because it remains profitable. Tackling the demand for commercial sex that makes prostitution profitable for pimps and traffickers is the key to preventing exploitation.”
A high number of people attended the launch, and the feedback was unanimously positive.
If this initiative is successful, Ireland could, together with some of the Nordic countries, be a fantastic role model for the fight against prostitution and sex trafficking.
Tagged: Legislation, Legislation on prostitution, Prostitution, Trafficking, Violence against women
