
This post deals with sexual harassment, and could be triggering for some readers.
It was only a few months before Australia's infamous ball-tampering incident that Australian cricketer Tim Paine, a husband and a father, decided to send a picture of his penis to another woman.
We know it was an act of infidelity. According to the woman who received it, the image was also sexual harassment.
On Friday afternoon, Paine stood down as the Australian cricket captain. The 36-year-old was aware explicit text messages exchanged with a former colleague were about to be made public. He had known this day was coming. The woman claimed back in 2018 that she was offended by Paine's "sexually explicit, unwelcome and unsolicited photograph", as well as the "graphic sexual comments".
At the time, Cricket Australia launched an investigation in response and found there had been no breach of the Cricket Australia Code of Conduct. Paine himself maintains the messages were consensual.
Watch the news coverage surrounding former New York congressman Anthony Weiner, sentenced o serve jail time for sexting a 15-year-old girl. Post continues after video.
It is unclear at this point who leaked the text messages. There is no suggestion the woman did. The point of printing the contents of the messages is also unclear. It does not prove, nor disprove, either side of the story. It simply makes public what was clearly intended to be private.
What has been interesting to watch is the response to the story, particularly from women. Many would like it on the record that no woman, ever, wants to see a dick pic.
Kerri Sackville captured that sentiment in a fantastic article in The Sydney Morning Herald this weekend. She wrote about a phenomenon just about every woman knows to be true - being sent a random, disembodied, unsolicited dick pic, by a man who thinks his genitals are far more interesting or powerful than they actually are. At best, such an experience is ridiculous. Almost funny. The stuff you roll your eyes about with friends over a drink. At worst, it's harassment. Digital flashing. It's aggressive. It can be triggering and distressing.
But there was one sentence of Sackville's, which has been shared by many, that I take issue with. She wrote: "If we don’t ask, for god’s sake, just leave it in your pants. Your big penee may fascinate you, but it really does nothing for us."
What this speaks to is a conflation we've seen over the past few days of 'sexting' and 'sexual harassment', as though the two are at all the same thing.
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