Isabella Waterschoot UNDP - Port of Spain Trinidad & Tobago Website: <http://rescoor.undp.org.tt> Courtesy of THE NETWORK OF NGOS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN - POrt of Spain - Trinidad & Tobago Subject: Stop the cattle-show - Women are not for sale Dear Friends We are circulating the enclosed message for your early response. This disgusting event is carded for Sunday 19th August 2001. We are suggesting that if you feel strongly about this that you call. fax, e-mail the persons responsible stating your views. You are also encouraged to send this message to your friends and colleagues for their responses. We would also like to have your ideas about effective protest actions which we can take between now and Sunday. "STOP THE CATTLE-SHOW NOW - WOMEN ARE NOT FOR SALE" According to the Oxford Dictionary the word 'auction' is "the public sale in which ARTICLES are sold to the maker of the highest bid". In Trinidad and Tobago today, among the articles or things being placed on the auction block - we now have women. The 'Single, Sexy, Sold' event, co-hosted by Carib and 95.1 FM, is the latest demonstration of disrespect and disregard for women we have seen in this society and in the Media. The advertisement boasts that for a mere five dollars you can win the date of your dreams with one of 11 'gorgeous babes' or 4 'happening hunks'. Is this what we have come to in Trinidad and Tobago? Apparently it is not bad enough that women (and increasingly men) are being exploited daily in ads selling cars, wine, cigarettes and other items. Now we are auctioning women off to the highest bidder all in the name of fund-raising. Do we really believe that individuals have a dollar value? Certainly not! The person that borrowed this idea from our neighbours to the North clearly has no respect for women and the struggle that we face every day not to be treated as sexual objects (now for sale). This may appear as a 'cool' way to raise money for a worthy cause but what it in fact does is further perpetuate the debasing value that the society is developing of women and girls as things to be owned or bought and sold. Shame on the Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society (TTCS) for participating in this event. We in the NGO movement are well aware of the difficulties associated with acquiring funds to do our work, but the TTCS has lowered the bench mark on ethics by accepting funds raised in this manner. Surely there are more tasteful means of getting money rather than profiting from the sale of women and men. Carib Brewery, one of the cosponsors, has a well documented history of derogatory portrayals of women in the advertising of their products. The other main sponsor, 95.1 FM, is also doing a great disservice to its predominantly youth based audience by shamelessly promoting the sale of women and men for $5.00. Contrary to popular belief, this is not how "winning the date of your dreams" occurs in the real world and neither of these companies is "doing a good deed" by hosting this auction. The Network of NGOs of Trinidad and Tobago for the Advancement of Women and the Gender Media Monitor call on all concerned citizens to voice their disapproval in as many ways as possible to the Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society Office, Tel 622-6827, Dr. George Laquis, Cancer Society Chairman, Tel 628-3000, the General Manager of the Trinidad Broadcasting Company, Brandon Khan, Tel 623-9202 Fax 623 -9792, Carib Brewery 645-2337, Ross Advertising, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] Let us all say a collective NO to this dehumanising event. Hazel Brown Coordinator Network of NGOs of trinidad and Tobago for the Advancement of Women Thursday, August 16, 2001 This is GainsNet, the mailing list of the UN-INSTRAW-GAINS Network Members. To reply to the GainsNet group, click on "reply all" To reply to an individual, click on "reply" To unsubscribe from GainsNet, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line
