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.
Prior to the “Big Freeze” at the MCG, they crossed live to Eddie McGuire, who was preparing to take part.
Big freeze for a good cause! See all the celebrities who braved the cold to #FreezeMND https://t.co/l3IOjM4b3h pic.twitter.com/3RnzPMtM3k
— Herald Sun (@theheraldsun) June 13, 2016
The event consisted of a number of high profile figures going down an ice slide and landing in a pool of icy water, all to raise money for the very worthy cause of research into Motor Neurone Disease.
The horrifying exchange involves not one but two current AFL Club Presidents (McGuire – Collingwood – and James Brayshaw – North Melbourne).
But during the cross, McGuire made the following comments:
Transcript:
McGuire: In fact I reckon we should start the campaign for a one-person slide next year. Caroline Wilson. And I’ll put in ten grand straight away- make it twenty. [laugher] And if she stays under, fifty. [louder laugher] [laugher]
What do you reckon guys? Who else is up there? I know you’re in, JB?
Brayshaw: No, yep, Straight in
Danny Frawley: I’ll be in amongst it Ed
McGuire: Is Duck there?
Wayne Carey: Yes, I’m here mate.
McGuire: Duck’s in. Danny’s in — already spoken up.
Frawley: Yeah I’m in Ed.
McGuire: I could do an auction here today.
Frawley: I’ll actually jump in and make sure she doesn’t — I’ll hold her under, Ed.
McGuire: I reckon we could charge ten thousand for everyone to stand around the outside and bomb her.
Damien Barrett: I’m on Caro’s side now, Ed. I’m on Caro’s side these days, Ed.
[indecipherable]McGuire: She’ll burn you like everyone else, mate. She’s like the black widow. She just sucks you in and gets you and you start talking to her and then BANG! She gets you.
Brayshaw: If you ran that auction from down there, I reckon you’d start grabbing some bids out of the seats too. There’d be money piling in everywhere
McGuire: It’s be magnificent. I think we should do that next year. It’s all good for footy.
Brayshaw: Bloody oath!
Bloody oath indeed, though I suspect for entirely different reasons.
The first notable thing about this is, of course, that is is absolutely awful.
These are some of the most high-profile men in football joking about hurting one of football’s most prominent women.
So much of our discussions about violence against women acknowledge the importance of language and of attitudes in shaping the way men think about women. As the current government campaign says, “violence against women doesn’t just start.”
While McGuire and co were undoubtedly joking, the underlying attitude is dangerous: it reenforces the attitudes of those who are willing to take their hatred of women beyond a “bit of banter”.
The image of a woman being held under water against her will while people jump on her body is a horrifying picture of violence. It is nothing less.
And make no mistake, the damage McGuire and co are doing by normalising attitudes of disrespect and violence toward a woman does more harm than a thousand themed matches and white ribbons on uniforms do good.
The other notable thing about this incident is that it happened more than a week ago, yet has received very little coverage: until the weekend, it seems only to have been covered in a short piece on SportingNews titled “Eddie McGuire’s controversial Caroline Wilson comments“.
Then, on this week’s episode of the wonderful “Outer Sanctum” podcast, the hosts discussed it, which led to others paying attention for the first time.
How was this missed? How has violent language against one of the most prominent women in football so accepted? I absolutely count myself as part of the problem here — I’d rather not endure Triple M’s football coverage, so I don’t listen to it.
McGuire, centre, also presents Triple M’s Hot Breakfast in Melbourne
But without attention from people who care, this sort of thing goes on unchecked. By ceding these airwaves to those with these attitudes, we allow them to survive and to thrive.
At some point, enough has to be enough.
If the AFL and its clubs are genuinely committed to doing something about violence against women, they need to respond to this, and not just brush it under the rug. This is absolutely unacceptable. Something must be done.
This post first appeared on Erin Riley’s own blog and is reproduced with her permission
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?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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It’s not men vs women here, it’s football clubs vs those who report on them. That’s it. Move along.
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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.
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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.
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True, although soccer does have a terrible relationship with Caroline Wilson following on from her continued sniping of the world game.
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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?
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McGuire is a complete bore no doubt, but would this have caused such outrage if he’d suggested drowning another bloke? Massive overreaction
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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.
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Totally agree. PC is out of control. What next?
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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?
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