If you walk down High Street you might notice some discreet, distinctly hand-made posters; “Protest march against Adult World sex shop” they beckon.
There are many ways one might like to spend Friday. Perhaps you’ll be attending a vigil or march to close Rhodes’ Human Rights Week, or maybe you’ll just be enjoying the freedom of Friday.
If you walk down High Street you might notice some discreet, distinctly hand-made posters; “Protest march against Adult World sex shop” they beckon.
There are many ways one might like to spend Friday. Perhaps you’ll be attending a vigil or march to close Rhodes’ Human Rights Week, or maybe you’ll just be enjoying the freedom of Friday.
That’s one of the great things about this country;we really are free. Our Constitution guarantees the sanctity of our human rights.
And every individual’s freedom is based on the freedom of others. So these scattered posters serve as just another reminder of our freedoms; of association, of movement and of expression.
However, what the people behind this endeavour seem to have forgotten is that the same freedoms that allow them to assert loudly and vehemently that Adult World is a cause of moral decay, is the same freedom that protects others’ right to browse its shelves and embrace the many ways it offers of expressing their sexuality.
In conversation, discussing this (scandalous!) new addition to Grahamstown’s limited shopping opportunities, most like to mention that Adult World is situated in Beaufort Street… across from the police station. Ha. Ha. Ha?
Should we consider these two institutions mutually exclusive? When the long arm of law extends into a sex shop it’s generally to confiscate pirated DVDs and not to censor our sexual behaviour.
Perhaps fluffy handcuffs will be the next item de rigueur to sweep into local police fashion. Attracting some internet forum chatter and local media attention this minor furore has most people laughing but a few are fuming.
Critics led by Mohammed Moorad of the Unemployed People’s Movement and Grahamstown’s Muslim Association, as well as the Fingo Revolutionary Movement and the Rastafarian Community have called Adult World an “immoral educational centre” and say they intend to “protect the moral image of the City of the Saints”.
Now that’s a real joke. For proof see the Facebook group (sarcastically) titled “Send your kids to Rhodes”, a site dedicated to showcasing gory snapshots of the Rhodes’ party lifestyle.
Ouch. Gross. No, really. Perhaps a moral march on the Vice Chancellor’s home – peddler of filth and degradation that he must be – is next on the agenda?
