We hope you were encouraged by our recent Air Asia billboard win. Speaking out really is the language of change. I wanted to highlight a number of other positive outcomes that I hope will continue to encourage you. 

Mariner Watches have issued a formal apology after the release of some highly disturbing social media ads containing sexual violence.

"Our recent ad campaign was offensive, distasteful and an act of poor judgement. We want to ensure the public that Mariner does not promote sexism or violence against anyone and posting these pictures was a mistake that will not be made again" 

A sexually violent video game called Rape Day set to be released this month on gaming platform Steam will no longer go ahead after the distributer Valve pulled the game from the platform. 

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

And it was recently announced that a new Government directive came into force which will stop the entry to Australia of people convicted of violent crimes against women and children.

“Australia has no tolerance for perpetrators of violence against women and children,” Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs David Coleman said.

“The message is clear: if you’ve been convicted of a violent crime against women or children, you are not welcome in this country. Wherever the offence occurred, whatever the sentence – Australia has no tolerance for domestic violence perpetrators."

Collective Shout welcomes this change. After years of campaigning for the government to take a stand it is a positive step in the right direction. 

Thank you for being a part of a movement that is making the world a better place for the next generation. 

*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. 

With your support, Collective Shout has continued to challenge sexploitation at every level during 2018. It is because of our supporters all over the country (and overseas) that our collective voice and impact continues to grow so thank you and here's to keeping up the fight in 2019!

Here’s a few of the highlights from this year:

We successfully lobbied for legislation against Wicked Campers that will see vans with explicit slogans de-registered and off the road.

We were invited to collaborate in the first Australian research to examine links between advertising, equality and women’s health, conducted by Women’s Health Victoria. You can read it here.

We contributed submissions to the following government inquiries: Submission on the ​Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015 ​and Online Content Scheme Reviews and Commonwealth Modern Slavery Bill 2018.

Online shopping app ‘Wish’ pulled child sex dolls from sale following our campaign.

We rebooted our campaign against sex store chain Honey Birdette’s window ads in family shopping centres, which continues to gain momentum. Over 70,000 people have signed our petition calling on shopping centres to take action against the retailer’s porn-inspired ads.

We joined a coalition of women’s groups, survivors and academics in signing an open letter against the normalisation of sex dolls and sex robots.

Co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist was a speaker at the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation Global Summit in Washington, DC.

We exposed Frank Body for using the language of sexual harassment to promote their ‘send nudes’ cosmetic.

Our campaign calling for serial domestic abuser Charlie Sheen’s visa to be revoked received international media attention.

Collective Shout activists Melinda Liszewski and Caitlin Roper, along with co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist, gave speeches at the Australian Summit Against Sexual Exploitation at RMIT university in Melbourne.

We successfully defended our movement against legal threats from Sexpo. Sexpo had brought a law suit against Collective Shout after our campaign against Sexpo’s promotion of live-streamed porn shows on public buses. Our victory was documented in Dignity Journal.

We reached thousands of young people who are now more equipped to navigate a sexed-up world.

As always, we couldn’t do it without you! We look forward to your continued support in the new year.

If you would like to contribute financially to our work you can do so here.

Your voice does make a difference

#Winning

SONY has blocked the Western release of an 'adult role-playing game' that saw the player undress schoolgirls and fondle their breasts while on a quest for the holy grail.

The Video Standards Council (VSC) objected to its "setting within a 'school' environment”, saying it "clearly promotes the sexualisation of children via the sexual interaction between the game player and the female characters."

Collective Shout has campaigned for the end of the sexualisation of girls in pop culture, the media and mainstream marketing over the past decade. For instance, in 2016,6 Amazon was marketing a ‘Sexy Nurse Toddler T-Shirt', where the shirt had drawn in a fake cleavage, available in sizes for 2-6-year-old girls. Just recently, Collective Shout helped to remove child sex dolls from Amazon’s website. For a long time, Amazon has contributed to a culture of sexual abuse by allowing the sale of novels that normalises paedophilia. The sale of such dolls and similar material has earned Amazon a spot on the NCOSE's Dirty Dozen List for the past two years.

Naomi, a 13-year-old Melbourne student, saw this large billboard advertising DFO with the catchline: ‘Starving for Style’. She knew it was wrong, and got her Mum to contact us.

''I knew it was wrong, because it was promoting anorexia, sending a message that you need to be skinny to be fashionable, which is obviously not true!'' Naomi told me.

We called on the company to exercise Corporate Social Responsibility. Our in-house eating disorder specialist Sarah McMahon pointed out the harmful impacts of trivialising what can be a life-threatening mental health condition by associating it with fashion and style.

24 hours later, the company apologised, claimed it was an 'error', and withdrew the billboard.

Give now to help More Teens Speak Out

Growing numbers of young people are realising that they don't need to be passive victims of toxic cultural messages. They can be part of the change. Take Christie, 17, from Geelong Victoria, who writes:

''Today whilst listening to your talk, it was as though I was taking a step back and fully seeing the scale and magnitude of indoctrination and manipulation. Gender stereotypes and female exploitation have affected me and the people I know… I believe men are also victims of society’s conceptions and that their behaviours are partially due to their expected dominance / sense of entitlement. I would like to be part of the change, and I hope that I can help to spread this message to people in all aspects of my life. Thank you for dedicating your time and not being afraid to stand out.’’

Thank you to those of you who have given towards our end of financial year tax appeal. Since last Tuesday, we are over $5,500 closer to our target of $14,500.

Remember - a generous donor will match all donations received before June 30. Your $53 becomes $106 - doubling the impact. All donations over $2 are tax deductible.

Your gift today will help more young women like Naomi and Christie create cultural change in their lifetime.

Warm regards,

Melinda Tankard Reist & the Collective Shout team

Honey Birdette has been ordered to remove objectifying ads in a recent ASB ruling:

Overall, in the ASB's view, the advertisement did breach Section 2.4 of the Code which states that "Advertising or Marketing Communications shall treat sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant audience. Finding that Honey Birdette's advertisement did breach this section of the code, the ABS upheld the complaints that it received.  

In another related win, The Adelaide Advertiser has reported that Rundle Mall Myer Centre manager Peter Lee has told Honey Birdette that their shopping centre will not allow these ads. Mr Lee has said:

“We have been liaising with the retailer’s national office in this regard and have requested the current posters be removed from display as soon as possible” 

LEAGUE players who have committed an offense of domestic violence, sex offences or disrespecting women could face life bans under new NFL guidelines to end a culture of “covering up” and paying “hush money” to victims.

In what would be a first for an Australian football code, the NRL has adopted a number of new punishments for players found guilty of violence against women, which could ­result in bans ranging from nine months to life. 

In a new crackdown on porn websites, the UK Government has announced that pornography websites will be forced to verify that the age of their users is at least 18 years old.