Eddie McGuire, Caroline Wilson and violence against women: the AFL must act
In this guest post, sports writer Erin Riley argues that jokes by Triple M’s Eddie McGuire about drowning journalist Caroline Wilson point to a wider problem in Australia’s football culture.
On Saturday, the Western Bulldogs played Geelong in the White Ribbon match.
It was a game designed to raise awareness of domestic violence and violence against women.
But at the very time the football world is casting light on the issue, it is allowing dangerous, toxic and violent language toward women to be part of mainstream football conversations.
The most recent incident happened on last Monday’s episode of “The Rub” on Triple M.
I was looking forward to watching live coverage of the Women’s AFL … until I read this. It is almost inconceivable that McGuire would have made similar threats (however jokingly) against another “bloke”. So it would seem that woman-bashing is still a national pastime in this country. Sad. Does the money McGuire splashes around empower such bigotry?
How quickly you forget the appalling joke Maguire made referencing Adam Goodes to King Kong. He is extremely bigoted about many things and just sometimes when he runs off at the mouth, those bigotries are aired in public. Heaven only knows what he says ‘off air’. He should not be allowed on radio where he can so negatively influence the other bigoted followers of his afl team.
These blokes are part of the blokey, juvenile, smart arse, bully-boy culture that permeates a lot of the electronic media’s alleged coverage of footy (not just AFL). The nudge, nudge, wink, wink smirking jibes at all and sundry aren’t funny or clever.
A sports journo mate of mine from England is visiting (he’s been here numerous times) and cannot believe the “jockoracy” that dominates commentary on Australian sport … former players, no matter how inarticulate or ill-informed totally dominate.
Where are the trained and skilled broadcasters, journalists etc you hear and read in just about every other country.
Our sports coverage is akin to a low-brow reality TV show … mostly appalling.
The worst part is, if Eddie was a woman and had said something like this as well as the many other offensive things he has let drop in the past, he wouldn’t have a career anymore. How many chances does [Edited by Mumbrella] get?
Interesting the only dissenter in the transcript was Damien Barrett who is actually a trained print journalist who has written seriously about sport for many years … maybe he’s not part of the boys club.
Amazing to contrast the football codes. Look at soccer in Australia – not only has the code had a long association with women but they are integral to much of the product. Writers like Kate Cohen are hugely respected by all soccer fans.
It’s not men vs women here, it’s football clubs vs those who report on them. That’s it. Move along.
I must be part of the problem. I don’t see that the remarks were in poor taste. It was a jib to a fellow industry-person. We seem to have such thin skins over the last decade.
There is every reason to suppose that Mr McGuire has a habit of opening his mouth before his better judgement has been engaged, he has done so on a number of occasions.
It is drawing a very long bow to suppose that his comments were tantamount to supporting or inciting violence against women, but His comments were school-boyish, even hoon like in character, which is hardly unusual among male football or other sports adherents and commentators.
There has been a steadily failing regard for the essential good manners associated with the broadcasting/telecasting profession over the past 40 years, and standards have definitely fallen to a pathetically low level, which is also reflected in the programming and the ever voracious lust for ratings and dollars over responsible broadcasting and telecasting.
Alas, social media (the invention of the devil) has made matters slightly worse.
True, although soccer does have a terrible relationship with Caroline Wilson following on from her continued sniping of the world game.
Caroline Wilson herself has a segment on Footy Classified called ‘Caro’s Arrow’ – An opinionated few minutes dedicated to taking aim at someone and sticking an arrow in them (verbally of course). It’s complete with a cartoon of her shooting an arrow. Isn’t that casual violence also? She only ever skewers men in football. I guess that’s ok because they are just football identities in the industry and she’s not doing it because they are men. Unlike Eddie who made his ‘joke’ about Caroline based on the fact she is a woman and not a key identity in football, right?
McGuire is a complete bore no doubt, but would this have caused such outrage if he’d suggested drowning another bloke? Massive overreaction
As somebody who has done standup comedy, I thought that – in isolation and prima facie – Eddie and the boys’ performance had comic merit: it was irreverent, off the cuff, had good timing, energy and funny content. Granted, all that may not come across in a cold reading of the transcript, but I agree with those who have said if the subject had been a bloke, nobody would have given it a second thought. So now I am wrestling with a “should I feel guilty?” feeling because all the published commentary on the incident suggests I should. No doubt that Eddie’s Adam Goodes King Kong comment from 2013 was egregious, but somehow I don’t think this is. Wilson is a seasoned footy reporter of robust opinions and while some previous pejoratives aimed at her (“Black Widow” and the like) have indeed been hurtful and carried malice, in the context of the occasion I don’t think this did. I’m no fan of Eddie, but I tend to think there has been a massive over-reaction by the media and the PC brigade here. The most revealing gauge of public feeling is always the comments following articles in the press (and there have been many). By observation, well over 80% of them reflect my view.
Totally agree. PC is out of control. What next?
This is not about gender. It’s about personality. Caroline Wilson bases her credentials on being “hard hitting”, even when there has been nothing to be “hard hitting” about. Regardless of gender, she is generally disliked in sporting circles. I would think that she made an issue of this, as her relevance is ever decreasing (since she no longer has Demetriou getting her to do his dirty work, kudos to McLachlin for not playing sniper games with her). What better way to get yourself, even briefly, back on the radar. In general, I consider it contradicatory for anyone to claim that they support Australian Rules Football, and Caroline Wilson. The popularity of her engagements (3AW, The Age(d) Football reporting, and Footy Classified, are all adversely affected by her involvement. If Caroline were male, the same suggestions would be made, and her level of esteem, respect and popularity would be the same. I wonder if anyone would care?