Analysis The Small Things

[raman]

I wonder where the constant sexual euphemisms and comments that pervade the board fit into this discussion. Innuendos about erections, ejaculations, etc. Posters getting "immediates" etc when they see a port player doing well, or the like.

"Immediate" just means a hearty grin m8, geez you must be a major perv to have thought otherwise.

Seen this from dozens of posters here, and personally find it distastful. I often feel that these posts must surely be offensive to female posters.

Distasteful is indisputable, distasteful to an extent inappropriate to this forum... eh, I don't think so but others might. I doubt women would be more inclined to be more offended by it, there's really nothing sexually aggressive about that particular type of drivel, as far as I can see. But I could be wrong.

 

[Dylan8]

Immediate is just an in-joke stemming from a typo in an article where they said Robbie would "have an immediate when he comes back".

 

[raman]

Then explain to me how it isn't as sexist as saying a sports woman is hot. That is genuine request as I don't see the difference.

It's about the imbalance that is created by historical privilege. Women live their lives copping far more unsolicited feedback about their physical appearance than men do. The vast majority of men have the privilege of their appearance not so significantly colouring their social and professional lives. So it is not a 1:1 comparison when it comes to comments about attractiveness and how people react to them.

There's also the issue of proportion. This is a forum to talk the Port Adelaide Football Club, the principle figures of which happen to mostly be men. As for our beloved homoerotic innuendos, I doubt they comprise 1% of what we talk about when we talk about those men. If only ~1% of the talk about female public figures was along similar lines, this thread would not exist.

 

[Janey]

I don't usually buy into the deep and meaningful discussions on here. BF for me is really to have a bit of fun, join in discussions about our one common passion, PAFC, and get information. But since I am one of the few female posters, I thought I'd put in my two cents worth.

There are definitely times, not many though, when I find some of the stuff on here a bit tacky and sometimes distasteful/offensive, and I have a pretty high threshold of offensive. I put a lot of it down to the fact that most of the people here are male and probably don't post with the thought that there are women reading their posts as well. It's a bit like the way a group of guys in a pub will suddenly tone down their conversations if a woman joins the group, but on the forum you don't think of it.

I find the majority of the male posters are pretty good when it comes to more serious discussions that involve sexist issues, violence against women etc. The stuff that I find tacky or offensive is generally said more in banter, but that doesn't really make it much less offensive. As long as it's not directed at a specific person (especially me ) I don't dwell on it, I just tend to ignore it and either stop reading the thread or avoid reading more from the particular poster.

I will say that the only times I have been tempted to put anyone on ignore though, have been posters who are particularly negative and abusive towards our club or players.

Oh, and I don't mind the references to "immediates" and campaigners, and I wasn't upset when Ollie said they had played like girls. I think sometimes people are too oversensitive about things and it's as much the manner in which something is said as the actual words and it's very easy to be misunderstood when posting on the internet. So maybe it's a bit of both, as well as being more mindful what you post, maybe try giving people the benefit of the doubt a bit more too.

Well that's my ramble on the subject.

 

[Canoogs]

Social justice warrior

I don't get when this became an insult. When did fighting for social justice become a bad thing? We're supposed to tolerate shitty situations? Or is just a lame-ass term like "political correctness" that's used by people who want to pretend that they're not a bigot?

To the main point of this thread - I worked hard to get where I am... but I didn't have to work as hard as some other people do, because I happened to be born a white, straight male. Casual sexism isn't cool. It creates an environment where people are more likely to commit domestic violence and other awful things on women. I have a responsibility to speak out when it happens, and I must admit, I haven't done that on this board. For that, I'm sorry.

Thanks for bringing it up Portia! I'm sorry that it has got to a point that it's upset you so significantly.

 

[BIG MATTY WHITE]

Some of the people on here taking the moral high ground dish out "harsh" comments which myself have been the brunt of a few times....

like a pack of rabid dogs one starts they will jump you....like each others posts yee haww stuff


I do cringe at the stuff posted to females on here times....it is embaressing .....but its the same with insults to individuals intelligence and what not....

 

[BIG MATTY WHITE]

Hands up who finds male footballers being called hot to be offensive.

When someone is genuinely in that position, lets chat about how that needs moderation.

I could be wrong but dont you go on about kane mitchell and oshizzy....

And I am pretty sure you were on here with an avi of kane mitchell in his budgie smugglers?

 

[Tibbs]

"Immediate" just means a hearty grin m8, geez you must be a major perv to have thought otherwise.

Distasteful is indisputable, distasteful to an extent inappropriate to this forum... eh, I don't think so but others might. I doubt women would be more inclined to be more offended by it, there's really nothing sexually aggressive about that particular type of drivel, as far as I can see. But I could be wrong.

I am happy to be viewed as wrong. I might find some posts distasteful, But I dont get offended by much here, mostly fun, light-hearted banter. The times that posts seem questionable, I stop reading them, and sometimes the whole thread ... I just prefer to just move on quietly. What gets written & said here is generally pale to what you find out in the work-force & real world. That being said, if any female (or male) posters are offended by a post and wish to pull someone up ... good on em.

 

[snozulu]

I don't wanna be "that guy"

Start off good point about female posters leaving not something i noticed until you said it
I disagree about people that are racist/sexist here aren't racist/sexist in public, I'd say they're one and the same. People probably push their own line %10 online due to the anonymous of it all but they're racist/sexist online they're probably racist/sexist in real life.I'd also like to defend the 25's and under as being better in this way than the older than 25's


If you don't like what's been said, report it.
If you feel like whats been said is what you don't want the Port bigfooty to look like then report to the moderators and trust them to sort the shit out. How many of you reported the posts you found unacceptable in the Port Adelaide Womens AFL team thread?

So it's all the over 25's that are the worst is it????

 

[El_Scorcho]

I think this recent exchange between my fiance and I highlights the ridiculousness of the "reverse sexism" argument quite nicely.

A few weeks back my sister, who gives me relentless shit in a loving sibling sort of way, teamed up with my fiance to give me grief about looking like one of the cast members of Magic Mike. I was refuting this claim whilst they had a nice little chuckle about it between themselves.

Fast forward a few days and my fiance and I are going to the movies, where low and behold she's picked out a Magic Mike poster from 1000 paces and proceeds to laugh and point at it like a lunatic. Of course, once again, I state that I don't look anything like the guy. She responds by covering up his naked torso with her hands and says "well obviously not the body, just look at the face!"

Now. Try to think of the reverse situation, where I'm covering up the body of a bikini-clad Adriana Lima and yelling "just the face" in front of her and 20-odd passersby. I did, in the moment, and I pissed myself laughing. When I explained why I was laughing her demeanor changed instantly and she replied with an embarrassed "I'm sorry, that was actually really mean", followed by a pre-emptively furious "I would've killed you if you said that to me!"

So here is the difference. In general, we do not raise men with their self-worth tied to their appearance. We practically build women this way.

Hence why my laughter would've been her tears.

Hence why "reverse sexism" is complete bullshit.

(I know this was like 7 pages ago but i'm getting through the thread.

Totally agree.

Reverse sexism, or the objectification of men being a bad thing, is ****ing hilarious. The only men who are upset about the objectification of men are the men not being objectified. We haven't spent millennia having our other attributes ignored and being judged solely on our looks, and ultimately being judged on them isn't going to affect our ability to be happy and successful in life. That is still absolutely the case for women in a 1st world country like ours in 2015. From the ground up.

Also I quite like being called a social justice warrior and I feel like it's a term that non-bigots should take back. Can we do that?

 

[Lagooner]

Also people don't understand that all gender based comments; complementary or derogatory can be seen as sexist and a lot of the time have polar opposite connotations for the same thing.

Traditionally comments referencing men are complementary, strong, largely positive and are seen as a sign of strength and power or 'Masculinity'. Whereas comments referencing women are usually derogatory, weak, mostly negative and female professions are largely viewed as lesser people or 'Femininity'.

Some examples:
Complementary: Stud
Derogatory: ****
Despite being exactly the same thing being a **** is frowned on but a stud is praised.

Strong: He's got balls
Weak: What a pussy
Despite one being significantly stronger than the other, the one associated with weakness is the female one.

The comfort of language that people speak is strongly positive to males and weighted very negatively towards females. Terms like princess, girly, and the like can be replaced with one word: weak. Gender is not necessary to describe things, it's lazy and a backwards way of communication.

It's not that hard to adapt.

On the contrary, change is one of hardest things to enact. Think about it in a work context. Whenever a process change is about to take place there is almost always a mountain of whinging about it, even if the change is clearly for the better. People become very protective of their long held ways and views, admitting your faults is uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing, so stubbornness and pride become barriers to progress.

I'm not saying don't try, just don't underestimate people's capacity to resist change, even if said change is a positive one. So what I'm actually saying is that you need to try harder!

Great post by the way.

 

[snozulu]

Because its been digging at me for a while (and as we see, other people too), and I felt like I'd had enough.

I miss diversity in our posters. I don't see the need for blokes to throw around sexist stuff about women that makes it hard to stay here. This place is for football, and Port Adelaide.

This comment really stands out to me as diversity is what the AFL and our club are all about representing. A sport that every one can enjoy no matter what gender, cultural background age etc. Where everyone is respected, not judged (just like the majority of society) and can enjoy sharing the passion which is Port. So anyone who has issues of sexism, racism and all of that and wants to post it on bigfooty isn't welcome. This shit isn't tolerated in society, so why should it be tolerated here. I really think the vast majority of us think the more diversity the better as it really makes for fantastic reading and conversations about footy. The fact that such a long time respected member as Portia and others who are deeply concerned and offended by sexist remarks is enough reason to bring it out in the open for discussion. It's obviously been going on far too long and something needs to be done to improve attitudes.

 

[Andre]

I don't get when this became an insult. When did fighting for social justice become a bad thing? We're supposed to tolerate shitty situations? Or is just a lame-ass term like "political correctness" that's used by people who want to pretend that they're not a bigot?

It's a term of insult, because a lot of SJW's first instinct is to look for insult in every or offense in every situation, rather than was that the intent of the poster/speaker. And lead with all guns blazing, rather than thinking that a lower key honey and stick approach and gentle explanation of their viewpoint would be more constructive then the verbal equivalent of kicking someone in the gender neutral area of the groin, whilst saying they are a worse example of humanity then a violent criminal.

 

[Canoogs]

It's a term of insult, because a lot of SJW's first instinct is to look for insult in every or offense in every situation, rather than was that the intent of the poster/speaker. And lead with all guns blazing, rather than thinking that a lower key honey and stick approach and gentle explanation of their viewpoint would be more constructive then the verbal equivalent of kicking someone in the gender neutral area of the groin, whilst saying they are a worse example of humanity then a violent criminal.

Funny, the little bit of research I did on the internet seemed to indicate it was just another ad hominem attack, used to accuse people of making ad hominem attacks. Weird.

 

[Power04Surge]

 

[Nemisis]

Serious non football threads are not my thing but Portia has the right to bring to the surface her grievances.
And others have a right to disagree with her.
High School 'humour' is near impossible to eliminate - if you are offended by something - stand up and say it - there will be similar minded posters to back you up.
Portia even you have made a few 'uncomfortable' remarks in the past.

 

[DaTBird187]

High School 'humour' is near impossible to eliminate

Poo Eckert thread Views = 1,628,589

 

[*PAF]

6.
Just over 6 pages since I last checked in.
No. I shall not read them all.

Can someone pleasedo a condensed summary for me?
At the end of the last episode Andre was willing to wear a dress as long as his fishing stuff was fine.

 

[*PAF]

i think I worked it out.

Poo Eckert ia a woman who used to, but doesn't post on this board any more.

 

[Jumbo]

i think I worked it out.

Poo Eckert ia a woman who used to, but doesn't post on this board any more.

Keep reading and you will find the mystery of why Poo Eckert isn't on the board anymore.

 

[Steve Dore]

i think I worked it out.

Poo Eckert ia a woman who used to, but doesn't post on this board any more.

Poo Eckert's real name is Sharon?

 

[raman]

I could be wrong but dont you go on about kane mitchell and oshizzy....

And I am pretty sure you were on here with an avi of kane mitchell in his budgie smugglers?

How about answering her question instead.

 

[*PAF]

Poo Eckert's real name is Sharon?

And when you watch a replay of an old Sydney game and Capper flies for a mark its now SHAZZA i stead of WOZZA!!!

 

[Andre]

6.
Just over 6 pages since I last checked in.
No. I shall not read them all.

Can someone pleasedo a condensed summary for me?
At the end of the last episode Andre was willing to wear a dress as long as his fishing stuff was fine.

Hey! At least that'd be something everyone could come together on. The feeling of disgust that what has been seen can not be unseen.

 

[1954]

I haven't noticed too much blatant sexism on the site, but I do have to say there is unfortunately rightly or wrongly a price to pay for equality.
By that I mean what was considered to be `front bar talk ' for decades is now par for the course in many circles, and you can hear it everywhere.

Any male who was silly enough to drop the magic word in front of eg a female relative when I was a young bloke would usually end up with a well deserved smack behind the ear.

In the last 2 or 3 decades the respect for authority in all its forms has waned considerably, nowadays a lot of young women talk like navvies, which has changed society's perception of the war of the sexes, and many young males in particular have responded accordingly.