The Age article on racism and homophobia

[JoeHawk]

I'm quite annoyed at this article in today's The Age.

http://m.theage.com.au/comment/afl-...sm-sexism-and-homophobia-20140928-10n7pm.html

It seems now we are the prime source of racial and homophobic behaviour at AFL games as observed by this reporter.

And it goes on in the letter responses obviously most by Sydney supporters on sour grapes.

I quite offended by this report and I'm sure the club would be disgusted.

Hey I'm sure we have a few rat bags in the Club, as do so many others. But fresh off the biggest game of the year, our club does not need to be dragged into this.

Will be keen on seeing how much extra legs this gets in the media.

 

[B0SK]

Not the first time we've had an attention whore in $wans colors bleating about racism to promote themselves

 

[Jaeger]

Stopped reading here

In my 11 years as a Swans member,

 

[Ned Ryerson]

She's lying, or exaggerating plain and simple. And to tarnish the code and all our fans for the actions of a minority if dickheads - she's a sore loser.

I've been to League games all my life - the crowds there make the worst of fans in the greater game seem like civilised gentry.

And the Rob Mills thing is such a beat up. If people want to get on their soapbox about the treatment of LGBT people - start getting angry that the Commonwealth of Nations has multiple member states that criminalise, some punishable by death, homosexuality. That's the real issue - not a bloke being silly with Lego figures.

 

[Flamin Joe]

They shouted that Adam Goodes was racist. They referred to Sydney players only by female pronouns – implying, of course, that being female is to be laughable and weak. And when the Hawks led by a large margin in the last quarter, they started chanting, "Sydney take it up the a---, doodah, doodah".

Racism aside, which clearly is not on in any circumstances, one day the only chants your going to hear at the footy is "Player is not a nice guy! *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*". Seriously getting over the PC crowd whinging about everything.

The other week I read an article which was talking about Goodes and how he get's booed at games which was apparently all racially motivated. Funny how his sniping, staging and perceived protected status when it comes to the MRP gets ignored.

 

[dermott]

An appalling post Bosk. If you find that amusing I feel particularly sorry for you.
The Hawthorn way is to celebrate victory with modesty and sportsmanship.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Racism aside, which clearly is not on in any circumstances, one day the only chants your going to hear at the footy is "Player is not a nice guy! *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap*". Seriously getting over the PC crowd whinging about everything.

The other week I read an article which was talking about Goodes and how he get's booed at games which was apparently all racially motivated. Funny how his sniping, staging and perceived protected status when it comes to the MRP gets ignored.

Is booing him as racially motivated by our cheering for Cyril, Burgoyne and Hill? People need to gain some perspective. Dickheads will always exist - that these days 99.8% don't racially abuse players is an amazing turnaround from the infamous day at Victoria Park. I abhor any kind of discrimination - but I also abhor this immediate rush to outrage society has about the tiniest of issues.

 

[Chrisonater]

I'm so over Adam Goodes winning Australian of the year for pointing out a 12 year girl at the football meanwhile Shan Crawford just rode his bike from Melbourne to Perth in about 3 weeks.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

A swan supporter who wants equality.....oh boy, well I never....

But seriously, s**t form from whoever was crowing out those sorts of statements. Impeccable timing from the sore loser...er, I mean, concerned citizen.

 

[Procrastinator35]

Is Andrew Wu the article author by any chance???

 

[Flag08]

And in other news.....the Hawks won the flag yesterday.....

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Is Andrew Wu the article author by any chance???

No, but they both have a lack of balls. *cue outrage over insinuation that not having balls makes a human less worthy*

 

[letstayunited]

I'm quite annoyed at this article in today's The Age.

http://m.theage.com.au/comment/afl-...sm-sexism-and-homophobia-20140928-10n7pm.html

It seems now we are the prime source of racial and homophobic behaviour at AFL games as observed by this reporter.

And it goes on in the letter responses obviously most by Sydney supporters on sour grapes.

I quite offended by this report and I'm sure the club would be disgusted.

Hey I'm sure we have a few rat bags in the Club, as do so many others. But fresh off the biggest game of the year, our club does not need to be dragged into this.

Will be keen on seeing how much extra legs this gets in the media.

Written by a Sydney supporter

 

[Paul Kersey]

Sexism eh? Check out her twitter page objectifying male footballers.

Also news to me that only homosexuals engaged in anal sex.

Allegations regarding racial remarks (or offensive behaviour) can be dealt with immediately with that phone number which is published around the ground. If any Hawthorn supporter was involved in racial comments, they should have a hard look at themself and our team. It is not on. Does the article comment on whether alleged offensive behaviour was reported, and if not, why not?

 

[Dipper]

A swan supporter who wants equality.....oh boy, well I never....

But seriously, s**t form from whoever was crowing out those sorts of statements. Impeccable timing from the sore loser...er, I mean, concerned citizen.

I think you're more on the dolly than you realise with the concerned citizen bit.

For some reason I googled her name, and after a load of pictures came up of an orange muscly chick in bikinis came up (amusingly ironic as it turned out) which I dismissed being unlikely to be the Erin Riley in question I came across this site:

http://erinriley.com.au/

I'm assuming it must be the same person, as she says that she's a swans supporter, let's just say that she seems to be a both' politically and socially engaged individual' who used to work for a professional sports club(I think the Swans) in Australia and who once embarked on a DIY feminism course which is how she came to realise that she's a feminist (which has still got me sfellowing now).

Overall Id guess that she's easily offended and probably uses the term inappropriate a great deal more than the average person.

Oh and on your first line witticism she has a big section on her site defending COLA.

I can't help feeling pleased that she's sad today, it's little upsetting that she won't man up and allow herself to recognise that she's sad because she went to Melbourne all pumped up expecting glory as in 2012 and found her dreams for the day mercilessly smashed to pieces in remarkably short time so now her mind has constructed a distraction that she believes is really the cause of her angst because she isn't emotionally mature enough to deal with a dream crushing experience.

 

[Davo23]

Written by a Sydney supporter

Did she complain about the number of forward passes and scrums?

It's a tough game is AFL rugby!

 

[Gary Conan Ayres]

This thread is a tarnish on our clubs page merge it with the thread in the bay.

 

[Procrastinator35]

An appalling post Bosk. If you find that amusing I feel particularly sorry for you.
The Hawthorn way is to celebrate victory with modesty and sportsmanship.

If you bothered to cheque your sources & saw the compilation of her twitter account then you'd see that in fact B0SK is spot on!....The Gist....Them bad Hawthorn people beat up on my team & also said some bad words about my players & I'm so sad that we lost that I need someone to blame! Their going to pay for my unhappiness, all of them!

 

[Max Powers]

Read the article and am disgusted on what a complete and utter piece of crap it is, a couple of people yelling sexist and racial things does not represent the majority of Hawthorn supporters and the comments section gee whiz they all sound like a bunch of sore loser Sydney supporters. The one comment from a person stating they had to turn their children away from the tv because of the crowd hostility, are you kidding me ?

 

[Bonscott1980]

Sounds like a sore loser and attention seeker to me

 

[Bumpswithagrin]

I found this line to be plain wrong.

"For too long, it has been acceptable to exclude and marginalise female, racially diverse and LGBTQI fans."

I have never felt marginalised in all the years I have been following football nor did my mum or my grandmother In what way are people in these groups excluded or marginalised?

Really don't follow her argument about the white guys predictions either.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

I found this line to be plain wrong.

"For too long, it has been acceptable to exclude and marginalise female, racially diverse and LGBTQI fans."

I have never felt marginalised in all the years I have been following football nor did my mum or my grandmother In what way are people in these groups excluded or marginalised?

Really don't follow her argument about the white guys predictions either.

Oh, you didn't attend games during 'F*ck Women and Minorities' Round? The guernseys with racial and sexual epithets emblazoned on them were rather fetching!

 

[Dipper]

Also news to me that only homosexuals engaged in anal sex.

Does that mean that my girlfriend is a lesbian?

 

[Porkmason]

She's right about the AFL having a problem with racism, sexism and homophobia, but it's a problem that extends beyond the supporters of the club that beat her team. In fact it extends beyond the AFL. In any large group of people there are going to be scumbags, and on an occasion like this where emotions are running high, and (likely) heaps of booze is being consumed, that little censor switch between the brain and the mouth gets broken. I'm not saying it's right by any stretch, but it happens all the time. I don't doubt for a second the things she alleges were said. I've heard worse at the footy. It does however sadden me that supporters of our club, given the indigenous stars we've had in recent times, would abuse Goodes based in his race. She's even right about the take it up the arse chants and calling players girls. I agree our club isn't Robinson Crusoe on these issues, and I do resent her singling us out, but that's not the sort of s**t I want my kids to hear at the footy.

 

[Symons]

It's just a fluff piece from a sore loser.

The world isn't perfect, unfortunately - and whilst the vast majority of fans from almost any code are pretty decent, you will always have a few who either are racist and/or sexist and/or homophobic (you only have to look at the racism issues in mainland Europe with soccer)...and you'll always get a few more who get dragged into chants without thinking through the full impact of what you're actually saying/advocating.

Report it on match day, and get it sorted - that's what the phone number is there for.

What is saddening is that there probably is a little bit of work to do on balancing some of the -isms in all sports, and this whinging piece isn't the way to achieve it; in fact, she's probably put more people offside.

As for the white guys prediction, there are issues within the whole of society which mean that white men tend to dominate - but at least with AFL there are reasons for it. If this was Telstra, for instance, then you might be actively concerned about the glass ceiling meaning that women and ethnic minorities aren't being represented...but we're talking about a sporting code where to have played (and even coached, at the moment) at the highest level you have to be a man - so it follows that many of those will go into the media.

Of course, the biggest problem isn't the 'white men' predict; it's the fact that some of the people in the footy media are atrocious, and you probably could find better commentators and special experts from media professionals who are avid fans, rather than just ex-players - and they wouldn't necessarily (but could be!) all have to be white men...but, as with lots of professions, it's all about networking - so getting a way in is impossible.

It annoys me, because she's crying about the wrong things, in the wrong way.