Pat O'Shane's good reasons
NSW magistrate Pat O'Shane apparently hesitated before she decided to make her views on violence against women, and on sexist advertising, known in the Balmain Local Court on January 19. She had already decided to dismiss charges against four women who had written on a billboard, advertising Berlei underwear, which depicted a women being sawn in half and the slogan "You'll always feel good in Berlei". The women had added the phrase, "Even if you're being mutilated".
But should she let the court know why she thought the charges should be dismissed.? Finally, according to an interview she gave to the March 20 Sydney Morning Herald, she thought to herself "Damn it! Bollen [the SA judge whose remarks in a rape-in-marriage trial caused a storm] didn't think twice when he made his comments!"
The following is the text of her address to the court:
"Let me say this. Women are subjected to violence daily, if not hourly, if not by the minute. It is no accident in a society dominated by males that we get this kind of advertising ... It is no accident that we do not see similar depictions of men being disembodied, dismembered and it is no accident, therefore, in fact it flows indeed, that we have laws ... to protect the property of a male-dominated society. The real crime in this matter was the erection of these extremely offensive advertisements. Let nobody be under any misapprehension about it. And what redress does 51% of the population have? Absolutely none. Not only because of that male dominance ... but also because of the massive power that is exercised through huge financial resources. It is an absolute outrage and I am enraged to find myself in a position where I have to deal with four women who have taken the action they did ... which they felt justified in taking and I don't for one moment accept that they were engaged in some kind of idealistic prank. We have a very, very sorry society indeed when these women can be brought before this court for this sort of thing in the light of the depictions which I find in the photograph of that particular advertisement. We live in a society in which at least one, and possibly more judicial officers can state to the world that the law will condone violence towards women. What sort of world are we creating for ourselves? Ladies, you are excused."
Since 1989, when as magistrate at the Brewarrina Local Court she regularly dismissed offensive language and other minor charges against Aboriginal people, Pat O'Shane has been the target of violent, racist and sexist hate mail, much of which she believes came from NSW police.
The reaction to her decision in the Berlei case, on the other hand, has been floods of letters from women all over Australia supporting her for her stand against violence against women.
Nevertheless the NSW director of public prosecutions has decided to appeal, in the Supreme Court, O'Shane's decision in the Berlei case. No date has been set for a hearing, but it is not too early for the campaign of support to begin. The four women who painted the billboard, and magistrate Pat O'Shane, have set a courageous, radical, imaginative and uncompromising example. It's up to activists around the country to keep up the pressure.
By Karen Fredericks