It is a remarkable photo of AFLW player Tayla Harris.
An iconic AFL stance. An immensely talented sportswoman in the middle of her work.
But then trolls descended. Within hours, a post of the image on 7AFL's Twitter account had attracted dozens of awful comments, some mocking the Carlton forward, the worst sexualising her.
7AFL removed the image and then apologised for doing so, because it was not the photo that was the problem. It was the trolls.
But while the photo of Tayla is amazing, it is also similar to many other well-known images of AFL players.
Those other photos did not attract such horrible comments, and the only difference is that they are of men.
When you look at these images, you should see sportspeople with extreme talent to be admired.
That for some people it is only the images of men that do this, while those of women evoke misogynistic and inappropriate responses, shows we have a long way to go.
One Twitter user's tweet perfectly sums this up.
@7AFL Spot the difference #taylaharris pic.twitter.com/gtVzbHd59a
— Stillmatick (@Stillmatick) March 19, 2019
Spot the difference, he asked. There isn't one.
Top Comments
It is misogynistic keyboard warriors. They have so much time on their hands, and so little purpose in their lives that they have nothing better to do than to pull others down. This elite AFLW player has achieved more in her life than any of them.
It seems to be borne out of fear, some people seem really terrified that a woman can play. What is that all about?
Yeah, it's pretty baffling. It's not like they're gonna try merge the AFL and AFLW or force people to attend AFLW games.