2017-02-21
Caroline Le Couteur
I often visit my daughter and granddaughter in Byron Bay, where Wicked Camper Vans are a regular sight. I have always been horrified and repulsed by them, and concerned that my granddaughter will normalise their violent, misogynist, racist and homophobic messages. In particular, I worry about the negative messages she and her friends may internalise about being female and the standards of behaviour from men they may come to accept.
That is why I am pleased and relieved that my colleague Shane Rattenbury, as ACT Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety, last week took a stand against Wicked Campers and the attitudes they promote — outdated attitudes which have no place in our community, harm our women and distort the perspectives of our men. From now on, vehicles de-registered in other states for bearing offensive slogans such as those displayed on Wicked Campers cannot be registered in the ACT.
There are currently no Wicked vehicles registered in Canberra, and these laws will help keep them out. These arrangements will support Queensland, whose parliament passed a law on Wednesday to de-register vehicles with "inappropriate" words or pictures if the messages were not removed. Tasmania and Victoria have also signalled their intentions to follow suit, and adopt similar laws to the ACT.
In this way, Canberra is continuing to show leadership with a commitment to challenge attitudes that underpin domestic, family, and sexual violence against women. It is well known that the attitudes casually displayed by Wicked Campers play a large part when it comes to this kind of violence. According to Our Watch, the most consistent predictor for support of violence by men is their agreement with sexist attitudes.
It's no joke
Sexist jokes reflect and reinforce sexist attitudes.
They excuse and perpetuate the gender stereotyping and discrimination against women that underpins violence. And if no one speaks up when a sexist comment or joke is made, it sends the message that this behaviour is ok.
So we are speaking up to protect women. Across the nation, as many as one in three women have experienced physical violence and almost one in five have experienced sexual violence from the age of 15. There can be no doubt that slogans and images suggesting kidnapping, gaffer-taping and taking advantage of women who are intoxicated are promoting sexual and general violence against women, as well as insidious misogyny. I don't think Canberrans want to see this misogyny here on vehicles.
While it's important to protect freedom of speech, it's not ok to encourage men to think that women are on this planet only for their benefit and enjoyment. If we want to live in a society that is peaceful, respectful and places value on the safety and the bodily integrity each of us has a right to, then we must take a stand against the type of attitudes Wicked Campers represent.
Caroline Le Couteur is the Greens MLA for Murrumbidgee