All for women, two sheilas and under cover BRAvery

Megan Bayliss walks down the main street of Cairns, wearing an over sized pink bra on the outside of her clothes, to keep locals and tourists abreast of women’s issues, safety and the sisterhood of the travelling bra.

You may remember that Sheila, (a twin peaker from All for Women), spent Christmas and New Year with me in Cairns. When I published Sheila’s titillating travels in, Sheila’s Twin Peaks for social understanding in the sisterhood of the travelling bra, a Google Alert hit the breast of a female journalist at The Cairns Post. Contacting me on New Years Eve, Sheila and I were immediately interviewed by the lovely female journo by telephone and then invited to seduce both the public and tourists in Cairns City, safely chaperoned by a photographer from The Cairns Post.

Up and down I walked the steamy and lustful beat in Cairns city. Knowing that I was no doubt treading the ground that the beautiful Elle Macpherson and Isabelle Lucas (a Cairns girl) had also trod, my loyal breasts stayed perky to the importance of women’s issues, held up by the strength of my famous sisters.

While I trod, and re trod, and trod again (photographer, Marc McCormack was either trying to traumatise the public of Cairns or get the perfect award winning shot), my mind wandered to a woman’s right to wear what she wants. We all have the right to feel safe all of the time – no matter what we are wearing.

With rights comes responsibilities though. If I choose to make my bed with under covers as my top sheet and no doona (Aussie slanguage translation – comforter or blanket), then I have to take responsibility for waking up cold in the middle of the night. If cold, I would get up and pull on a doona, turn the air con off, or put warm pyjamas on. So it is with the clothes we wear, women. We may choose to wear our under covers alone and nobody has a legal right to make our blood run cold by physically hurting us. The reality is though that many people will take advantage. In our under-covers or skimpy clothes, we may be seen as fair game; and the predators circle for the kill. Taking a stand at this point and covering up our beautiful bodies, not their body of very bad behaviour as has traditionally been done, gives the predator a clear message that their unacceptable behaviour has been noticed and that we are on to them. Look them in the eye women, so that they know you’ve clearly seen them and can identify them and their sexual ogling. If they were a work colleague doing it to you then they would be in breach of sexual harassment laws – WHY do we put up with it from strangers?

Sexual harassment, sexual assault, or rape is not about appreciation or even sex, it is about power. Take the power away from a sex predator and they show up as the paethetic weasels they are. I have the right, and the power, to wear what I want (I wore Sheila down a very busy street in Cairns) and I have the responsibility of knowing that if any predator tries it on me, I WILL report and I WILL make names public. If you think I was shamed walking down the street in a big pink bra, you perps better look out because I can guarantee that the BRAvery of the sisterhood is something you do not want to mess with. I might be an old sheila now but I’m having power surges, not hot flushes!

Here’s a few more pics of Sheila, undercover, in Cairns:

Sheila and I visit Birdwing in her rainforest home.

Sheila and Megan with the photographer for The Cairns Post on New Years Eve, 2007.

Many, many thanks to The Cairns Post for helping to raise awareness of All for Women and the plethora of women’s issues that the community deals with.

Special thanks also to the wonderful locals and tourists in Cairns and surround who stopped and chatted about Sheila and the issues affecting women all over the world.

Goodbye Sheila. You were a great guest and I am going to miss you. I put Sheila on a plane today and she’s off to visit Elizabeth in Bendigo.