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| Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons urged to resign over naked Madonna T-shirt | Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons urged to resign over naked Madonna T-shirt |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Protesters will rally to demand Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons resign or be sacked for wearing at a public event a T-shirt featuring a naked image of Madonna. | Protesters will rally to demand Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons resign or be sacked for wearing at a public event a T-shirt featuring a naked image of Madonna. |
| Lyons, known for his flamboyant style and unorthodox efforts to promote the manufacturing city, wore the shirt to Geelong’s inaugural Oktoberfest event on Saturday. | Lyons, known for his flamboyant style and unorthodox efforts to promote the manufacturing city, wore the shirt to Geelong’s inaugural Oktoberfest event on Saturday. |
| Related: Giddy up Geelong: new mayor causes stir with billboard featuring himself | Related: Giddy up Geelong: new mayor causes stir with billboard featuring himself |
| Madonna appears on the shirt as a hitchhiker, wearing only high-heeled shoes and carrying a sign that reads: “Gas, grass or ass, no one rides for free”. | Madonna appears on the shirt as a hitchhiker, wearing only high-heeled shoes and carrying a sign that reads: “Gas, grass or ass, no one rides for free”. |
| Geelong Trades Hall secretary Tim Gooden said the image angered Geelong women because it trashed the city’s reputation and reinforced a negative stereotype among men about women. | Geelong Trades Hall secretary Tim Gooden said the image angered Geelong women because it trashed the city’s reputation and reinforced a negative stereotype among men about women. |
| It also undermined efforts by the Geelong union movement and many others to eliminate sexism and violence against women, he said. | It also undermined efforts by the Geelong union movement and many others to eliminate sexism and violence against women, he said. |
| “We’re talking about the mayor of Geelong, the number one citizen, an officer of the Crown who gets paid $170,000 a year and wore a shirt to a public event that is clearly offensive to people in this town,” Gooden said. | |
| “He can’t seem to understand that this is insulting, sexist, demeaning and misogynistic.” | |
| In response to criticism of the T-shirt on social media, Lyons said on Twitter he had “no idea” what the slogan on the shirt was and did not mean to demean women by wearing it. | |
| i had no idea of the slogan on yeaterdays t shirt bought years ago as a great photograph on a tshirt i certainly didnt wish to demean women! | |
| Council colleague Jan Farrell was savage in her criticism. | |
| “As a woman who lives and works in Geelong I am beyond offended at his ongoing disrespect for women,” she wrote on Twitter. | |
| The Trades Hall planned a Speak Out Against Sexism rally for the steps of Geelong City Hall at 12.30pm on Monday. | The Trades Hall planned a Speak Out Against Sexism rally for the steps of Geelong City Hall at 12.30pm on Monday. |
| Further comment has been sought from Lyons |