Introduction
In 1978 counter-protesters met each stop of a tour of Australia by Mary Whitehouse, a self-styled “morals crusader” from the UK who was opposed to what she described as the “permissive society”. Whitehouse’s messages included instructing followers in Perth that “a woman was expected to entertain her husband to stop him from watching too much TV”.
On September 20 in Melbourne Whitehouse addressed what she described as a “disappointing” number of followers at Festival Hall while hundreds demonstrated outside against her campaign to restrict civil and human rights for women, lesbian and gay community members and others. The following day a rally by 30 members of the Christian far-right group Festival of Light (FOL) at the University of Sydney was outnumbered 25 to 1 by their opponents. A later FOL rally the same day was met by 350 counter-protesters who were watched closely by 150 police. Meetings in Perth were also met with counter-protests but it was in Queensland where the most disruptive action took place.
Read Interview
In 2003, Iain Mclntyre interviewed Jaye Mount-Winter on Community Radio 3CR about the 1978 pieing of Mary Whitehouse. In it Jaye Mount-Winter discusses how the use of this slapstick based tactic, and creative activism more generally, was used to challenge and elude the anti-protest laws of the era. The interview originally appeared in Pie Any Means Necessary: The Biotic Baking Brigade Cookbook (AK Press, 2004), an anthology about the history and use of political pieing by social movement activists.
Iain Mclntyre: For those unfamiliar with her, who was Mary Whitehouse?
Jaye Mount-Winter: She was the 1970s forerunner for much of the Christian fundamentalism that was to follow. Whitehouse was based in Britain where she was the core of a right-wing “family values” push. She and her followers would campaign for increased censorship of television, in the media, and generally against what was known then as the “permissive society.” Behind her demure, Iittle old lady image, she was very much against abortion and any kind of rights for women.
IM: What was she doing in Brisbane?
JMW: She was on a national speaking tour. Given that the state of Queensland was incredibly conservative in the 1970s, she probably thought that she would be very popular there.
IM: Conventional protest tactics were quite difficult to use in Brisbane at that time weren’t they?
JMW: People forget now, but back in the late 1970s, there was a general ban on street marches and public protests in Queensland. Supposedly you could apply for a permit to protest, but the authorities would never give you one. Whenever people just went ahead and held a demonstration anyway, the police would come in and beat everyone up. They were extremely keen on stifling any form of public dissent. In fact, it was so repressive that one time when some friends and I were just zooming around having fun in the back of a flatbed truck, we were threatened with arrest for laughing too much!
IM: So did this influence your decision to use a pie?
JMW: We were always looking for ways around these laws. At one point, we formed a religious sect devoted to the “Holy God of the Bank-book,” which gave out weird and political tracts in shopping malls. On another occasion, we rode around on bikes with protest placards on our backs. In this case, we were inspired by what we had read about (US Yippie activist) Aron Kay’s spectacular pieing actions.
IM: What kind of recipe was involved?
JMW: It was meant to be a menstrual blood pie, though no one was willing to donate at that time! So we had to use cochineal in an attempt to make it bright red, but the dye made it purple. Flavor-wise it was pretty soapy as we used what we regarded as a traditional recipe of shaving cream.
IM: How did it go down on the day?
JMW: Once prepared, we all dressed up in our finest and entered as members of the public. One woman was actually a mother, but since she was quite small, she dressed up in a school uniform. Another of our members, a tall young guy, dressed in a suit to do the deed.
I remember feeling very uncomfortable wearing a dress, but I was also excited. In some ways, we were pretty scared since there weren’t many of us- luckily Whitehouse’s supporters didn’t get violent.
When Whitehouse made her appearance, our friend let fly with the pie. Sadly, it didn’t hit her right in the face, but it went all over her chest. A number of male voices immediately rang out in incredulous outrage that we could do such a disrespectful thing. She was totally flabbergasted, yet managed to make the comment that at least the pie matched the color of her dress.
We all rushed to the front to support the pie thrower but were hustled out quickly. A few people were arrested, but they were let off as often tends to happen in these situations. Basically, no one wanted to have to fly Whitehouse back from Britain to appear as a star witness.
IM: What was the reaction of the media?
JMW: It got into all the newspapers. I remember seeing a photo of Whitehouse with pie running down her dress just after it happened. We weren’t really doing it for media coverage, however, we just wanted to make her feel unwelcome. I guess we succeeded.
Access Book
Copies of Pie Any Means Necessary: The Biotic Baking Brigade Cookbook can be ordered here.
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