BY: Danielle Binks, Spinifex intern
What started as ‘Occupy Wall Street’ has grown to global youth in revolt against big business, conglomerates and the elitist 1%. But a disturbing trend of sexism, misogyny, abuse and determined apathy has become apparent within the ‘Occupy’ movement.
On October 10 a man was arrested at Occupy Wall Street for groping a woman. At the Occupy Denver protest, a man was arrested for groping a reporter. October has seen the Occupy movement embroiled in rape and sexual assault claims, as women at the Cleveland, Dallas, Portland and Glasgow protests have all come forward with allegations of tent city rapes.
But what really makes a mockery of the Occupy movement is the response to these claims of sexual abuse amongst the protestors. When news broke of the Cleveland rape claim, one protestor even queried whether the abused woman was a ‘plant’, attempting to discredit the rally.
Occupy Baltimore released a ‘security statement’ pamphlet to their protestors which discouraged police involvement if any such crimes were committed. The Baltimore occupiers were heavily criticized for this ‘speak no evil’ stance, and have since revised their policies.
Julian Assange spoke at the Occupy London rally. The man behind Wikileaks has become the poster-boy for public dissent, but what many forget is the fact that Julian Assange is still under investigation for sexual molestation in Sweden.
The disparity of the Occupy protests is best represented in the YouTube video ‘Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street’ which has claimed millions of hits since it was first uploaded by amateur documentary filmmaker, Steven Greenstreet.
Set to a sedate instrumental tune, the video interviews fervent female protestors. One woman’s insights are particularly interesting for their Arab Spring reach, as she explains; “I’m originally Egyptian, so this is not new to me and I’m loving it. My faith in humanity has been restored.” Another woman is holding a sign that says: ‘I’m not homeless but my children will be.’ She is protesting for future prosperity; “I don’t want the burden to be on my children’s backs.”
These women are impassioned and proud. But you might miss their message as the camera greedily and distractedly pans their bodies. As the Egyptian protestor speaks, the camera zooms in on her long battling lashes and pretty pout. Greenstreet’s creepy camera sneakily zooms in on other female protestors colourful sleeve tattoos, gaping singlets and tracks their fingers as they ruffle long locks.
Greenstreet has said that his original intention for the video was purely ‘sophomoric’: “Pics of hot chicks being all protesty, videos of hot chicks beating drums in slow-mo, etc. But when we arrived at Zuccotti Park in New York City, it evolved into something more.”
Despite his original sleazy intentions, Greenstreet has recently come out swinging and defending his ‘Hot Chicks’ video, claiming a more political purpose for the ‘protesty’ hot chicks;
No, of course not. Because people would much rather listen to ‘Hot Chicks’ than ‘Women Citizens’ or, heck, ‘Women’ in general. Just ask the Occupy Baltimore organizers who would prefer rape victims kept their mouths shut while keeping those ‘We are the 99%’ signs held high. Maybe we should just be grateful that Greenstreet didn’t choose to title his video something truly degrading like ‘Wall Street Girls Gone Wild’. . . although, I now see that YouTube is suggesting I watch a video called ‘Occupy Wall Street Sexy Bitch Fight.’
Is this what a revolution feels like? Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world.” – but someone obviously hasn’t passed that little idiom onto the Occupy movement: ‘equality for all (especially the Hot Chicks)’.
