Back in 2013, after a supporter alerted us to rapper Tyler, The Creator's lyrics glorifying rape and extreme violence against women, we called on Immigration to revoke his visa for his upcoming tour. While we were not successful at this time, Tyler, The Creator's abuse of one of our young activists at his Sydney concert led to New Zealand barring him from entry the following year. In 2015, prior to his Australian tour, we again called on Immigration to act, and Tyler, The Creator posted a tweet claiming he had been banned from Australia, tagging our Operations Manager Coralie Alison and citing her as being responsible. As a result, Coralie was inundated with abuse and violent threats from Tyler, The Creator's followers.

Last month, Tyler, The Creator returned to Australia to perform again. Collective Shout Campaigns Manager Caitlin Roper provided comment in the Daily Telegraph.

Tyler The Creator finishes tour in Australia despite lyrics rapping about raping and murdering women

Despite being stopped from entering Australia in 2015, rapper Tyler, The Creator has just completed a successful three-show tour across the country.

US rapper Tyler Okonma, 28, was targeted by women’s rights group Collective Shout in 2015 ahead of a proposed Australian tour for his violent misogynistic lyrics, which include graphic descriptions of rape and murder.

Some of his most disturbing lyrics include: “I just wanna drag your lifeless body to the forest and fornicate with it,” “Rape a pregnant bitch and tell my friends I had a threesome,” “You call this shit rape but I think that rape’s fun,” and “Punches to the stomach where that bastard kid supposed to be.”

Tyler, The Creator just finished an Australian tour.

Collective Shout campaigns manager Caitlin Roper said the group was “disappointed, but unfortunately not surprised” Okonma was permitted to tour the country.

“It says that women and girls don’t matter very much.”

***

Many musicians regret their early music and even strike certain songs from their discography if they no longer align with their adult beliefs.

For example, Paramore removed their song Misery Business from their live shows despite it being the group’s most popular song.

However Okonma has never made any statement separating himself from his controversial lyrics.

“A lot of Tyler the Creator’s fans claim he has evolved as an artist, that he has changed, but we haven’t seen any evidence of this,” Ms Roper said.

“If there is genuine self-reflection and change, I think this is generally accompanied by some kind of acknowledgment or action.

“Tyler the Creator has built his career on the degradation of women, and made a lot of money in the process.”

Read more at the Daily Telegraph.

See also:

Collective Shout responds to common arguments from Tyler the Creator fans

Tyler, The Creator returns. But has true change really occurred?

We don't need to #FreeTylertheCreator- he's not a victim

For those that have been following our campaigns for a number of years you will remember that in 2015 we wrote a letter to Immigration regarding the visa application for rap artist Tyler, The Creator. A characteristic feature of his songs is retribution against women who he perceives have wronged him. For example, he sings about strangling and chopping up women who reject his sexual advances and raping their corpses. Before Immigration could make a decision Frontier Touring cancelled the Australian tour, not before Tyler incorrectly tweeted that he was banned. 

This tweet directed at one of our staff, Coralie Alison, led to mass online abuse from all around the world. So much so that her name was trending in 6 continents and the global head of Twitter's internet safety personally phoned her to check on her wellbeing. 

"I'd love to hear that he's changed and that he has something to say about it, because I haven't forgotten," says activist Coralie Alison from Collective Shout.

"Based on the continual threats I have coming through, even four years down the track, it's not something that just went away for me."

"I had to go to the police about it and there were people trying to track down where I lived, trying to threaten relatives and family members. I still haven't seen Tyler call out his fans to condemn that behaviour," says Alison.

"We got confirmation from Immigration at the time that they never got to make a decision," says Alison. "We were in correspondence with Immigration so we know for a fact that he was never officially banned.

"It's unfortunate because his tweet led to a lot of abuse, and it didn't have to be that way."

"A lot of people really look up to him and admire him, so he could use that to channel a positive message – in particular in Australia, where violence against women is still at epidemic rates," she says.

"I would love to see him speak out against those extremely violent and misogynistic songs that he created in his early days. And if he acknowledges the harm those songs can do, then I'd love to see him remove them from Spotify and Apple Music.

"Because if he's still profiting off that music and those lyrics, then he's still complicit in advocating the message those songs portray. And if he is still allowing those lyrics to influence young people, has true change really occurred?"

Read the full article in The Sydney Morning Herald here.

This Wicked Campervan was spotted in Brisbane last week with Victorian licence plates:

(pic: Boycott Wicked Campers Facebook)

Under existing laws, there is nothing to prevent this. Even when Ad Standards upholds complaints- as it has against Wicked Campers more than eighty times - they have no authority to enforce rulings, and there are no penalties for repeat offenders.

Collective Shout is calling for uniform laws across the country to deregister Wicked Campers if it does not abide Ad Standards rulings. Tasmania, ACT and Queensland have already passed these laws, but we still need MPs to enact similar legislation in Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, where a private members bill by MP Katrine Hilydard has received overwhelming support.

Just last month, the federal Minister for Women Kelly O’Dwyer called for a national response against Wicked Campers’ “sexist, misogynist and offensive slogans”, writing to state and territory ministers seeking their urgent support.

Also in March, festival promoter Adrian Buckley announced that Wicked Campers would be banned from Wollombi music festival. We welcomed this news, and are calling on other music festivals to do the same.

Splendour in the grass
Rainbow Serpent
Woodford
Big Pineapple

See also:

Petition: Drive Wicked Campers off the Road

Wollombi bans Wicked Campers. Others must do the same

Federal Minister for Women Kelly O'Dwyer calls for national response to Wicked Campers

WARNING: Graphic content

*Content warning- extreme sexual violence*

“You think about how nice it would be to die. But then you think about how nice it would be to rape Kristina or Ashley before you die.”

Set to be released in April on gaming platform Steam, Rape Day is a game that allows users to assume the persona of a sociopath who rapes women during a zombie apocalypse. Developers describe the content as including violence, sexual assault, non-consensual sex (which is more accurately described as rape), obscene language, necrophilia and incest.

The game features a range of scenarios where the male persona preys on and rapes naked women with cartoonish large breasts, who are positioned as vulnerable and depicted frightened, screaming and in pain. In a scene where the man rapes a non-responsive woman, text appears on the screen: “Because she is no longer struggling against you, you grow bored.” In another scenario, the man puts a gun in a woman’s mouth, threatening to “blow [her] brains all over the dirt” and rape her corpse.

A preview of the game on Steam, including the pornographic and sexually violent content described above, was visible to users aged from 13. Steam’s negligence in exposing children to this disturbing content was further showcased in a brief disclaimer at the bottom of the page that read, “This game is marked as ‘adult only’. You are seeing this game because you have agreed to continue to this page.”

In response to backlash over the game’s blatant promotion of rape and violence against women, distributor Valve pulled the game from the platform. Valve issued a weak, vague statement explaining their reasons for withdrawing the game. At no point did Valve condemn any of the sexually violent material, content that would be illegal under Australia’s classification laws. Instead, their decision to pull the game appears to have more to do with protecting their financial interests than any objection to violence against women:

“After significant fact-finding and discussion, we think ‘Rape Day’ poses unknown costs and risks and therefore won’t be on Steam.”

While it’s good news that Rape Day has been withdrawn from Steam, how was this game allowed in the first place? How long was this horrific content visible to children before it was removed? And will it be hosted somewhere else?

Back in 2009, a similar game 'Rapelay' which allowed users to simulate the rape of a mother and her two daughters, was banned after a single complaint by Collective Shout co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist. 

In our work against the sexual exploitation of women and girls, we highlight the connections between the sexualisation and objectification of women and girls, and real life violence against them. We cannot address an epidemic of men’s violence against women and simultaneously treat violence against women as a source of entertainment. 

'Humour' that demeans women and trivialises family violence is not funny

‘Porn is presenting rough sex and anal sex as something normal, and teenage boys are learning from their screens that it often involves violence and humiliation’ – Nikki Gemmell

How encouraging to read the concerns a number of us have been attempting to raise for close on a decade now, in our national broadsheet The Australian.

Wicked Campers slammed in South Australian Parliament

The following is taken from the Second Reading of the Motor Vehicles (Offensive Advertising) Amendment Bill in South Australia. The Hon Zoe Bettison, member for Ramsay, spoke in support of proposed legislation to deregister Wicked Campers if they do not abide Ad Standards rulings:

I rise this morning to support the Motor Vehicles (Offensive Advertising) Amendment Bill brought to this house by the member for Reynell. It is unfortunate that we have to talk about this because it seems quite simple that this is unacceptable. We want to propose reforms to the vehicle registration laws banning the registration of vehicles displaying obscene, sexist and racist messages.

We have modernised our society. We have called out violence against women, and I, personally, have worked diligently to ensure that our state is an inclusive and welcoming community that treats people with respect. That is why I am so disappointed and appalled by the harmful messages on the Wicked campervans that are freely driving around our state. Our community deserves better. Our community is better than this.

Despite South Australia being the first Australian state to grant women the vote and to stand for parliament, and the first to legally prohibit racial discrimination and sexual discrimination, currently there is nothing that prohibits these vans with offensive slogans from being on the roads of our state. Not only are they not acceptable but they should be removed immediately. Some might argue that we simply cannot see the funny side of these slogans. They are right; there is nothing funny about these slogans. Normalising violence against women and treating it as a punchline undermines all our efforts to reduce violence. They cause immediate offence and hurt across our community by perpetuating sexist attitudes that we are working tirelessly to change.

To quote our most recent former prime minister: not all disrespect ends in violence, but all violence starts with disrespect. This was an incredibly strong statement that he made because we have to call it out; whether it be in the workplace, the sporting field or down the street, that disrespecting women must end. We live in a country where one woman is killed every week by a current or former partner. We have come a long way, but there is still much work to be done. These messages undo decades of advocacy and women's empowerment and this is the kind of thing that we must make sure we stand up against in the future.

Wicked Campers promote their rental vans to backpackers and tourists who are likely to be visiting South Australia's most popular tourist destinations. While we as a state are promoting our festivals, our natural beauty, our food and wine, encouraging people to linger longer and enjoy what we love about South Australia, our visitors see these outlandish, highly visible vans at these great destinations. We are giving mixed messages to people. We are a global city. Tourism is one of our key economic drivers.

We invite tourists to come and enjoy what we love about South Australia, but in their face, in the car park, are these vans with offensive slogans. How does that match who we are? How does that match who we want to be? Think about our young boys and girls: we need to continue these messages from a very early age. We need to call out disrespect and we need to call out violence, yet we have these very visible slogans on the back of a van. How do you explain to your child that that is okay to be in public?

These are deliberately offensive slogans: 'Drink till she's pretty,' or, 'I've often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming.' These are vulgar statements. It is not just women that these are offensive to; they are offensive on many levels: sexism, racism, paedophilia. They go to the heart of the attitudes around domestic violence and violence against women. They also glamorise and trivialise drug use. In some cases, they even promote rape and murder. This is not what we want people to see when they visit South Australia. It is not what South Australians want to see in our state. A standard that we walk past is a standard that we accept.

I urge this house to support the motion and remind the house what we are supporting here: the cancellation of a vehicle's registration if it displays advertising material found to breach the code, preventing the refund of part or whole of the registration fee paid, preventing the transfer of a vehicle's registration when cancelled, preventing the renewal of registration unless the offending advertisement is removed, and purporting to prevent judicial review of the decision to cancel a vehicle's registration. This is what the bill does. But what it really does is send the strongest message that obscenity, racism and sexism is unacceptable in South Australia.

The bill has been adjourned. Read more here. Check our website for regular updates.

TAKE ACTION

Petition: Drive Wicked Campers off the road

South Australian supporters, please contact your Liberal MPs and ask them to support this bill. If you are not sure who your local member is click here and choose your district.

See also:

"Nothing says romance like choking on a ...."- Collective Shout

Bill to ban sexist Wicked Camper vans- The Mercury

Queensland Opposition calls on all states to ban Wicked Camper vans- ABC

#Winning

Collective Shout in the Sydney Morning Herald