{"id":115,"date":"2004-09-22T04:23:41","date_gmt":"2004-09-22T04:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php\/2004\/09\/22\/are_women_acces\/"},"modified":"2004-09-22T04:23:41","modified_gmt":"2004-09-22T04:23:41","slug":"are_women_acces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/?p=115","title":{"rendered":"Are Women ‘accessories’ to men’s sport?"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Melbourne ABC talkback host Jon
\nFaine<\/a> we’re finishing the AFL<\/a> season where
\nwe started with an emphasis on treating women as sex objects.<\/p>\n

This is Grand Final week in Melbourne. The week of weeks for the season in
\nthe home of the AFL. The city goes mad. It’s called Finals Fever.<\/p>\n

The week traditionally kicks off with a gala event – the Brownlow
\nMedal<\/a> presentation. The core function of this night is to count the votes
\nfor each player for each round of the home and away matches until all the votes
\nhave been tallied and a winer chosen. In itself a fairly ho-hum affair for all
\nbut the most ardent footy supporter. I can remember eagerly listening to the
\nround by round count on the wireless as a ten year old – hoping one of my favourite
\nplayers from my team would win. I think I only did it once back in those days.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, over the years, the night has turned into much more than that. For
\nthose that get to attend, it is the fashion night of the year with the red carpet
\nrolled out for the guests, with most attention on the players and their partners.
\nThis year they even erected a grandstand alongside the red carpet for the crowds
\nthat just want to catch a glimpse of these "celebraties" arriving.<\/p>\n

For the girlfriends, wives, mothers and daughters \u2013 for most of the year,
\nthe game’s forgotten people \u2013 it is a chance to share in the glamour<\/a>
\nof it all. The fashion has become as important as the award. The fashion writers
\njudged Rebecca
\nTwigley’s<\/a> "backless and almost frontless dress" the "Brownlow
\nof fashion". <\/p>\n

Faine, by all accounts a serious and thoughtfull journalist, took up the issue
\nas his opening piece the following morning declaring the event a "skin
\nfest" and sending the wrong message about the how AFL players view women.
\nIt’s a well used phrase, he said, that the players’ partners are referred to
\nas their "handbags" – serving no useful purpose than to look pretty.
\nThe player with the most glamorous partner wearing the most daring outfit gets
\nthe most attention. Faine’s arrgument is that the women are there just to make
\ntheir men look good. The wrong message he says when the year started off with
\nseveral players being accused of sexual misconduct<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At first I agreed with him. I had watched the last part of the event on TV
\nand how the cameras had lingered on Twigley. I wondered if she really felt comfortable
\nin that dress or whether it was something she felt pressured to do. The first
\nfew callers responding to Faine didn’t surprise me. A woman agreeing with most
\nof his analysis but questioning whether he was suggesting that women who wore
\nsexy outfits were responsible for unwanted sexual advances. A man suggesting
\nwe were all being a bit precious.<\/p>\n

Then a caller who surprised me. Faine’s colleague, Drive<\/em> presenter
\nVirginia
\nTrioli<\/a> (also author of Generation
\nf: Sex, power, and the young feminist<\/A>). Trioli disagreed with Faine. She
\nnoted that "no-one is dressing these women. They are dressing themselves.
\nThese are beautiful strong women. There is a big difference between ‘sexy’ and
\n‘sexual’."<\/p>\n

It made me think. In fact I thought about it all day. In the end, I think I
\nagree more with Trioli that with Faine. These women are<\/em> all free to
\ndress as they like. The pressure to be daring is more likely to come from other
\nwomen than from their male partners. If I was a woman, I would like to wear
\nsomething stunning.<\/p>\n

I’m sure many of the men who were there see this and think "woman = sex".
\nParticularly the younger, macho male players. But in one sense that’s their
\nproblem. That’s for them to understand that women have the right to look sexy
\nwithout that being a free invitation for them to sexually abuse them.<\/p>\n

It is our (men’s) problem. It’s up to us to deal with it. And deal with it
\nwe must.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Melbourne ABC talkback host Jon Faine we’re finishing the AFL season where we started with an emphasis on treating women as sex objects. This is Grand Final week in Melbourne. The week of weeks for the season in the home of the AFL. The city goes mad. It’s called Finals Fever. The week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}