Music, Drugs, Talking, Dancing.

RICHIE

Ok, so  you're probably paralysed by indecision because there's a buttload of dope shit happening this weekend, but let me try and snap you out of that and encourage you to attend my picks for fun things to do;  Splore, kicking off on Friday the 19th and finishing Sunday the 21st, and then late Sunday afternoon there's a great talk back in Auckland, Control: Fighting It, Losing It, Finding It. 

 

I attended my first Splore last year, with my partner in blog crime Aroha, and we had a silly amount of fun.  Located at the beautiful Tapapakanga Regional Park an hour out of Auckland,  it was a legit good time. What can go wrong on a beach with amazing musicians and artists, so many great friends,  fruity costumes to marvel at, great healthy food and even a huge out door yoga class.

This year promises to be no different, with a plethora of musical acts from at home and around the globe, artists and intellectually engaging activities. On the music front,  there's three days stacked with DJs and musicians across four stages (if I'm counting them right). I'm especially looking forwards to  Little Simz, and  like last year I'm sure I'll discover a bunch of artists I'd not seen  or heard before.  I'm looking forwards to having my heart and ears filled up with the musical offerings I'm going to be introduced to. 

Little Simz, this hook takes me places! 

As well as music, there's actually a host of other interesting stuff to take part in or attend at Splore. For example, the esteemed  Russell Brown, you may know his excellent work at Public Address, is hosting a very interesting series of panels on Saturday at The Listening Lounge. I'm humbled to be partaking in a discussion about somethings you might not know about drugs, alongside some New Zealand notables on the subject, before leading drug policy expert Dr Sanho Tree,  delivers the key note speech "about the foundations of the global drug war in US foreign policy imperatives, the reasons it has failed and the prospects and means for reform." At 12, the theme and cast of the panel changes to the state of Dance music. Including Aroha, Eddie Johnston, and Lady Flic, it all  promises to be very illuminating and thought provoking. 

If sitting down listening isn't your thing, there's heaps of physical fun to be done. Mind out of the gutter children, There's also handstand and dance workshops, workshops on hula hoops and acrobatics, you can up skill yourself and your dreams of joining the circus and eloping can start to take shape!  

The whole event is super family friendly, kids under 12 get in free and there are three and two day tickets which are still  available.  Go on, get out of town and broaden your horizons, it'll be a nice time, promise! 

After Splore, I'm heading back to the village I fluctuate between loving and hating to listen to some kind smart people talk about things I find fascinating;  addiction and anxiety. My dear friends Damaris Coulter (Coco's Cantina) and Dominic Hoey (Tourettes) join brainiac and all round cool person Sara Illingworth (Impolitikal) to chat about these topics that touch a lot of our lives. Sonia Grey is hosting the night, and I'm really looking forwards to sitting back, listening, learning and probably laughing. Entry is by donation, $5 should do it I reckon. The more we talk about anxiety and addiction, the better we can help those in need I think, so if you're looking for something smart to do, this is for you. 

As always, whatever you do this weekend,  please drive, drink and drug safely (or hey, don't drink or drug at all,  sobriety is fun, honest!), don't touch people's bodies without them wanting you to and saying you can, be nice to strangers and animals, and just generally be a good person. Have fun out there! 



 

"I was told I was going to be raped cause I didn't smile at someone...I was 16."

RICHIE

*Trigger Warning*

Last night, my girlfriend was accosted, live on national television, by two boys who thought it would be cool to touch her inappropriately, get in her space and yell the sexually aggressive phrase "fuck her right in the pussy." Apparently it's a popular viral internet thing to do if you're a rapey pissed up fuck boi. It's funny some say. Despite having boys she didn't know touch her without permission and embarrass her on TV, I thought she played it pretty cool live on air, laughing it off as girls the world over seem to learn to do in our culture. The thing is, they shouldn't have to. 

Just as upsetting as what transpired, was reading many of the comments, from both men and women in support of the two guys who did this. "Legends" was a term I saw used on social media to describe the two guys who think women shouldn't report from music festivals .  Harden up, you're being unprofessional, just laugh it off type  comments abounded. Why should women and girls learn to laugh it off? Why is that an even a thing, that it's ok to make someone feel shitty and females should just deal with it? Why aren't boys and men learning not to sexually harass and intimidate women and girls?  

While on one admittedly stupid, alpha male level, the whole thing angers me (love those boys to come do some sparring with me at the gym - you're always welcome Sean Phillips and Terry Insull, I'll go a round with you each one after the other), it also got me thinking about sexual harassment, street harassment  and about what women and girls put up with in our society.  I wanted to  know how commonly  females  are made to feel uncomfortable, solicited, touched without consent, and generally treated badly.  So tonight, when I was teaching my women's Muay Thai class, I got chatting to some of the students who turned up and came up with an impromptu interview. Shout out iPhones!  I'm not claiming by any means an exhaustive body of  journalistic work, it's just a random group of women from a  range of backgrounds, just recounting their experiences authentically. 
 

"I feel scared because I've had men chase me."

"I feel worthless. I hate when guys just look at you for your body." 

Now I don't know any of these interviewees especially well, we  didn't have a script and all the interview subjects did it on literally 5 minutes notice with little time to prepare their thoughts  after a training session, but I think these short stories speak really powerfully about just how common and severe a problem harassment is.  16 year old girls should be able to go for a walk or a run without having grown men yell at them out of their cars. 37 year old mothers should be able to take their infants for a walk in a pram without getting hassled. Your work place should be a safe place where you feel comfortable.  Snapchat shouldn't be a place females are receiving unsolicited sexually explicit videos.

"If you're one of those people who tell women to laugh it or ignore it, you should stop because really we can't be so blasè."  

May I just pause to publicly say thank you all so much for sharing with me, and allowing me to put it online. The internet can be mean and people are thoughtless  bullies online, so I think you're all really brave and cool AF to open up like this. 

Now you might think I'm just upset because something happened to my girlfriend, but the fact is, this isn't the first story I've heard about harassment, sexual or otherwise.  This sort of shit is, as you can see in the video above, routine, and this is simply the most recent  example of it that's close to home. It makes me think of the girlfriend who told me she lost her virginity, by being raped when passed out drunk. Or one of my best friends who woke up naked at age 15, not sure where she was and what the boy who she'd been with had done to her, but she was dressed when she went to bed. How's that related, you might scoff and ask, and to that I say google rape culture. Nothing happens in a vacuum. We continue to live in and create a culture which, basically treats women like shit. Women get paid less, suffer dramatically higher levels of domestic violence and sexual assault than men. It's the daily sexual innuendo, jokes, harassment and verbal abuse and intimidating behaviour that is a backdrop which helps create the environment for all of this to happen in.

Men, bros, bruhs, dudes, we need to look at our behaviour. We need to stop laughing at and humiliating women. Treating their bodies like public property that you can grab when you feel like it. We need to call other guys out, challenge them on the language they use, the porno they watch and what it's teaching them, the jokes they laugh at. It's up to us to question others, because next time it might not be 'just a joke' and it might not be my girlfriend, it might be yours. Or your daughter. Your sister. Your friend. Will it be so funny then?