Tuesday 10 June 2008

The Lisa ad - next steps

Well I am ever so slightly more energised about this than I was yesterday, so I've managed to email the Advertising Standards Authority requesting a reply to my last email and send in our list of questions to Gerard Vaughan, CEO of ALAC, as part of the following emailed missive:
Kia ora Gerard,
Thank you for your response to my emailed complaint. My apologies for not writing sooner, as I have a young baby spare time is often difficult to find.

I have a number of questions in response to your reply, and the interview that you did on bfm's
The Wire. I am encouraged that you have been open to discussion about the issues, and hope that we can continue our correspondence. As you are aware, a number of writers on the blog The Hand Mirror have been writing about this issue and our readers are keenly interested in further discussion also.

My questions are:
[roughly as they were in
my post seeking your feedback, with the following additions/changes]
1. Conception
...1.3 At any stage of the ad's development was it suggested that the ad focus on the rapist rather than the victim? If yes, why was this direction not taken?
1.4 I understand that ALAC develops its advertising campaign as a result of research on drinking behaviour, and would like to know what research the Lisa ad is based on?

2. Content
...2.2 Did ALAC consider the impact that the Lisa ad might have on victims of rape and sexual assault who might view it?

3. Focus Groups
...3.3 Was there consideration given to the wisdom of asking people to discuss a sexual assault in a group setting, when they might have been a victim or perpetrator of such an attack?
3.4 Was there any examination of the issue of victim-blaming, or were participants simply asked whether the advert was likely to influence their drinking behaviour? In particular, was there any analysis of whether those outside the target group of young women were likely to take away the message that Lisa was at fault?

4. Consultation
In your response you stated that ALAC had consulted with various social agencies in relation to the new ad campaign. I understand that this consultation took place after the ad had already been filmed and only shortly before the first screening.
...4.3 In future would ALAC consider involving agencies working with the issues of rape and sexual assault at an earlier stage of developing a campaign?

7. Finally
7.1 Would ALAC be prepared to meet with women who have suffered sexual assault, to discuss with them the impact of the advertisement on them?

I should reiterate that in general I am supportive of the shock tactics of the campaign, and I do believe we have problems with our drinking culture which ALAC is working hard to address. If the Lisa ad had been done differently I suspect that I, and others who are concerned, would be very pleased indeed that ALAC was highlighting these issues.

I look forward to your response.

Yours truly, etc.

Thanks again to Anna McM for significant off blog help with this. I hope that the slightly nice tone encourages Vaughan to respond, as actually it would be really good if rather than ALAC getting overly defensive they actually take on board some of our points and don't do this again. For all my ranting, I tend to be an advocate of the honey-catches-more-flies-than-vinegar approach.

Now, in terms of doing something collective, what are people up for? I've been talking to a few people about an online petition, but given that many people have written about the issue under pseudonyms would that make it hard to sign? It might be nice to have something to show the depth and strength of concern, so that we aren't isolated and written off as individual cranks and prudes. What say you all?

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fantastic work Julie. I'd sign a petition online with my real name. In fact I'd front up to ALAC personally

Julie said...

Thanks aaml, I have to say I was thinking of your previous comment when I added in 7.1.

Lyn said...

I'll second artandmylife on this

Anna said...

I know it's easier said than done, Julie, but try not to become drained by all this! I think you're doing great work.

I'd front up personally too - both as someone who's had the Lisa experience, and someone who does academic research.

Joanna said...

Hi Julie,

Thank you so much for this. I feel slightly ashamed of how much I've let this issue drop after the response I got from ASA - it made me feel so powerless and awful, and while
"http://hubris.co.nz/motivated-by-fury-not-despair"
>I wrote that I'd fight it
, when I couldn't even get all my friends to see my point, I just totally lost faith. I've been in my own big depressed hole lately, but I've bneen watching your work, and I am so fucking grateful, I will put my name on anything tor front up to anything that you start though. Hopefully in some kind of Captain Planet Way, with our powers combind, maybe we could make a difference so other women don't end up feeling like this.

Anna said...

Joanna, I understand completely. I haven't been able to convince all my friends either, and I've been discouraged too. This is definitely a Captain Planet situation. It might help to know that the only thing which has made me feel better about my own Lisa situation is the knowledge that other women understand, and I'm not just another stupid bitch who got drunk.

Anna said...

Picking up on a comment made earlier about the need to personalise complaints, what about encouraging people to send individual emails to the ASA, copying to ALAC? Emails wouldn't have to take the form of formal complaints as such. I think it would be good for both organisations to hear how people actually FEEL when they see the ad; eg, personally offended, belittled as rape victims, etc.

Anonymous said...

anna - i didn't realise how much this was all affecting me until this week when it hit home (listening to those podcasts) I woudl be willing to set out my personal story but would be worried ALAC might use it in a "see all the silly binge drinkign women got raped" way and justify their stance. I don't know if I am ready to go through something like that - even 20 years on. I NEED to make a stand here but to be honest it scares me and for similars reasons that I never laid a complaint in the first place. I also get very upset when other women don't see the problem with the ad and take the guilty of the victim stance.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm Zanavashi and I'm an alcoholic in my 11th year of sobriety.

I have been wanting to jump in on this topic since it began here a few weeks ago, but I've been agonising about whether or not to post anonymously or just forward my story along to Julie privately. And I've been agonising about the effect that breaking an old silence like this might have on me emotionally, and possible backlash for being a whistleblower. But this is stuff that NEEDS TO BE SAID, if only for the fact that other women who have suffered silently with such stories know they are not alone, so it starts here...

I am an alcoholic, and the daughter of an alcoholic, so I grew up in a family environment where it was the natural thing to wear the shame from and keep the secrets of the abusive alcoholic in the family. I won't get too much into the story about the decline of my life from this disease or the many rock bottoms which eventually brought me to my current duration of sobriety but I will tell you that my acting out of this disease has been very deeply entangled in issues around my sexuality - from both a sexual self-esteem and a sexual abuse-survivor perspective.

The thing that bowled me over like a freight train in my early months after graduating from rehab was the realisation that nearly every sexual experience in my life (outside of a committed relationship, but occasionally even inside them too) had been in some way a "rape", because I was too drunk or unconscious to give my consent to what was happening to me.

This realisation came about as a result of a long-time member of the recovery group I belonged to preying upon me sexually in the role of (what I naively thought to be) "supporting a newcomer", and eventually leading to what could quaintly be referred to these days as a "date rape". It happened on an occasion when I was emotionally distraught (and sober) and had turned to him for fatherly support.

I later spoke out about what happened to me at a regional meeting, begging the question "How is it any different that this guy jumped me when I was emotionally disorientated and didn't know who or where I was, than if I was drunk in a nightclub and didn't know who or where I was? Where was the consent in either of those scenarios where a woman is so disorientated and vulnerable?". It was the hardest thing I ever shared publically in my life and it barely even registered in a culture where what happened to me is so common they have a special word for it...

In recovery circles this predatory behaviour is quaintly referred to as "13 stepping" and the reason I believe this story is relevant to the case at hand is because it is an example of what myself, and many women who I know personally in addiction recovery, would refer to as a culture of predatory behaviour in alcoholic recovery circles where women are blamed for the behaviour of their sexual predator and the predators are sheltered by the anonymity contract of the group. The code of silence that exists in these support circles is that women don't speak of this to outsiders and I could tell you so many stories of women who have been shamed into keeping such stories secret.

It is a culture that is a carryover from the predatory sexual attitude many males in the fellowship acted out during their active alcoholic days and I have rarely ever seen it challenged in these circles because the women is still being blamed for being a victim because "she was drinking". Just calling ourselves an alcoholic in these circles absolves all those drunken men, some of whom are now sitting sober in the same circle as us where we sit - discouraged as women from sharing these kinds of stories - from the fact that it was THEM who violated us. I cannot ever recall hearing a sharing in all my years of recovery meetings where a guy "fessed up" to performing sex on a woman cos he was too drunk to recognise that she didn't actually want him, or too drunk to put the brakes on his own inappropriate sexual conduct towards her.

So many stories from so many women... stories of newly sober vulnerable women being preyed upon my long term male members of the recovery fellowship... stories of women who have relapsed and phoned an emergency number when drunk and distraught only to be collected by some guy who had sex with her... stories of women who tried to speak out and where instead told by their sponsors to go and do some "step work" (personal inventory) on themselves instead... stories screaming out through the patriarchy which is rife in these circles which have barely progressed beyond the stereotype of woman alcoholics being bag ladies living on the street.

There are NOWHERE stories in the official alcoholic recovery literature about how this effected the sexuality of women alcoholics - you will have to go to a Sex Addicts recovery meeting to hear and share those shameful sexual aspects of your story - where naturally it will also be assumed that your victimhood was your own damned fault, because this just proves that you were giving out all these come-hither sexual messages to your rapists and we will help you to understand all the ways in which you were doing this, even though you didn't know it at the time. Yes ladies, it's still all about YOU.

I still have so many stories untold festering inside of me that even years of counselling and recovery meetings have not cleansed, and they fester because I am stuck in a culture that does not think it is OK for me to absolve myself of the guilt that I asked to be raped because I had been drinking. And the only places I can go to for recovery support just reinforce such anti-feminists messages. But it goes even deeper than that...

There was an incident when I was 17 years old and I had just moved into my first flat. I was a painfully shy young women who had just discovered the disco scene and how a few drinks helped me loosen up so I could dance and have fun. I awoke one night - a night when I had not been out and had not been drinking - to the reek of beer breath, hands furiously groping my breasts, and the shadow of another tall male figure standing over my bed watching the guy who was groping me.

I have no memory of how I got myself out of that situation unscathed from what was potentially going to be a gang rape, but I have a very clear memory of why I was too afraid to report it... because the guy, a seemingly ordinary local boy who lived up the street, panted at me that he had "...seen me dancing at the disco and noticed I had really nice tits". He saw me drunk, and having fun dancing, and it made my tits look nice, thus I invited this attention, so it was MY fault.

That is ME right there in the Lisa advertisement, at the age of 17, just trying to loosen up and have fun on the dance floor - not to attract some guy but just for ME because I wanted to feel good and free inside my own body. Whenever I see her in that context I am emotionally torn between the shame I still feel inside for all those times I awoke to realise what had happened to me (yet again!) and the rage I feel that this recovery circle culture of blaming women who drink for being raped is now being reinforced among the wider public via this ALAC ad campaign.

Julie, I listened to your radio interview and I could hug you for how effective you were at challenging the issues and giving a voice to those of us who are being re-traumatised by ALAC's message. You are 100% on track when you ask the question "What about the man?", because I cannot recall a single incident of rape or attempted rape on myself where the guy had not been drinking - even when I had not myself been drinking.

And I want to add the question "How many of your ALAC staff are recovering alcoholics themselves who came through these recovery support groups to be where they are today, are they aware of the culture of preying upon and blaming of vulnerable women in these circles and have they ever personally done anything to challenge this culture?"

Goddess give us the courage to change the things that we can. Getting ALAC to listen will be Step One, so count me in if you want to take a group to confront them, otherwise please feel free to copy my message in it's entirety.

Kia Kaha Sisters!
Zana

PS: Sometimes I soooooo want to shout this on the roof tops... ADDICTION RECOVERY ORGANISATIONS ARE ANTI-FEMINIST!!!!

Faye said...

Julie, I support you and will do whatever everyone wants. I'm sick and tired of the disgraceful attitudes towards rape and rape victims.

Anonymous said...

zanavashi, I know exactly how you feel except I'm not brave enough to tell all my stories. It's people like you, zanavashi, that help other women more than you will ever know. Some of us keep it deep inside and it makes us bitter and angry.

Thanks, zanavashi.....

Anna said...

Zana, I cried when I read your story. I'm just so sick of this. When I get discouraged with this whole business - which is often - I will remind myself of your courage. Arohanui.

Julie said...

Thanks so much everyone for your support and your feedback, it was amazing to come back after a day away from keys to all these messages. I haven't had a chance to read them all properly yet, and probably won't for a few days, but I just wanted to quickly let you know how much I appreciate it.

Anonymous said...

I want someone to know that I wasn't allowed to make an historic rape complaint because I have a mental illness. I had to get a letter from a psychiatrist saying that I was sane enough to make a complaint but the cops blew me off.

We need to do something about the plight of rape victims in this country and it starts with our stories and banning the Lisa ADS.

Let's send ALAC our stories!

Anonymous said...

Zana, that was heart-breaking. I have to admit I cried a little too <.< >.>

Thankyou for having the courage to write what you did, and I hope it feels better to have said it.

annaloren said...

zana, thank you so much for sharing your story here. thank you, thank you, thank you. and julie, i'll sign that petition with my real name.

C.C. said...

Hi Julie,

I was watching an old tape today of a show taped off the tv from the late 90's and saw an ad from ALAC which is shockingly similar to the Lisa ad. Except it features a young girl at a house party. The campaign was one called "wheres that drink taking you?" Do you remember it? I did after I saw it and was extremely shocked. ALAC has been bombarding us with this victim-blaming rhetoric for over 10 years now. Its crazy. I have done a little reseearch but havn't been able to find anything out about the campaign. Maybe you capable, amazing women can?
Here is a link to what I wrote about it on my blog...
http://charlottescrazy.blogspot.com/2008/06/lisa-adblaming-victim-update.html

Joanna said...

Hey CC, I remember those ads because lots of people from my school were in them, including the girl in the main ad. There was also one in which a guy pushed his girlfriend through a window in a jealous rage, and ummm I can't remember what the other one was.It was accompanied by a game online where you could act as a responsible host or make people drink until they puked, hook up and occasionally die.

C.C. said...

Hi Joanna,
Wow!! Yes I remember the one with the girl being pushed through the plate glass window now! WOW! Violence against women sure is a fave with ALAC isn't it? I am pretty sure that alcohol IS the biggest contributing factor (other than the perpatrator themselves) in instances of violence against women, but really what is with the victim blame? I remember the third ad now too.. It was of a guy who get obnoxiously drunk, makes out with a lamp shade, annoys some people, harrasses some girls, then get kicked out the front door, upon landing he barfs all over the pavement. Hardly the same life-changing, life-threatening outcome that was dished out for the girls. I am very curious as to how the kids in your school reacted to the ads. Did they like them? Feel they were working?

Anna said...

I remember the dreadful, dreadful ad with the drunk girl about to be raped. I don't remember the one with the glass window clearly though? I assume that the woman was thrown through the window by her husband/boyfriend - was the ad supposed to be cautioning men or women about drinking?

I might contact the national archives and see if they hold these ads.