| sea shepherd update - HOOKED ON ANIMAL RIGHTS |
[06 Sep 2008|01:07am] |
Well, it's been a couple of days and both myself and my other half have been following the coverage in the press with horrified interest.
This is completely different from the other times that my performance has gained media attention, one memorable incident being when myself and ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) madmaxtattoo were in the Artshock documentary on channel 4, and the press focussed on 'oh, they are weird, they have funny eyes, ugh, freaks'
This was hurtful, and as someone not used to dealing with the media, I made the mistake of posting in discussion forums related to that film, and since at the time I was holding down a full time job as well as performing, I could not always reply in time and it seemed like I did myself no favours.
Regarding this campaign, I am well aware I am being seen as a lunatic animal rights activist, and in all honesty, this is true, so no argument there, HOWEVER there are a few things being circulated in the press that i would like to set straight.
This is my first and last word on this subject, regarding this specific protest at least. Thankyou for reading.
-I am mentally stable and a professional suspension artist. What I did was planned and performed safely.
-I am not a fetishist or into 'weird sex'. i enjoy suspending, and if it can be done to help a good cause, all the better.
-I consider myself a feminist and I think some of the criticism levelled at me regarding 'it's a woman bleeding on hooks to sell product' is completely unjustified. I am a performance artist who specialises in suspension, and what I did on Wednesday was not sexualised or gendered. It was the image of a human body suspended from shark hooks that Lush and Sea Shepherd wanted and I provided. The fact that I happen to be female had precisely nothing to do with it.
-to those who are saying 'do it over a tank of sharks and see how much you like it... Yes, I would, happily. The truth is that in the last year, ONE human was killed by a shark. Humans killed 100,000,000 sharks. See the difference? This calender year so far, 25 teenagers have died in London alone due to being shot or stabbed by their peers. You are more likely to die from a vending machine falling on you than from a shark attack. This all underlines the way we, as humans, see ourselves as above the natural order of things. For instance, if there is a warning about sharks swimming near a beach, and you decide to go surfing anyway, then you have only yourself to blame if you get bitten. You leave them alone, they will leave us alone, savvy?
-to those calling 'LOL BLATANTLY PHOTOSHOPPED', trust me, it wasn't. Everything in those photos was real, and if it takes me releasing pictures of my wounds, I will.
-to all those in the suspension and bodymod community who have commented supporting me (in particular Patrick Bartholomew), thankyou so much. You have no idea how much I appreciate this. Love to each and every one of you.
-to those who are suggesting I kill myself for attention, I have no words, apart from I hope you feel really good about yourself. Un. Fucking. Believable.
-and to close... By no means is this finished yet. You WILL hear and see more about this, both in general and in particular. Once again, huge thanks to Mark Constantine, Andrew Butler, Sean Gifford and all at Sea Shepherd
|
|
| Sea Shepherd and shark campaign. |
[04 Sep 2008|03:55pm] |
I guess some of you might have seen this already in newspapers and on the news, if not, I thought I would update.
Ben and I were asked by Andrew Butler (campaigns manager for Lush cosmetics) to help with a protest about the barbaric practise of shark finning, where fins are hacked off live sharks and they are thrown back in the ocean to die. As well as being a horribly cruel fishing practise, the killing of sharks on the huge scale that is happening at the moment is also threatening the entire fragile ecosystem of our oceans. There is no excuse for this slaughter.
I suspended in the window of Lush on London's Regent Street dressed as a mermaid for 15 minutes, hanging from two debarbed shark hooks (which, interestingly enough, are the hooks the suspension community uses as standard), while members of Sea Shepherd and Lush staff members handed out flyers and talked to the press about the campaign. Later in the day, the Lush staff headed to Chinatown to protest about restaurants selling shark products. I was expecting this protest to cause a bit of a fuss, as suspension is certainly nothing one would expect to see in central London on a busy shopping street, but the result has been absolutely phenomenal. Not only local and British press attended, there was also a film crew from CNN, and when I got up this morning I recieved a phone call from Andrew, letting me know that the protest was in the press as far away as Australia, China, Japan, Vietnam, Romania, Hungary and Russia.
Other wonderful news was that the restaurant Hakkasan has taken shark's fin off the menu (story here), while I wouldn't claim that it was our protest that made the difference, I would like to think it helped.
I have already done one radio interview and a newspaper interview, frankly, this is far bigger than anything I was ever expecting. I would like to send an enormous thankyou to everyone at Lush and at Sea Shepherd for making this possible and drawing attention to the plight of these beautiful, fascinating creatures.
A couple of photos are below. I took them straight from news sites, sorry about that.
From Yahoo News
From chinanews.com
Links to some news sites that have covered the story, plus more pictures:
CNN - make sure to read the comments on this one, it's pretty funny
Sky News
Metro
Daily Telegraph
Yahoo
BBC
The Sun - this one has lots of photos in the link reading 'slideshow', the captions are a bit ridiculous, but what to expect from the Sun?
The Chum Slick - this one is strange but they were nice about it.
For more information, look at the Sea Shepherd website - http://seashepherd.org
|
|
| you know what this is about |
[17 May 2004|11:55am] |
juat ask and you may recieve.
In other words FRIENDS ONLY.
Comment if you add me please.
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
|
|
|
|
