March 19, 2004
our mediascape
The context for the cartoon is the exposure of rugby leaque and AFL footballers pack raping young women in Australia. It's a sex scandal that has highlighted the patriarchal locker-room culture of football in Australia.
Wilcox
A suitable definition of our mediascape is it not?
For those who are curious here is a suggestion for what happens inside the footy lockerooms:
Bruce Petty
Many in the locker room are not critical of violence against women; see women as inferior objects who need to be conquered; see those women who consent to sex with a particular player as consenting to having sex with the team; and actively plan team rapes.
Update
This article by Liz Porter in the Sunday Age is a good summary of the commentary in the last two weeks as more allegations surface about sexual violence directed against women by AFL footballers. Liz says the response by a misogynist football culture has been:
"....too busy documenting the possible effect of the allegations on sponsorship, on the image of the game, and on the ramifications for St Kilda's on-field performance for any serious examination of the consequences for the alleged victims......the important distinction between sexual shenanigans and sexual crime is one that appears in danger of being lost......The problem we are facing....is not about sexual hijinks. It's about an abuse of power and a misogynist culture that pervades certain pockets of the football subculture - a culture most aptly summarised in the apparently indestructible belief that "women who have lots of sex are sluts (and therefore get what they deserve) whereas the men are studs."
The footballers even fancy themselves filling the moral vacuum left by the churches. They will take on the role of moral guidance in society. What to achieve I wonder? To teach young men that rape is good and getting caught is bad?
The clubs market their sport in terms of sex appeal but are unwilling to address the sexual violence against women they have tacitly condoned in the past.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at March 19, 2004 12:31 PM | TrackBack