Academics - Footy is 'racist, sexist and anti-gay'

[Hearts to hearts]

As an academic I believe everyone has an instictive positive or negative reaction to 'the other' - whether that be in relation to women, homosexuals or people from different cultural and racial backgrounds.
But I also believe that the AFL itself is great for breaking down racial or cultural barriers, as the fans watch and appreciate the skills and contributions of every player on the ground, regardless of race, and sharing that experiencing of attending the matches with people from different races and cultures helps too.
Though it does appear the commentators go overboard at times when describing the 'natural ability' of the First Australians. That can be viewed as racist.
I don't consider the sport to be sexist, given the high numbers of females involved in club administration, on the boards, running the game (as umpires and other officials) and not to mention the female fans and players.
I expect an AFL player to 'come out' as a homosexual in the next year or two, and we'll all deal with that and then move on. Soon that'll be a comblete non-issue as well.

Welcome to Bigfooty - agree with all this. The greatness of AFL is the breadth of its support base (and the base its players are also drawn from), which includes all levels of education, diverse attitudes, diverse racial backgrounds, both genders, and all degrees of straightness. There's room to improve but there's so much more right than wrong.

And academics are like most of us on here - if you could get money for talking about footy, you'd take it, even if the research was dodgy and the links to reality a bit tenuous.

 

[Geoff Dickson]

Sport is resistant to critique and analysis. It is widely held assumption that sport is inherently good...that it is free from the ‘ills’ of society. It clearly is not. And there is considerable evidence to that effect.

Let’s assume that Hickey did actually use the term ‘always’. For mine, I doubt that he did. Academics rarely use ‘always’ because it only takes one exception for the term ‘always’ to be incorrect. But if he did, it would be fair to challenge him on that one. I suspect the notion that media portrayal

Cazaly’s words about people from migrant backgrounds…"racism, violence, exclusion, parental resistance and financial disadvantage". No argument from me. The follow up question for her is ‘how prevalent are these’ and ‘Is the prevalence of these problems in Australian football any different from other sports’?

Let’s also remember that these academics are prepared to put their name beside everything that they say. Few people on online communities are prepared to do the same.

Given the comments on this thread, are we in agreement that anti-intellectual can added to the list of adjectives to describe the Australian Football community?

PS...here is one for the trivia buffs...if you look closely at Hickey's website you will note he coauthored some research with a 'D.Welham'...that would be Dr Dick Welham PHD...who played a few games of test cricket for Australia in the early 1980s.

 

[DivideandMultiply]

[YOUTUBE]-9Bnq31MWO0[/YOUTUBE]

Dosn't fit this exact formula, but doubtless was considered article worthy for the same reason.

Also don't forget this has been posted on a newscorp site, one notorious for low standards of professionalism.

Have any of us actually read the study, did we hear the comments in context? I would suggest not letting your outrage fool you into clicking on the hyperlink, certainly not worth your effort.

Surely though one or all of racism, homophobia and sexism are still a problem in the AFL, as they are in RL and greater Australian society.

Are we collectively the worst offenders, impossible to tell though I doubt it, dosn't mean it is not an issue.

 

[BONG RIPS MKII]

i think you'll find racism ended when obama was elected president

 

[frantelle]

I dare say that Mr Hickey was the last person selected every lunch time

 

[maroon and blue]

As an academic I believe everyone has an instictive positive or negative reaction to 'the other' - whether that be in relation to women, homosexuals or people from different cultural and racial backgrounds.
But I also believe that the AFL itself is great for breaking down racial or cultural barriers, as the fans watch and appreciate the skills and contributions of every player on the ground, regardless of race, and sharing that experiencing of attending the matches with people from different races and cultures helps too.
Though it does appear the commentators go overboard at times when describing the 'natural ability' of the First Australians. That can be viewed as racist.
I don't consider the sport to be sexist, given the high numbers of females involved in club administration, on the boards, running the game (as umpires and other officials) and not to mention the female fans and players.
I expect an AFL player to 'come out' as a homosexual in the next year or two, and we'll all deal with that and then move on. Soon that'll be a comblete non-issue as well.

Thought this was a highly reflective, cogent article 'till I noticed you put a "b" in complete. Very sad.

 

[ziad]

I hate academics.

that's academicist

I will probably sleep ok

 

[Mattman93]

i think you'll find racism ended when obama was elected president

Haha

 

[Wahooti Fandango]

Thought this was a highly reflective, cogent article 'till I noticed you put a "b" in complete. Very sad.

Very funny.

 

[WCE_phil]

If footy is racist, sexist and anti-gay and has the highest following in Australia and can sell out the MCG in 5 hours perhaps that suggests that Australia likes being racist, sexist and anti gay.

And can we all get a big ****ing amen to that. Seriously academics really need to stfu until they can harden the **** up and actually play the game rather than promoting bullshit academic articles.

Oh and onto the homosexual thing. When homosexuals can naturally reproduce then they can be considered normal. The whole process of life whether that is for a mouse,an elephant, a fruitbat or a ****ing jason akermanis is to reproduce. If you can't naturally reproduce then you are going to have a hard time being normal son.

Political correctness is for academics and those not getting any. I will keep my rights to be politically incorrect while taking the prom queen home for a right ol rogering.

Why you ask, because i'm a man and that's what men do

 

[WCE_phil]

Also racism isn't inherently a bad thing. It at its base is just natural observations.

Racism is only a bad thing when it is used as a means for discrimination.

 

[SBI]

And can we all get a big ****ing amen to that. Seriously academics really need to stfu until they can harden the **** up and actually play the game rather than promoting bullshit academic articles.

Oh and onto the homosexual thing. When homosexuals can naturally reproduce then they can be considered normal. The whole process of life whether that is for a mouse,an elephant, a fruitbat or a ****ing jason akermanis is to reproduce. If you can't naturally reproduce then you are going to have a hard time being normal son.

Political correctness is for academics and those not getting any. I will keep my rights to be politically incorrect while taking the prom queen home for a right ol rogering.

Why you ask, because i'm a man and that's what men do

...and then there's people who shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.

 

[kwame]

i actually know of one gay AFL player for certain.........a mate of mine who is gay has rooted him.......obviously im not going to post who it is though

 

[Big Blow Hard]

Just another example of PC thugs trying to turn us into personality free soulless autonotoms. You watch the futuristic movies where society all dress, think and act the same, that is where we will be in 100 years. Any individual thought will be quashed.

 

[PrideOf]

Just another example of PC thugs trying to turn us into personality free soulless autonotoms. You watch the futuristic movies where society all dress, think and act the same, that is where we will be in 100 years. Any individual thought will be quashed.

Welcome to Andrew Demetriou's AFL.

 

[kwame]

Just another example of PC thugs trying to turn us into personality free soulless autonotoms..

ive been called a greasy thug too.........and it never stops hurting

 

[Phone]

bloody smart people they oughta get a real job!

Also racism isn't inherently a bad thing

i am without words.

 

[bunsen burner]

Academics are gay. And black.

 

[stui magpie]

LOL @ Academics. The Academia Football Club will never do any good.

 

[Dr Pangloss]

ive been called a greasy thug too.........and it never stops hurting

tops

 

[Deefolt]

how is the media being racist and sexist have anything to do with footy?

The only thing that AFL has anything to do with those items have been Indigenious round and mothers day, I think they are the only topics that come under the banner of what they are criticising

 

[Bonuspoints]

So footys racist because the MEDIA always mention that a player is indigenous when they get into off field trouble???? Thats the media and not footy. Given the media always mention what clubs a player has played for when something attention catching happens off field is it that much of a surprise. I remember when Cam Cloke got booted up the date by Setanta papers mentioned that Cloke is an ex-collingwood player.

 

[clobba]

Can I get upset about someone stating the bleeding obvious also?

 

[jenny61_99]

I hate academics.

Hating all academics is surely no better than them branding the AFL as racist, sexist and anti-gay?

 

[Big Blow Hard]

Hating all academics is surely no better than them branding the AFL as racist, sexist and anti-gay?

Pfft. What would a chick know?