Anti-porn bus ready to go

A Kaikohe group will be in Auckland tomorrow, protesting against the Boobs on Bikes parade down Queens St. Photo / File

A Kaikohe group campaigning against sexual violence is heading to Auckland to protest the Boobs on Bikes parade on Queen St tomorrow.

Organiser Mike Shaw said as of yesterday morning he had a banner and a vanload of mostly Kaikohe people ready to join the protest. He hoped to fill a 50-seat bus by the time they left at 7am on tomorrow.

The Kaikohe pastor said pornography objectified and disrespected women, and was the start of a continuum that ended in sexual violence.

"You can't commit violence against women and children without first objectifying them. If you view them as objects it's easier to hurt them," Mr Shaw said.

He believed long-term exposure to porn warped young men's minds and what they viewed as normal.

Mr Shaw said many liberals who defended porn on freedom of expression grounds grew up in an era when the worst they saw was a centrefold in a Penthouse someone had pinched off his dad and shared around his mates. Now, however, hard-core porn was available 24/7 to any 14-year-old with a smartphone.

Mr Shaw conceded the protest could draw more attention to Boobs on Bikes but with up to 10,000 people expected to line Queen St it was a good platform to get the group's message across.

He hoped the group would be joined by White Ribbon riders so the parade would "have some bikes without porn stars on the back".

"Boobs on Bikes is not the issue per se. The issue is the promotion and normalisation of pornography. Sexual violence doesn't happen in a vacuum, it happens in a society that normalises the degradation of women," Mr Shaw said.

He also organised last month's 150-strong march though Kaikohe highlighting the harm caused by child sexual abuse. The aim was to encourage people to speak out if they needed help or knew someone was an abuser.

The Kaikohe march was inspired by MP Kelvin Davis' Massive (Men Against Sexual Violence) hikoi from Auckland to Cape Reinga earlier this year.

Boobs on Bikes features topless models riding motorcycles and is organised by Auckland porn king Steve Crow to promote his Erotica show.