Tuesday, May 12, 2009

ABC 4 Corners, sexual assault and NRL

The Code of Silence.

An interesting programme.

I found the "team education" session eye-opening, the young woman tricked into having sex with two men, then the contrast of the young man being raped by men and the contrast in the opinions of the footballers.

Particularly the last poor young bloke who they used as a sound grab to prove that the whole respect women thing has a long way to go. His statement (paraphrased), that it doesn't matter what you do to the woman, as long as you treat her well afterwards, put her in a taxi and send her home, it's OK.

Oh dear.

And tell me, I can't work it out. Why did the blonde piece in the t-shirt, knickers and shoes (and that's all), at the Normanby, picking up footballers, why did she really, really make me angry? Is it any wonder that young, inexperienced girls are abused by these blokes when they have the attitude that they do and women like Charmayne (I think that's her name), sleep with footie players? I know that she does it in her terms, but what about the girls who are naive or innocent and don't understand that it might be a bit risky to go back to a bloke's room alone*?

*I know it's not every bloke, but it seems to have something to do with the pack mentality of the "team" and the total immaturity and insensitivity of the young blokes.

As for John's apology on The Footie Show last week, what a waste of time. Who was he apologising to and what was he apologising for?

Because nothing's ever happened about these assaults, no charges laid, the opinion seems to be that it is all right to behave like this and it must have been consensual. How would they feel if it was their mother, sister, girlfriend who was assaulted and degraded like this? "Oh, it's OK, I said sorry and put her in a taxi."

The attitudes of the commenters also shows that there's a long way to go before "she asked for it" and the blokes are the victims no longer is an excuse to let antisocial behaviour and sexual assault pass by without comment or condemnation.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

There seems to be a huge percentage of players in the NRL who fail to have any intellect at all. Stupid utterings, mucked up cliches and miss pronounced fricatives are common place at press conferences, but it doesn't stop there. Many of them fail to see how a man being taken advantage of sexually is any different to a woman being taken advantage of sexually. Any rational minded individual watching the same footage would've seen that one coming. Although this is a huge generalisation, I'll still write the following- The typical footballer is nothing but a dim wit.

Anonymous said...

***Sorry for the mistake above, it's late-

Should read "...Many of them fail to see how a man being taken advantage of sexually is in any way similar to a woman being taken advantage of sexually..."

kae said...

Hi Anonymous
Thanks for popping over

My grandma would have described her "t-shirt" as nin-ons over none-ons.

Egg said...

"The typical footballer is nothing but a dim wit."

As is the typical female footy groupie, non: 'stupid is as stupid does'?

A clear case of Auntie's girls-who-bat-for-the other-side* trussing-up a prominent NRL player.

If Aunty were still televising live NRL, would not her editorial have been a little different?

Google the tragic story of Auntie's former NRL host, Peter Jackson, for some balance?

*The power bloc within the left-leaning ivory tower (from one who's been in the TV meeja).

Caz said...

"the opinion seems to be that it is all right to behave like this and it must have been consensual"Except that it was consensual. In the NZ case, she verbally requested that they have sex with her.

The police thoroughly investigated when she reported the incident, having waited nearly a week to do so, and they found no evidence of a crime.

Amazing to me that rape victims are judged, pillared, treated disgustingly by the legal system and the public alike, yet this woman - with her questionable motives, for both the sex and the complaint - has garnered unanimous sympathy.

Footballers might have skewed ethics, but so does society.