A Maribyrnong councillor has called on colourful Geelong mayor Darryn Lyons to resign for wearing a T-shirt at the weekend with a photo of a naked woman hitchhiking.
The T-shirt, which the mayor wore to the city’s Oktoberfest celebrations on Saturday, shows a naked woman hitchhiking on a road with a handbag in one hand and a board in the other that reads: “Gas, grass or ass, nobody rides for free.”
Greater Geelong councillor Jan Farrell said she was shocked when she saw Mr Lyons wearing the T-shirt in a photo on social media on Saturday.
“I thought this is appalling for any man, never mind a man in position of leadership. I was horrified and further appalled to see a picture of him wearing his mayoral robes at the same event,” she said.
“Such an abysmal role model for the young men he meets.”
Maribyrnong councillor Sarah Carter, who earlier this year spoke out about the violent and sexual text messages female councillors sometimes receive, echoed Cr Farrell’s sentiments.
She said she saw the photograph as she was preparing her notes to give evidence at the Royal Commission into Family Violence focusing on the role that local government can play.
“In this current climate I don’t understand how someone can be so out of touch,” she said.
“He is an affront to all women and to all survivors of family violence. These sexualised images of women reinforce the stereotypes of women and gender inequality in society and it comes at a critical time we we are trying to address the imbalance and support victims of family violence. To think the two are not linked is a grave mistake.
“He’s a bloody mayor for Christ’s sake,” Cr Carter said.
‘Passionate about women’
Cr Lyons said he first bought the T-shirt in London when Madonna’s coffee table book Sex came out around 1992 because he loved the photograph.
“I am a collector of amazing pictures … I have naked paintings of men and women all over my house and a big collection of art,” he said.
Wearing his jeans and a mayoral skivvy, Cr Lyons said he became hot at a local beer festival and went home to change, plucking the T-shirt from an old box he hadn’t opened for more than two decades.
“It’s a completely honest mistake … Until someone said to me, ‘have you seen the writing on the thing she is holding?’ I had never even looked at it,” he said.
“I had no idea of what the connotation was and what was written on the particular T-shirt at the time. I had never looked at the words at the time of buying and at the time of putting it on.”
Cr Lyons said the decision was an “epic fail”.
“You couldn’t get a more passionate person about women,” he said.
“I swear on my grandmother’s grave I had no idea what was written on it.”
