Skip to Content »

Boobs on bikes

  • October 12th, 2008

How will Morning Report reflect candidate comments on Steve Crow’s plan to run his Boobs on Bikes parade in Wellington on election day?

When Radio NZ called this evening I found myself resenting the attention to Crow’s stunt, and wanting to find some way to make the issue so boring that RNZ would drop the item. Before calling RNZ back I wondered whether my instinct was just envy, prompted by the lack of RNZ interest in what seem to me more important questions facing Wellington voters.

I felt my resentment was not prudery, because I could not imaging myself being offended by the parade, even if it seems tawdry. Pictures of the Auckland parade make the crowds seem curious but shortchanged more than anything else.

The Radio NZ interest shows that Crow will attract enough controversy to mix with titillation to get his crowds. I’d be very surprised if the Wellington City Council could stop the parade. I’m not sure that they should be free to stop it. 

So why would I prefer Crow to fail?

I think it is because exploitation of the power to cause offence is such a cheap tactic, and because it cheapens those whose reactions make it work, yet if they do not react their values are cheapened. 

Many things cause offense to some section of our community that do not offend others. For example some
Christians are deeply offended by blasphemy. Some conscience stricken liberals are upset by ethnic stereotype jokes. Some Maori are put off by people sitting on tables where food is served. None of those behaviours would upset me, except in one circumstance – that is where there are people present who do find them offensive.

In that case I  feel embarrassed in anticipation of the rudeness shown by causing such offense, even where I can not feel the underlying offense.

I think we should feel vicarious offense on behalf of our fellows, where the offense is pointless, and able to be avoided with simple good manners. A civilised society has social pressures to sustain such manners. Causing pointless offence should have a cost that outweighs the benefits from challenging a taboo to gain notoriety for its own sake.

Succcess for Steve Crow’s stunt weakens those social sanctions. His parade will be offensive to some sincere people. Crow’s cause is Crow’s mercenary interest. And so, because he is likely to benefit from the media interest, and the portrayal of at least some of those who will be offended as fuddy-duddy, I hope that he falls on his face, without much expectation that it will happen.

I covered this briefly with Radio NZ. I wonder how much of this angle will be in their item in the morning?

Comments

Gravatar
  • Jason
  • October 12th, 2008
  • 11:13 pm

Gee that’s smart. You don’t want Crow to get publicity, but you encourage the media to cover it for your benefit. How lame is that?

[Jason’s comments will be removed from now on, when I get around to seeing them, because he has no integrity in debate. He consistently misrepresents points to set up a straw man to burn. I’ve left them in the past because his reasoning is so wet it douses his matches. His straw men survive, looking silly.

But the Labour campaign relies on misrepresentation. When integrity in debate goes there may a kind of Gresham’s law at work (freely circulating counterfeit currency destroys reliance on the good currency as well as the fake). So I’ll start in my small corner, and reduce the circulation of their lies. For those who are wondering what straw broke this camel’s back I’ll leave this current silliness as an example]

Gravatar
  • mike mckee
  • October 13th, 2008
  • 8:52 am

Where do you get the idea that Christians are offended by Blasphemy.

It’s God that’s insulted and you’ll deal with him on the last day over it, not us.
Who are we to judge the world?

We’re only called to judge our brothers and sisters in the Lord and that’s so that they can stay on track or be reconciled again.

The world and all who’ve been in it will be judged.
When we’re kneeling before Him on the last day it will be sans our props to greatness in this life.
No education or properties, Money and other assets just the truth of our existence whilst here and that means the truth, there’ll be No Spin.

I suspect the reason His judgement will be fair is that everyone will know everything about everyone, nothing hidden and hence the judgement of their life will be fair.

Sad that doesn’t happen here on earth when it could make a difference.

I’m more offended by politicians that don’t think through the unintended consequences of their actions on the rest of us, than I am about someone who blasphemes God.

Gravatar

Mr Franks

Steve Crow’s parade is offensive because it is pureile.
I am a European and have just returned from nearly four months in Europe and I was stunned to hear this on the news this morning. Steve Crowe has it sooo wrong. His parade is not reflecting a “sophisticated, 21st century society” – exactly the opposite. It reflects NZ as a backwater that is still titilated by nudity. The main reason the parade needs to be cancelled is because it is pureile.

Wellington has done so much in the past decade or two to lift its provincial town image – we do not need this parade to take place or become a permanent part of our city’s image – we deserve so much more than that. I’m also unsure how a business owner is allowed to hold a parade on a purely self-serving basis. If that is the case then I suggest all business owners do it on the same day and we can have traffic mayhem.

Re your comments that he gets the media attention, well for some reason he has had loads of media attention – far more than he deserves…and, sadly, no doubt, he will get heaps more with this adolescent parade.

Gravatar
  • Tom
  • October 13th, 2008
  • 1:13 pm

Hi,

If you don’t like it, by all means, complain (quietly, to friends). But if you find yourself brandishing torches and pitchforks, you’ve gone too far. Kindly stop trying to tread all over the people’s [deity]-given right to have fun at nobody elses’ expense. This energy is best spent on real, substantial issues such as stimulating the economy, reducing poverty, liberalising and equalising human rights, et cetera.

Love,
Tom

Gravatar
  • Poneke
  • October 13th, 2008
  • 4:09 pm

Wellington has done so much in the past decade or two to lift its provincial town image – we do not need this parade

Well it’s being brought to town by an Aucklander.

What do you expect?

Gravatar
  • mike mckee
  • October 14th, 2008
  • 9:38 am

But, 40,000 people went to watch it in Aucklands Queens Street so it wasn’t offensive according to the NZPolice.

We can rest assured that the NZPolice decide what’s good for us based on how many do it?

Gravatar

For those that care. Boobs on Bikes will depart Post Office Square at 12:45 on Friday 7th Movember (NOT ELECTION DAY)- a date we have had finalised for over six months. May I therefore suggest that Helen and her bunch on Merry Mates are more resonsible for the proximity of our dates than I am. I booked mine way before she did.
The parade will end on parliament steps around 2pm after travelling the full length of Lambton Quay.
Now, if you don’t like it – I promise not to force you to watch it OK. Over 100,000 people chose to watch it in Auckland and have fun! The choice to attend or not is up to the individual – how more democratic can I be?
Stephen, I now wonder how democratic you will be – will you chose to leave my comments up – or will you ‘remove them’ like Jason’s because you don’t like them.
Best regards to all
Steve Crow, Director
Erotica Expo Limited

Gravatar
  • Tim
  • October 31st, 2008
  • 2:17 pm

My vote is remove Crow’s advertisement.

Gravatar
  • Paul
  • November 10th, 2008
  • 5:24 pm

No, let’s ban everything, and have multiple petitions going to rid our cities of this evil! Why stop at Boobs on Bikes, Sexpo’s etc when we can say ban strip-joints, and same sex couples kissing in public as well?

Sex should be confined to the marital bedroom for procreation purposes only, and I for one, am sick and tied of seeing naked toddlers on local beaches. Don’t their parents know the human body is a thing of revulsion and can up-set some people?

Why should adults in New Zealand, get to decide what they can do with their lives?

This is a Christian nation after all.

So let’s get a whole range of morally indignatious petitions going, and not stop until Steve Crow is driven out of his legitimate business.

Cheers.

Paul.

PS; You look strangely like that liberal politician that was in ACT who has the same name, but totally different social views. Not related by any chance?

Leave your comments:

* Required fields. Your e-mail address will not be published on this site

You can use the following HTML tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>