peejay
Brownlow Medallist
Bankrupt orgy of male chauvinism
Catherine Deveny
June 16, 2007
The Footy Show is fooling no one: a misogynist in a suit is still a degrading spectacle.
I HAVE JUST WATCHED three episodes of The Footy Show and I feel like Sammy Davis jnr at a Ku Klux Klan rally, like Dannii Minogue at a Mensa convention, like George Pell in 2007.
I'm not into plants but I like Gardening Australia, I'm not into quiz shows but I like The Einstein Factor, I'm not into cars but I like Top Gear, so not being into footy isn't the reason that I'm repelled by this destructive, small-minded, morally bankrupt orgy of chauvinism. The Footy Show is a celebration of the very worst that television, sport, Australia and human beings can cook up. It's offensive, toxic, corrosive, encouraging viewers to be stupid, shallow and sexist. Sit down, shut up and hang on. And ladies, bring a plate.
The Footy Show is nothing more than media-sanctioned misogyny. And so much less. Tune in and you'll feel you've woken up in 1952. A man in a full body condom, men dressed as women, girls in bikinis, guys stuffing toilet paper down their jocks, ********s, w***ers and yobs. The few women that I did see were leered at, one called "a bitch" and another told to "get f---ed" (both by Sam Newman). I heard the word "sheilas" and could sense that the words "****ters", "wogs", "slopes" and "*******s" were just below the surface.
Is it the program, the network, the culture of Australian television, or just Newman that is so offensive? It's all of them. But Newman really needs to be singled out for his extraordinary contribution to this tragic, puerile, adolescent show that degrades the culture of football, alienates women and teaches boys that females are slaves, trophies or bitches.
No wonder young footballers are taking drugs. How else can they reconcile this bizarre world with real life? And what's with the suits? Some pathetic attempt to bring respectability to this sad little show? Fat chance.
Newman is vain, ugly, a megalomaniac, a bully. I can't help feeling that deep inside he would be happy for women to have their brains removed and replaced with a bar fridge. He's a dangerous bloke who's paid a lot of money to defile our culture and undermine our intelligence in the most putrid of fashions. For any of you who have sat surrounded by people laughing at this maggot and found yourself thinking there is something wrong with you, there isn't. There's something wrong with him. And them.
The Footy Show catapults sexism into an extreme sport. Football shows don't have to be a cross between a buck's night and a lynching. And if you don't believe me, watch Before the Game. It's not as blokey, and that's not just because there is a woman on the panel but because the blokes are not as blokey. The jokes are not as blokey. And the content is intelligent. Think Roy and HG, Live and Sweaty, Talking Footy and The Fat. Australia has an impressive history and culture of intelligent, entertaining sports shows that put The Footy Show to shame.
This was in Saturday's age.
I think she has gone a little hard on Sam.
Catherine Deveny
June 16, 2007
The Footy Show is fooling no one: a misogynist in a suit is still a degrading spectacle.
I HAVE JUST WATCHED three episodes of The Footy Show and I feel like Sammy Davis jnr at a Ku Klux Klan rally, like Dannii Minogue at a Mensa convention, like George Pell in 2007.
I'm not into plants but I like Gardening Australia, I'm not into quiz shows but I like The Einstein Factor, I'm not into cars but I like Top Gear, so not being into footy isn't the reason that I'm repelled by this destructive, small-minded, morally bankrupt orgy of chauvinism. The Footy Show is a celebration of the very worst that television, sport, Australia and human beings can cook up. It's offensive, toxic, corrosive, encouraging viewers to be stupid, shallow and sexist. Sit down, shut up and hang on. And ladies, bring a plate.
The Footy Show is nothing more than media-sanctioned misogyny. And so much less. Tune in and you'll feel you've woken up in 1952. A man in a full body condom, men dressed as women, girls in bikinis, guys stuffing toilet paper down their jocks, ********s, w***ers and yobs. The few women that I did see were leered at, one called "a bitch" and another told to "get f---ed" (both by Sam Newman). I heard the word "sheilas" and could sense that the words "****ters", "wogs", "slopes" and "*******s" were just below the surface.
Is it the program, the network, the culture of Australian television, or just Newman that is so offensive? It's all of them. But Newman really needs to be singled out for his extraordinary contribution to this tragic, puerile, adolescent show that degrades the culture of football, alienates women and teaches boys that females are slaves, trophies or bitches.
No wonder young footballers are taking drugs. How else can they reconcile this bizarre world with real life? And what's with the suits? Some pathetic attempt to bring respectability to this sad little show? Fat chance.
Newman is vain, ugly, a megalomaniac, a bully. I can't help feeling that deep inside he would be happy for women to have their brains removed and replaced with a bar fridge. He's a dangerous bloke who's paid a lot of money to defile our culture and undermine our intelligence in the most putrid of fashions. For any of you who have sat surrounded by people laughing at this maggot and found yourself thinking there is something wrong with you, there isn't. There's something wrong with him. And them.
The Footy Show catapults sexism into an extreme sport. Football shows don't have to be a cross between a buck's night and a lynching. And if you don't believe me, watch Before the Game. It's not as blokey, and that's not just because there is a woman on the panel but because the blokes are not as blokey. The jokes are not as blokey. And the content is intelligent. Think Roy and HG, Live and Sweaty, Talking Footy and The Fat. Australia has an impressive history and culture of intelligent, entertaining sports shows that put The Footy Show to shame.
This was in Saturday's age.
I think she has gone a little hard on Sam.
