Поли́н Панстда́ун: Сати́ра, Му́зыка и Полити́ческий Протест

Australian singer

Simon Hunt, sometimes known as Pauline Pantsdown (born c. 1962), is an Australian satirist and Australian Senate candidate who parodied Pauline Hanson, a controversial member of federal parliament, in 1997 and 2016. His birth name was Simon Hunt, but he legally changed his name through Births, Deaths & Marriages so that he would appear on the electoral ballot as "Pauline Pantsdown"; he later changed back to "Simon Hunt". He is the son of the late David Hunt, who was a Chief Judge at Common Law of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. As Pantsdown, he is a drag queen whose taste in fashion parodies Hanson's, and is best known for the songs "Backdoor Man" and "I Don't Like It". The song "Backdoor Man" was a huge hit on the youth radio network Triple J after its release in 1997, being played almost hourly due to a massive number of requests, making it into the 1997 Hottest 100 list at number 5. However, less than a week after its release, Hanson obtained a court injunction against the song, claiming it was defamatory. In September 2004, after Hanson launched a campaign for the Australian Senate, the ABC was reported to be planning a challenge to the injunction. However, after public criticism from Hanson, the ABC backed down.

Born in Sydney, Hunt began playing in bands when he was 12 years old. Hunt became influenced by arts activism work around the world as a young adult, particularly the group ACT UP. Prior to parodying Hanson, Hunt had successfully lobbied the Office of Film and Literature Classification to remove homosexuality from its list of "adult themes", and produced a parody track collage of Fred Nile's voice. As a gay man, Hunt reflected that homosexuality was not legalized in New South Wales until he was 22; until that point, the prison sentence for consensual homosexual sex was longer than it was for heterosexual rape. As of 2016, Hunt is a head lecturer at the University of New South Wales.

The resulting controversy resulted in Pauline Pantsdown making an appearance at the 1998 Homebake live music festival, complete with apparently gay half naked Asian dancers. He was booed and pelted with objects and later claimed "Homophobia is alive and well in Sydney".

"Backdoor Man" was originally conceived of as a lip synch performance by Hunt for performance at a dance party. Another organiser of the party gave a recording of the song to the ABC to promote the dance party, and as a result, "Backdoor Man" became the most requested song on Triple J over a period of 11 days. he later changed back to "Simon Hunt". On the night of the federal election, Pantsdown performed at the Mardi Gras Sleaze Ball, and a Pauline Hanson Mardi Gras float was exploded. In an interview following his performance, he claimed that he was partly inspired by the "hurt and pain" that, in particular, the communities Hanson targeted at the time felt, and "wanted to give them an opportunity to laugh back". Kylie Gillies also noted that Hunt now lectures at a university (Media Arts, at the University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts, or COFA). Hunt also campaigned against opera singer Tamar Iveri, who was released from a performance of Othello after making homophobic comments on social media. After Hanson won a place in the senate in 2016, Hunt considered a return as Pantsdown. In the same year, in a televised clip, Hanson referred to Hunt as "What a joke he was an absolute idiot ratbag". Hunt maintains a Facebook page as Pauline Pantsdown. In 2016, he was campaigning against the same sex marriage plebiscite and the Australian Christian Lobby. Nevertheless, the plebiscite went ahead, and the legality of same sex marriage was ratified with a 61.6% vote in the affirmative. During the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, Pantsdown ran a parody Twitter account spoofing the Coalition for Marriage.