Equality for women in Sam’s Footy Show stunt.
May 22nd, 2008A few weeks ago, the incorrigible idiot Sam Newman tried to do a skit on the Footy Show that involved stapling a photo of the face of Caroline Wilson onto a mannequin and discuss her (lack of) fashion style. I saw it live because my husband is a converted Pies fan (I made the mistake of introducing him to AFL when he immigrated to Australia) and he watches the Footy Show religiously. At the time I thought “hmmm, this skit is bombing” and nothing more. For those who are not familiar with Aussie Rules, Caroline is one of the sport’s few famous female commentators and has been the Age’s chief football writer since 1999.
Since then, a brouhaha has erupted, with a group of senior AFL women writing to complain about the Footy Show’s sexism. This group of women were then pilloried on a subsequent Footy Show episode because among other things, they included the signature of Sally Capp, a Collingwood director, when she had not approved her signature being put on the letter. Caroline wrote a response to the whole affair in the Age.
Now, I’m going to get controversial.
Caroline Wilson was not singled out for her sex. She has been treated exactly the same as any number of men on that show.
If someone has been subjected to the Footy Show for as many episodes and seasons as I have, they will know that the show–and Sam Newman in particular–take the proverbial out of anything and anyone and that is why Caroline is a good example of how she has broken through the glass ceiling. In a weird, twisted way is a compliment. It means she is not a token woman in football, because they are treating her exactly the same way they have treated even Sam himself, with ongoing jokes about his small penis size (something we all got to see for ourselves when Shane Crawford dacked Sam live on air a few years ago). The lads were treating her simply as one of the lads. That meant insulting her and calling her names, as they do with a plethora of male figures. In other words, there is an equality in their insults.
Currently, Sam is carrying on a campaign against former footballer Jason Dunstall “the Chief”. Ostensibly, it is to get the reclusive Jason back on the Footy Show, but his apparent refusal over a number of weeks, has given Sam time to run a campaign of comparing the footballer to a gorilla because of his head and body hair. When a viewer sent in a box of organic cereal that appeared to show two gorillas mating, there was great jocularity and plenty of sexual innuendo about Dunstall. Wilson has nothing on Dunstall.
So, does that mean it’s okay to make crude jokes about sex and gender, whether male or female? That’s a different question. But the best thing Caroline could have done, as the vast majority of male victims of the Footy Show do, is laugh it off and call Sam an idiot. By turning it into a Crusade (and to be fair, that is coming from Wilson’s supporters, rather than herself) it has merely resulted in shifting emphasis from Wilson’s role as football commentator, to the more contestable and dubious role as a public female.
I was born in 1973, raised by parents who believed wholeheartedly in the concept of the equality of the sexes. I consider myself a feminist but the fight the second-wavers sometimes see in ghosts and shadows of insults can exacerbate problems rather than promote effective solutions to the areas where misogyny and sexism still pose real problems for women. Second-wave feminists have long called for women to be treated the same as men (as opposed to those of us who push for differential treatment to achieve equality in results), and in this case they got what they asked for.
As weird as it sounds, Sam’s mannequin stunt was evidence of the success of their brand of feminism, not a failure.
A Melburnian Muslim convert blogs religion, academia and life in general.
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Interesting post (and I don’t mean ‘interesting’ in the cop-out, you-didn’t-say-anything-i-liked-so-i’ll-use-interesting-as-the-nicest-thing-i-can-say. perhaps what I mean to say is “thought-provoking”)! I’ve thought about it a few times since I read it, as I think you raise some very valid points, and I’m still deciding whether or not I agree with you. Sometimes I think heartily ‘yes’, other times, ‘no’. Hey, two feminists and 9 opinions and all that.
I guess the only counter-point I would raise is that I’m not sure it’s as simple as now women are being treated the same as the fellas, so that’s kind of a feminist achievement. i know this is a gross simplification of your point, so forgive me - I’m not trying to belittle your thoughts. really! becuase the mannequin WAS being treated in a blatantly sexist way (mocking caroline’s appearance, grabbing the mannequin by the crotch, etc), and the reality is, sexist experiences/attacks ARE going to be felt differently by women than they will by men. So just becuase men are treated in sexually lewd ways on the show doesn’t make it the same thing. And this is because of the long history of sexist treatment of women by men (especially on the misogynist Footy Show, but in all facets of life) that makes it different. There is a real baggage there that makes the treatment different, and an underlying message that emmanates from the men who do it about the way they view women that isn’t there when they have a go at the other guys (well, at least to the same extent. basically it’s all very alpha-male machismo, so i acknowledge that that does impact on men differently). This was reinforced by Sam’s “apology” when he spat “what have women ever done for footy, anyway?!”, when there are talented women on football boards all over the country. He truly seems to see them as irrelevant and as airheads vuseful for sex and little else.
This is reflected in the treatment of indigenous players on the show, which has been horrifically racist at points. To say that it’s the samefor the whiteys on the show, becuase they are made fun of for their appearance, so the aboriginals are being treated the same is obviously wrong. When an indigenous player didn’t come to a taping, so Sam Newman decided to paint his face black and impersonate him, that WAS racist, in a way that Sam putting on a red-haired wig to impersonate a red-haired absentee player is not. They’re are both “jokes” about a players appearance, but the baggage and implicit messages that go with it make it entirely different. That Sam’s response to the outcry over that stunt was to honestly say, baffled, “but he IS black” shows just how little he understands the painful intricacies of racism, power, and White subjugation of Black. Thus, I would argue that treating women on the show in lewd ways is also sexist in a way that treating men lewidly is not. It IS different, and I guess that gets back to your point about equality of results as opposed to equality of treatment. No one should say you can’t make fun of people on the show, but to use the very things (racism and sexism) that have always been used to oppress and subjugate a people, IS different.
This is all very rushed, as I have 2 kids causing chaos behind me, so i apologise if it’s sloppily worded, or if you feel i’ve unfairly summarised your argument.
PS shall we get together now that things are ‘quieter’ at your place? maybe we could go out one night for coffee and yaks! I’ll leave the kids with wal. let me know xxxxxxxx
Oh what a comment to chew on, subhanallah you’ve really made me think about it. Before I reply (’coz I wanna let the ole noggin’ wake up) let me just say to the last bit - OH yessss absolutely. Name the time and place!!! I’ll come over your side of things if you like.
Salamaroonies Babes,
I’ve had a bit of time to digest your worthy comments. I want to tease out the issue a little bit:
* they weren’t treating Wilson differently *because* she is a woman, and they weren’t intimating that her gender made her less of a football personality/commentator/figure than any male they lambast i.e. Dunstall. It wasn’t until the reaction from the football women to Wilson’s treatment that brought a charge of sexism to Sam and the Footy Show, and then they predictably *did* make sexist comments i.e. Sam’s “what have women ever done for footy”. Had Wilson simply laughed it off as the men on that program do, she would have taken any power away from the skit as a ’sexist’ act, rather than a stupid purile prank (like their many other stupid purile pranks they do on various individual males). Notice too the shift from Wilson as a victim of their skit, to “all women”, but that didn’t occur until the charge of sexism was brought up by the women themselves.
* I don’t think it’s comparable to the racist charge, first because the Footy Show doesn’t spend every show putting together skits that make fun of race in the way they do about sex. They don’t make comments about people’s white skin on every show, so when Sam appears in Black Face, it is treating Indigenous football players differently than the way they treat Dunstall (for example) for not appearing on the show.
* Is there a problem with sexism in football, undoubtedly, but strangely I don’t think that the women did us any favours by making this into a crusade. The way to strip the sexism in football of any power, is not to dignify it with moral outrage. It’s to not play their game. Wilson has a great deal of power where she sits, she doesn’t need to give any of it to Sam and the Footy Show, by giving their actions weight it doesn’t deserve.
[…] you like my alliteration?) As you recall, I wrote a post on how I didn’t think Sam’s original idiotic stunt was sexist, but of course he then made a real d&$#head of himself and went and said a whole bunch of […]
[…] Newman’s leering Caroline Wilson mannequin stunt on the Footy Show proves gender equality, in “Equality for women in Sam’s Footy Show stunt”. I disagree vehemently with aspects of this post, but hey, make up your own mind! For video of the […]