Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:52p.m.
James Murray has the dubious pleasure of reporting on this year’s Boobs On Bikes parade – you will be able to check out his live blog and photos from the event on 3news.co.nz and on his tweet – 3news_video.
This time last year I ran the Boob On Bikes parade as a the front page story of the AUT student newspaper
Te Waha Nui. It was not an obvious decision for a young editorial team but I was adamant that it was a genuinely excellent news story.
It had a little bit of everything…
There was conflict between organiser Steve Crow and his band of porn-mongers and the groups that marched the streets in the name of pornography being a source of abuse to women.
No less the previous dispute Crow had had with Auckland City Council, who tried to ban the parade on the grounds that it was offensive.
There were the colourful characters – jaded porn-stars pumped full of excessive amounts of silicon, Crow himself – outspoken, belligerent and somewhat Churchillian in his refusal to bow to others’ moral certainty, and a crowd made up of the full bouquet of Auckland’s masses.
There were lads and laddesses, professors of journalism, passing cyclists, fathers holding up expectant children, the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. All sorts lined the streets to witness this clash of cultures.
This year may not have the same fireworks in terms of mass protests, but the story is none-the-less still very interesting.
Crow, who has been battling financial difficulties as his porn empire has taken a hit due to the recession, sees this parade and the Erotica Lifestyles Expo as a sign that he is back on track; a bare-breasted, chest-beating symbol of a return to form.
In May this year Crow’s businesses, Vixen Direct and Erotica Expo, collapsed, owing creditors more than $400,000.
Crow blamed free downloads of pornography on the internet and parallel imports; poorly attended expos in Christchurch and Wellington did not help matters.
So a lot rests on this parade. If it gets the usual bombastic turnout and this year’s Erotica Expo is successful we could see a triumphant return – but if those porn stars, who this year include 12 drag queens, go down Queen Street with visibly less fanfare - could we see the end of Crow?