I have never been a follower of AFL. For as far back as I can remember I could not understand the appeal of watching a bunch of male meatheads running around a field wearing their ridiculous getup of long socks and shorty-shorts, sweating, and spitting on the field – revolting!
And what’s with the pathetic little push and shove matches they get into? They don’t look tough, they look like dickheads.
For a brief time when I was around eight or nine I wore a Geelong FC scarf because our primary school had a “footy colours” day, and I felt like the odd one out for not having a team. I’ve even attended a match or two, and I can tell you I was freezing, miserable, surrounded by screaming fans (what were they even screaming about?), and bored out of my bloody mind.
Growing up in regional Victoria, not following AFL can be tough. You’re definitely in the minority, and it was always awkward when someone tried to make small talk by asking which team you barrack for. All my family and friends were into it and later, my husband.
Unwaveringly, I still never got on the bandwagon. In fact, as I grew up and watched more news, and saw the way the AFL and its players represented themselves, my disinterest grew into dislike, and eventually hatred and disgust.
If being disinterested in AFL makes you an outcast, then actively hating it sends you into exile.
I’ve been relatively mild in expressing my distaste so far, tolerating my husband’s enjoyment of the footy, and even allowing him to take the kids to a couple of games. Hell, my daughter even participated in AusKick last term, and enjoyed it.
No more though. After seeing the way women are still treated by those representing the AFL in the year 2016, I have officially had enough.
My blood was already boiling over President of the Collingwood FC Eddie McGuire’s on air “joke” (HAHAHAHAHA, violence against women is hilarious, innit Eddie?!) about paying $50,000 to see professional sports journalist Caroline Wilson held under ice water, presumably with the intention of drowning.
Waking up today though to read the comments made on Channel Nine’s The Footy Show by Sam Newman sealed the deal for me. It’s over, I’m out. I’m outing myself as an AFL hater.
If the Nine Network had any credibility left, it lost it in not sacking that racist, misogynistic, revolting, and decrepit Neanderthal years ago. I get that he brings in the ratings, if it’s the ratings of the lowest common denominator of Australians you’re after.
Sam thinks that those who publicly called out Eddie’s violent, distasteful humour are “excrement”. Everything that comes out of this foul excuse for a man’s mouth is excrement.
The AFL can introduce a women’s league, and the Nine Network can put a woman on the panel of The Footy Show, but as long as they keep these dinosaurs and their attitudes around, nothing will change.
My children will never again participate in Auskick or attend matches. You cannot tell me that it’s a family game when those who represent you have absolutely no respect for half of my family, and I will not have my daughter or my sons grow up thinking that it is acceptable to vilify a woman who dares to set foot in this “man’s world” of football, and pass it off as a joke.
Unlike Sam Newman, it is not a joke.
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As Sam Newman explained in the clip above, Eddie McGuire had a personal issue with Caroline Wilson, which led to the comments he made. There was nothing to indicate that this was gender-driven. I cannot stand McGuire, I think the man is an imbecile, and I am one of the first people who would pull someone up for being sexist, but it does not look like that is the case here. Calling McGuire out as a sexist for this comment alone completely flies in the face of people who actually are working towards gender equality, and is an insult to people who actually do suffer from abuse and domestic violence. Some people have become too used to playing the 'women are always the victim' card. If McGuire had made the comment about one of his male colleagues, it would have been laughed off. Why is the situation different just because Wilson is a woman? In the sporting world, there are always going to be differing opinions, opinions that are dissected week in, and week out. There are always going to be confrontations. It is often well-known when one AFL personality has a personal problem with another - McGuire and Wilson are not the first and won't be the last. Wilson should not get special treatment because she is a woman. She is a journalist, people are going to disagree with her by nature.
As for preventing your husband from taking his children to a game, or not allowing your daughter to participate in Auskick (which you yourself said she enjoyed) - what is that going to solve? I'm not going to say that there is not any sexist culture surrounding AFL, because there is. But there is sexism everywhere, and to combat it it needs to be faced head-on, not run away from. If your daughter had a teacher at school that made a sexist comment, would you withdraw her from that class, impacting her education? If when she was older she was employed at a company where the CEO was in trouble with the media over an unsavory sexist remark, would you make her quit? You can't hide from sexism. It is a parent's job to teach their children what is right and wrong, to teach our sons to respect women and to teach our daughters to not be bullied out of participating in something that they enjoy just because of their gender. Our daughters will inevitably encounter some form of sexism in their lives, and the more informed and prepared they are, the better they will come out the other side. Forbidding them from participating in something tainted by sexism is not going to fix any problems. Doing the opposite, involving oneself as much as possible in something that one enjoys, and actively working to change opinions, that is how progress is made.
You say that while these 'dinosaurs' are around nothing will change. Well these dinosaurs won't be around forever, and by filling their spots with progressive, well-informed youth we can make a positive change to our children's futures.
Have you actually met an AFL footballer? They are individuals, just like you and I. They can be sensitive, gentle, gay, straight, bi, gender queer. They may volunteer at an animal shelter, or have survived abuse, or pick their grandmother up to cuddle her. They study for degrees, struggle with dyslexia, anxiety, depression. They have mothers, wives, sisters, daughters. They are complex, multi layered individuals. Are some of them misogynistic? Absolutely. But many are not. You and I are women. Some women have done terrible things, killed their children, committed rape. So should society not be abandoning anything to do with us, going by your logic? After all, we are in the same demographic. Are you going to deny your children, and your daughter, the opportunity to continue a game they enjoy? There is now a women's AFL team. Maybe that's what your daughter aspires to do 'when I grow up'. Are you also going to abandon their education? Because after all, some teachers have committed terrible acts of sexual abuse. And while you are at it, you should stop them from swimming ever again, after the antics of the men's Australian Olympic swimming team several years ago. I sincerely hope that you use this as an opportunity to go and meet some AFL footballers. Spend a week with them. See the complexities of their lives, their identity. And then come back and tell us that men in AFL have no respect for women.
Well said.
Well said Willow
Well said, sir..