Football Triptych

7 Replies to “Football Triptych”

1. ‘Trigger Warning for descriptions of sexual violence and rape apologism.

   Late last week, I wrote about how the tendency for police forces to engage in rape apologism or even sexual violence is not just an issue of individual officers engaging in bad behavior, but of a system that encourages police rape apologism and sexual violence and enforces few consequences for it. I was sad, this morning, to find a news story out of Australia that perfectly illustrates that point.

   In 2004, rape allegations were made against St Kilda football players Stephen Milne and Leigh Montagna (pictured above). The full details of the allegations against Milne are available here — they are graphic, and they are definitely potentially triggering. (The charges that were being considered against Montagna are less clear.) Essentially, what Milne was accused of was attempted rape, regardless of any other circumstances — the victim allegedly said no to intercourse, and Milne allegedly kept attempting penetration regardless. The allegations go further, however, to claim that Milne was guilty of digital rape through deception, in addition to attempted rape. The alleged victim claims that in the dark room, he pretended to be Montagna, with whom the alleged victim had had previous sexual relations and would have consented to some sexual contact, in order to gain her sexual compliance.

   At the time, charges were dropped, supposedly for lack of evidence. Now, a former detective on the case has come forward to say that lack of evidence against Milne was not the issue, but intimidation, harassment, and suppression of evidence were.’

   http://thecurvature.com/2010/06/21/former-detective-tells-of-intimidation-to-drop-rape-charges-against-football-players/

2. ‘It’s this culture, we’re told, that means women are treated as lesser objects to be possessed, used and abused. It’s an “attitude” of a macho profession that comes with money, celebrity and a throng of adoring fans.

   It’s true that the sensationalised status and perceived privilege of footy stars, as well as a general culture that values the brutish image of extreme masculinity, means that sexism is dangerously pervasive in rugby league.

   While macho behaviour in sport, and elsewhere, must be challenged, its crucial to recognise that this culture is only a heightened version of the sexism and violence women face across all of society.

   Former Australian rules football player and campaigner against violence against women, Phil Cleary, told Green Left Weekly: “Only the very naive would conclude that the event that engulfed Matthew Johns and the Cronulla Rugby League Club is a tale exclusively about football culture or that it is confined to rugby. Nor is this simply a tale about sexual morality. It’s about power and the underbelly of misogyny that afflicts our society.”

   The excuses for the players have run plentiful. Not only is the game soaked in an “elite fraternity” of physical power and grandiose invincibility, it’s about the “pressure” of the game. For players who carry out sexual violence, it’s “a few too many drinks” to release said pressure.

   Steve Burraston, CEO of the Newcastle Knights told Four Corners rugby league “attract[s] an aggressive, young, risk taking male”. Newcastle coach Brian Smith backed up this view. He said how “hard” it was to expect rugby league players to not “go out there and get on the drink and take risks”.

   But these comments reveal part of the problem. Abusing women is not risk-taking. For victims of rape it’s demeaning, disempowering and hugely damaging.

   It also supports the false idea that rape and other forms of sexual violence happen because men “lose control” of themselves under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.

   Actually, rape is a calculated act of control over another human being. Its perpetrators know they are doing the wrong thing. Most rapists plan their crimes well in advance.

   Meanwhile, any woman who comes forward has her motivations questioned. Whether she did it for publicity, or whether she in fact “asked for it”, is considered above the violent nature of what actually occurred.

   It’s the same kind of justification that allows ex-Sharks player and media personality Matthew Johns to believe that claiming a 19-year-old woman “consented” is a justification for what the woman alleged happened to her, as he did on Nine’s Today Tonight on May 12.

   Since the 2004 Bulldogs case, the National Rugby League has been forced into some action. These include curfews, security personnel travelling with players, early return from away matches, curbing binge drinking, leadership and personal development courses and a new player code of conduct.

   Despite these changes the violence continues.

   Sexual assault is a horrific symptom of women’s oppression in capitalist society. It shows that building a struggle for women’s liberation, a struggle that seeks to build a society where everyone has the same life choices regardless of race, class or sex, is still as essential as ever.’

   http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/41658

3. ‘As most incidences of domestic violence often go unreported, it is difficult to measure the true extent of the problem. According to a study conducted in 1998 by Carlos Carcach from the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC), Reporting Crime to the Police, most assaults against women where the victim knows the offender go unreported. The 2005 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Personal Safety Survey, estimates that 36 per cent of women who experienced physical assault by a male perpetrator reported it to the police in 2005 compared to 19 per cent in 1996, and that 19 per cent of women who experienced sexual assault reported it to the police in 2005 compared to 15 per cent in 1996.

   The best indicators available to date about the levels of violence against women in Australia are from the 1996 ABS publication Women’s Safety Survey and the more recent ABS Personal Safety Survey 2005 that surveyed both men and women. The surveys asked women about their experiences of violence and found that:

   *
   5.8 per cent of women had experienced violence in the 12 month period preceding the survey in 2005 compared with 7.1 per cent in 1996
   *
   4.7 per cent of these women had experienced physical violence (this includes physical assault and threat of physical assault) in 2005 compared with 5.9 per cent in 1996, and 1.6 per cent had experienced sexual violence (this includes sexual assault and threat of sexual assault) compared to 1.5 per cent in 1996
   *
   Of the women who experienced sexual violence during the 12 months prior to the 2005 survey 21 per cent had experienced sexual assault by a previous partner in the most recent incident, and 39 per cent by a family member or friend
   *
   The 2005 survey also showed that of those women who were physically assaulted in the 12 months prior to the survey, 38 per cent were physically assaulted by their male current or previous partner. Of the women who had experienced violence by a current partner, 10 per cent had a violence order issued against their current partner and of those women who had violence orders issued, 20 per cent reported that violence still occurred.

   There have also been studies of the relationship between domestic violence and homicides. In Homicide between Intimate Partners in Australia, 1998, Carach and James from the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) found that domestic violence plays a significant role in the lead up to lethal violence, accounting for 27 per cent of all homicides in Australia between 1989 and 1996. Another study by the AIC in 2002, Homicides Resulting from Domestic Altercations, found that the majority of female homicide victims were killed during domestic altercations. In a follow up AIC study, Family Homicide in Australia, Jenny Mouzos and Catherine Rushforth analysed the victim-offender relationships for almost 4500 homicides that occurred in Australia over a 13 year period from 1989 to 2002. The study found that:

   *
   on average there were 129 family homicides each year, 77 related to domestic disputes
   *
   that killings between partners/spouses accounted for 60 per cent of all family homicides in Australia, with women accounting for 75 per cent of the victims, and men comprising the majority of the killers
   *
   that a quarter of the intimate homicides occurred after the partners had separated or divorced.’

   http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/sp/Dom_violence.htm

4. ‘A DECISION to kick a convicted sexual predator out of Australia has been overturned because the pervert loves footy and his hero is Peter Brock.

   As thousands of innocent would-be migrants are sent packing each year, the rapist and paedophile is now free to walk the streets of Melbourne despite Immigration Minister Chris Evans’ decision to deport him.

   The man has just been released from prison and is on the registered sex offenders’ list for the rest of his life.

   He served a 7 1/2-year sentence for the rape of his partner and attempted incest on his step-daughter, then 12, which a judge described as “revolting”.

   But a tribunal decided the man was “virtually an Australian person”, though he was not a citizen, and that it would be unfair to deport him to his homeland of Malta.

   The decision has sparked outrage and the minister is considering his options, including an appeal to the Federal Court.

   The registered sex offender, who cannot be named for legal reasons and is known as DNCW, fought the decision to deport him in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which reviews ministerial decisions.

   The tribunal’s senior member, John Handley, said even though the offences committed by the man were “repulsive” it would cause him “hardship” if he was deported.

   He said the man had lived in Australia since he was four, with the exception of a few years when his family returned to Malta, and he had no memory of his homeland.

   “(He) is virtually an Australian person. He supports an Australian Rules football team. He also enjoys tennis, volleyball, badminton and soccer. He enjoys motorbike and motor car racing and his hero was Peter Brock,” Mr Handley said.

   Even though DNCW described the man’s relationship with his partner in 2003 as “pretty good”, he raped her.

   He then twice tried to have incestuous sex with his 12-year-old step-daughter. Mr Handley said: “The attempted incest offences, by their description alone, are revolting.’

   http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/decision-to-kick-a-convicted-sexual-predator-out-of-australia-is-overturned/story-e6frf7l6-1225914294079

5. ‘The Catholic Church has banned football club songs and popular music at funerals under strict guidelines sent to priests and funeral directors.

   “Secular items are never to be sung or played at a Catholic funeral, such as romantic ballads, pop or rock music, political songs or football club songs,” the guidelines state.

   The guidelines were sent by the Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart and state that a funeral should not be a “celebration of the life” of the deceased.

   They say any celebration should be done at a social occasion before or after the funeral, the Herald Sun reports.

   Outspoken Catholic priest Father Bob Maguire has described the guidelines as “insensitive.”

   He said the new rules would pose a dilemma for clergymen.

   “If the bosses say you can’t do it, then we’re in a position where we have to say you can’t do it,” he was quoted as saying.

   But Bishop Les Tomlinson, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, is standing by the guidelines.

   The main focus of a funeral should be “commending the deceased person to God,” he said.’

   http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/7959152/footy-club-songs-banned-from-funerals

6. ‘AUSTRALIA
   Dumpgate 2010 stuns Sydney Roosters

   Australian Rugby League has been rocked by its second poo scandal in a year. While English football is consumed by a succession of sex stories, the Sydney Morning Herald has revealed that two Sydney Roosters players have been sacked for defecating on tables and the floor of rooms in a Holiday Inn. The hotel cleaner, identified only as Sue, said the rooms were “disgusting, absolutely disgusting” and described the players Sam Brunton and Anthony Gelling as “a little bit feral”.

   Remarkably, it follows just a year after their fellow Roosters player Nate Myles was suspended for six matches and fined $50,000 for roaming a hotel drunk and naked, and defecating in the corridor in an incident dubbed “Dumpgate 09”. The addition of the 09 suffix suggests the Aussie press were prepared for a repeat – perhaps just not so soon.’

   http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/12/floyd-mayweather-manny-pacquiao

7. Australian domestic violence stats:

   23% of women who had ever been married or in a de-facto
   …relationship, experienced violence by a partner at some time during the relationship (ABS 1996, p. 50).

   42% of women who had been in a previous relationship reported
   violence by a previous partner (ABS 1996, p. 51).

   Half of women experiencing violence by their current partner
   experienced more than one incident of violence (ABS 1996, p. 54).

   Injuries sustained in the last incident were mainly bruises, cuts, and scratches, but also included stab or gun shot wounds, and other injuries (ABS 1996, p. 55).

   12% of women who reported violence by their current partner at some stage during the relationship, said they were currently living in fear (ABS 1996, p. 51).

   Women who experienced physical or sexual violence by a partner were significantly more likely to experience emotional abuse (manipulation,

   isolation or intimidation) than those who had not experienced violence
   (ABS 1996, p. 51).

   35% of women who experienced violence from their partner during periods of separation (ABS 1996, p. 57).

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