Category Archives: ARCHIVE BLOGGERY

SOPHIE

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The S.O.P.H.I.E (Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred and Intolerance Everywhere) Foundation was set up in 2009 after 20 year old goth, Sophie Lancaster, was kicked to death by strangers because of her hair, make-up and what she was wearing. The charity provides educational measures to combat prejudice and discrimination towards those from alternative subcultures. At Saturday’s Bizarre Ball, the Illamasqua Lounge helped raise money for SOPHIE. Here’s the video (I’m at around 2:40ish, pouting at the camera and looking drunk!):

International Whores’ Day

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Last weekend, the Scarlet Alliance staged their protest for “International Whores’ Day” against the backdrop of the Sydney Opera House. Carrying red umbrellas as a symbol of solidarity, prostitutes and their supporters from all over Australia gathered to march against discrimination and for the rights and safety of sex workers. Three days previously, International Whores’ Day itself was marked by an evening celebration involving food, cabaret entertainment and market stalls.

June 2nd 1975 saw the genesis of the modern sex workers’ rights movement after 150 French prostitutes occupied St Nizier Church in Lyon for a week in protest at increasing persecution by local police. Ever since, International Whores’ Day has seen women – and often men – honour the world’s oldest profession and fight for the legal and human rights of those who work in it.

“Currently levels of discrimination against sex workers are unacceptably high,” Janelle Fawkes of the Scarlet Alliance told ABC News. “From prices to advertise in newspapers, through to getting bank loans, to being affected in custody battles because of our sex work experience being used against us.”

Find out more about the Scarlet Alliance here.

Rude Britannia

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The Tate Britain is about to host an exhibition of risqué and amusing drawings, paintings, sculptures, film and photography. This new show, “Rude Britannia: British Comic Art”, takes us through satirical caricatures, classic illustrations and naughty postcards, as well as a mechanical sculpture involving an erect sausage that thrusts in and out of a can of baked beans. Themed rooms have been put together by guest curators such as Harry Hill, Steve Bell and the Viz Magazine team, and the collection assembled by controversial cartoonist Peter Brookes includes “The Lacedaemonian Ambassadors” by Aubrey Beardsley, pictured below. (For obvious reasons, these Spartan envoys would certainly make for a far more interesting Fererro Rocher advert.)

Find out more about Rude Britannia here.