Tag Archives: Travel

Sexual Safety at Burning Man: There is still work to be done

September 24, 2013

Burning Man is “an annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self- expression and radical self-reliance.” For those that do not know, it is a weeklong event help in the Black Rock desert of Nevada, whereby participants set up camp for a week to participate in workshops and activities organized by theme camps, relax, explore theme camps and enjoy the many interesting art installations.

It is also an extremely sex-positive event, with many theme camps promoting non-heteronormative sexual activities and workshops for BDSM and masturbation for single people and couples. It’s a fantastic environment for exploration if you are comfortable doing so. That being said, while Burning Man’s openness and mandate for radical inclusion create an extremely positive environment for sexually active people, it does not exist in a vacuum and sexual assault or non-consensual sexual activity are still concerns.

In such an open, sex-positive environment there is a pervasive idea that everyone at Burning Man assumes everyone is up for sex all the time. But this is untrue. The Bureau of Erotic Discourse is “B.E.D. is a team of volunteers dedicated to raising awareness of sexual assault on the playa.” They have signs up throughout Black Rock City (I thought the ones inside the doors of the port-o-potties were most effective) advocating consent and communication. Many residents of Black Rock City (BRC) are well versed in what consent means and how to ensure effective communication with a sexual partner so that all parties are comfortable.

“I think the the thing about consent is that it needs to be explicit,” explained one member of my camp. “It needs to be offered, you need to understand that it’s happened. You need to have a complete green light that you’ve seen that tells you that it’s okay to move forward, and as soon as someone shows you the red light, you have to stop no matter what. It can be as simple as a no or it could be someone crying or someone really uncomfortable. You should always continue to check in to make sure they’re okay with what’s happening.”

My personal experiences and the experiences of those around me this year did not deviate from this process. However, after investigating further I found that members of my camp had, unfortunately, met with quite the opposite.

While attending this year, one participant (who I will call Rosie) shared her experience with me. A four time burner (as of this year), she was sexually assaulted during her third burn, when she awoke to someone with whom she was sharing sleeping space attempting to digitally penetrate her. While Burning Man does have a number of resources for reporting and discussing sexual assault including the Black Rock Rangers, Medical and Emergency Services and Bureau of Erotic Discourse (BED), that does not mean that a patriarchal tendency to forgive perpetrators of sexual assault (especially when inebriated) does not exist in Black Rock City (BRC). For Rosie, that meant senior members of her camp shrugging off his drunken actions and her having to camp for the rest of the week with this individual and see him again this year. Rosie chose not to press charges with local police or report the assault to the Black Rock Rangers. She is likely one of many not to do so. “I think that people in the festival environment are really unwilling to go and say something to someone if something has happened,” she says, “because this is a culture of drugs, this is a culture of partying. This is a culture of we’re all getting really fucked up […] So I think it creates this misperception of ‘Oh, this is just a place where this shit happens, it’s normal and I shouldn’t take it personally.’”

Especially at Burning Man, where there is an expectation that one will push one’s own boundaries. In terms of survival, you kind of have to. For seven days you are living in a harsh desert environment surviving with only what you have brought with you. That in itself tests your limits, now factor in the free flowing alcohol and the propensity for nudity and tutus. It is an opportunity for you to wear and say and try things you might be too shy to do in your every day life. Everything from going topless (or bottomless) on a bicycle to a bit of blue lipstick, Radical Self-Expression is one of the Ten Principles of Burning Man and is practiced extensively. Ironically (considering the sheer amount of photos taken) I think generally there is a feeling that choices made at Burning Man won’t haunt you in the real world. What happens in Black Rock City, stays in Black Rocky City. “I think that’s one of the major shortcomings of festival culture…” explains Rosie, “That there is this idea, I think, this prevalent idea that like you kinda get a free pass.”

I agree that no one should be shamed about glittery nipple pasties or any other wardrobe choice on the playa but if rape culture extends to the playa so should the appropriate consequences.

Unfortunately, as with any partying situation, the environment is often used to explain away the perpetrator’s behaviour and fabricate the victim’s culpability. Allow me to take this opportunity to say that whether at a rave, frat party, experimental post-adolescent phase or at Burning Man, drugs or alcohol are not an excuse for committing sexual assault.

As Rosie explains, “I think when it comes to sexual assault that is something that that person would do anyway, maybe it just comes more easily because of substance use but that is part of the person.”

On the other hand, drugs can be used as a tool to take advantage of what is meant to be a sex-positive, body-positive, generally positive environment. As I asked around my camp I an anonymous anecdote was shared hearsay about someone recruiting help to painstakingly decorate an Art Car (or Mutant Vehicle) only resist all company upon its completion so the owner could allegedly use the car to have sex with drugged women. Unfortunately this particular story was based largely on circumstantial evidence, or my informant would have reported the individual to the Black Rock Rangers and the local police. I pray that this story is a perverse rumour, but that is exists is a reminder that despite Burning Man’s unique environment, rape culture is still pervasive and women are still required to police themselves and their behaviour to ensure personal safety.

While I definitely felt safer biking around BRC at night than I have other cities, the freedom of being able to get up and go when and where I wanted on the playa (novel for a woman of colour living in an urban environment) my temporary freedom was soured by the stories of other women’s experiences at Burning Man. Despite the many messages advocating the practice of consent, and the BED motto that, “Communication is the best lubrication,” sexual safety is a concern for Burning Man participants (especially considering that BRC residents are often inebriated at all hours of the day and night).

So what does this mean for feminists operating in the States or feminists that attend or want to attend Burning Man? It doesn’t mean that you should avoid the playa. We should not add Burning Man to the list of activities that women must deny themselves as part of navigating a patriarchal society. Instead, we should add Black Rock City to the list of places that require a feminist revolution. I had hoped that by entering an inclusive, sex-positive space I was leave rape culture behind. Sadly not. At least not in its entirety. As long as these stories exist there is work to be done. Even at Burning Man.
For more information about:

Burning Man and attending next year: http://www.burningman.com/
The Bureau of Erotic Discourse: http://www.bureauoferoticdiscourse.org/
Black Rock Rangers: http://rangers.burningman.com/
Nevada State Law regarding sexual assault: http://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-200.html Who to call if you’re in Nevada and are sexually assaulted: http://crisiscallcenter.org/ sexualassault_nl.html

Originally published at Because I Am A Woman blog.

#BONY2012: MOURNING THE LOSS OF SANITY IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

In this age of YouTube sensations and the surprisingly ubiquitous “I’ll meet you on Facebook,” it can’t come as much of a surprise when social media, our contemporary public forum, crosses paths with the original public form, politics.

When it comes to advocacy and activism, we have laid down our picket signs in favour of hashtags (#), and write our scathing (and hopefully still rhythmic) slogans to fit into 140 characters or less.

This bleeds into other areas of our lives, too. Nowadays, when we encounter a beautiful landscape, we don’t sit back and admire, we add it to our Mobile Uploads on Facebook. When a view of the night sky makes us ponder our insignificance, we don’t write nihilistic poetry to be celebrated after our death, we tweet about it.

I’ll admit that the speed at which information can be shared — and the extent — presents a promising possibility for communication between grassroots organizations and their campaigns. But if all our effort goes into maintaining our online lives, we’ll end up with a generation of kids that would rather “like” something than really fight for it.

Political activism has become superficial and trendy, just another thing to change on our Timeline. For example, Kony 2012, the 30-minute video produced by Invisible Children, Inc., took about a month to live out its internet sensation lifecycle (last week famous, this week infamous and next week not as interesting as the latest lolcat).

What is most concerning about the dramatic take- off and then crash-and-burn of the campaign is the collateral damage it has caused in its downfall. These are losses I think we should be mourning.

First: The invisible Ugandans.

I don’t mean the ‘invisible children’ that the campaign was supposedly concerned with; I mean all of the Ugandan politicians, activists and community organizers whose work was made invisible to the international world by the Kony campaign. The campaign implied that there is no active effort on the part of the Ugandan people to protect themselves from the dangers of war, or to develop and maintain sustainable resources. This is simply untrue. There are a number of organizers in Uganda working to provide the kind of resources and services that the Kony 2012 video would make you think are nonexistent. Plus, the video inaccurately represented both the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan Army, painting a portrait that more closely resembled a Uganda from several years ago. Uganda is not currently perfect and we shouldn’t forget about it, but when it comes to activist efforts we have to ensure that we don’t discount the work of local initiatives in developing countries. It is imperative to ensure that we understand the realities and history of a situation if we are trying to get involved.

Second: Real activism.

The work that Kony 2012 advocates is the opposite of work. It is buying bracelets and ‘liking’ links and nothing that promotes peaceful development in Uganda. The end-goal of the campaign is to maintain a US military presence in Uganda, and you are wanted to help achieve that by doing a whole lot of nothing. Call me nostalgic, but I almost miss the misinformed appeals of World Vision campaigners at my door. At least they knew how to pound the pavement!

Young people now are required to do no legwork, no research. Who needs to read when campaigns like this one are clogging up your News Feed? People don’t have to bother learning about Uganda and its history; there is a ready-made video telling them what to think and who to support (or not support). This is a huge problem for the next generation, who are going to grow up on a diet of YouTube videos and slacktivism and no critical thinking skills.

Third: Jason Russell.

He got a lot of flack for the Kony 2012 video, and justifiably so. But when he showed up on the streets of California naked, the rumours of drugs, alcohol and public masturbation went just as viral as the image of his young son discussing military leader Joseph Kony. As much as I think his video was extremely problematic — more a hindrance than a help to Uganda — I can’t help feeling bad for the guy. What is the lesson here kids? Do your homework before you produce a tear-jerking documentary starring your own child and a token African orphan that you put online, or be prepared to face a wave of international criticism.

The final word here is: read. Be critical. Social media, that is, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all the powers that be of the World Wide Web, are extremely potent and powerful tools for the dissemination of information. They are great because they are so accessible. With enough friends or followers you don’t need official airtime to spread a message, you just need a few clicks of a mouse.

But, because anyone can easily share the words and images that support their views, we need to be increasingly critical of what we are consuming. I don’t just mean actually checking if the references in a Wikipedia article are legitimate, I mean doing a bit of real research when you hear about something that might be a real concern.

as published in Lot’s Wife, 2012

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Allowing Refugees, Migrants and Asylum Seekers to RISE

The treatment of Australia’s ‘Boat people’ is currently a hot topic in the national media. Should Australia be taking refugees? Can we handle more refugees? Will we be overrun by an ‘Asian invasion’? What do we do with people who arrive without visas? The solution to this trumped-up paranoia is detention.

About 50,000 people overstay their visas each year in Australia, compared to the approximately 2,000 arriving by boat and seeking asylum. On average, 95% of people seeking asylum arrive by plane. As of 2012, there are eight detention centres in Australia, not including the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre located on the eponymous, excised Australian territory. Those looking for protection in Australia are people fleeing war, violence and oppression in their home countries, who, when put into immigration detention, are incarcerated and in some cases, held indefinitely within the confines of the Australian immigration detention complex.

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with Ramesh Fernandez, founder of RISE: Refugees, Survivors and Ex-Detainees. In 2009, Fernandez, along with some other youths at RMIT’s CBD campus, founded RISE at the campus’ Swanston Library. After three months they moved to their current CBD location in Ross House. RISE officially launched in 2010.

“The main reason we started RISE,” Fernandez says, “was to have a place for people in our community to be respected and have a safe environment where they can come and raise concerns about what they feel about certain things, including settlement or policy or their own personal issues. We don’t have luxury fund- ing, but we try as much as we can to assist people.”

RISE has taken a very firm position against mandatory immigration detention, and is vocal in its advocacy work on behalf of those in detention as well as those who have come out of the system but still suffer the effects of their time inside. “Many of our mem- bers fled war zones or other traumatic experiences, and were then exposed to trauma inside detention,” Fernandez says, “and some of the problems they are facing now in the community are a result of what they endured in detention. As an organisation that works with them and for their interests, we have to address those issues. It would be dishonest not to.”

Fernandez arrived in Australia from Sri Lanka in 2001, and was held in detention for three years. “I wanted to empower my own community,” he says, when asked why he wanted be a part of an organization like RISE, “and tell others: chill out, pipe down, we can look after ourselves. Organizations speaking on our behalf don’t have the first-hand knowledge, and RISE fills that gap. They’re out there doing ad hoc work which is not relevant to our lives, and it’s not relevant because they are not part of the community they claim to serve.”

RISE defines itself as a “not-for-profit incorporated association… the first refugee and asylum seeker aid and advocacy organization in Australia to be run largely by refugees, asylum seekers, and ex-detainees; as such, we view those who seek assistance from RISE as members and participants, not ’clients’.” Members can access all of the RISE services regardless of status and at no cost.

RISE also does an extensive amount of advocacy work through community education, research and publishing, positive media coverage as well as legal and governmental advocacy. In advocacy, and in their programs and services, RISE stays true to its core values. The RISE Charter reads: “…successful resettlement is best achieved by engaging refugee and asylum seeker communities.” Indeed, the ideas behind many of RISE’s annual projects actually come from members of the community themselves.

“I am not fond of any organization working for refugees unless refugees themselves are involved in decision-making or governance” says Fernandez. RISE’s governance system is structured so that all RISE board members must be active members of refugee, migrant and asylum-seeker communities. “We cut out the middle man,” explains Fernandez, “by working with our own communities.”

Organizations that provide services to refugee, migrant or asylum seeker communities have to ensure that they are providing a foundation that will give the people they are working with a sustainable future in Australia. That means engaging with people and em- powering communities that are being marginalized by current policy – in some cases it means stepping aside and letting those communities articulate their wants and needs themselves.

RISE, independent of the Australian Government, is able to work on a grassroots level to support, empower and engage with refugees, migrants, asylum- seekers and those in community detention. In only two years, RISE has an established drop-in centre with public computers, a resource library, an annual arts festival in Federation Square as well as over a dozen programs and workshops.

Find out more about RISE at: http://riserefugee.org/

as published in Lot’s Wife, 2012

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