As debate rages over the lack of opportunities for women directors and playwrights on Australian main stages, the National Play Festival – Australia’s leading market for showcasing new unproduced plays – has raised eyebrows and ire with its leading publicity image.
When the festival website went live on December 6, 2009, its front page featured – among other images including a dead or unconscious woman and an older woman in dressing gown and curlers – a sexualized image of a suspender-clad woman baring her buttocks at the viewer. A hyperlink on the woman’s buttocks led web browers to the ‘Performances’ section of the website. The image also appeared on collateral, including postcards, disseminated at the National Play Festival 2010 launch at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts on Thursday December 3.
