The Australian Football League proudly partners with the White Ribbon Campaign to stop violence against women.
According to the White Ribbon website :
The AFL (Australian Football League) is committed to tackling the issues of violence against women. Their support of White Ribbon has been long standing with many AFL managers and players participating in White Ribbon’s Ambassador Program, and their commitment to driving change is also reflected through their respect and responsibility programs.
Their commitment to driving change is reflected through their respect and responsibility programs.
Really?
The fact is that the AFL is neglecting its responsibility to address and discipline Buddy Franklin for depicting women in degrading and sexist ways in a clothing line he co-owns. I wrote about it in my Sunday Herald Sun column.
White Ribbon gets money from the AFL. In turn, the AFL gets White Ribbon Day endorsement which makes them look good.
Of course we support any efforts to eradicate violence against women. We believe it is imperative that good men speak out against this epidemic. We commend White Ribbon for continuing to educate and create awareness about this issue and for “denouncing initiatives that objectify or exploit women.”
Last year White Ribbon joined 64 other experts and organisations as a signatory to an open letter Collective Shout published, titled ‘Retailers urged to cease the sale and distribution of porn t.shirts’. The letter protested the growing trend of men’s clothing with porn- themed and sexually objectifying images of women’s bodies. We were pleased to have White Ribbon on board.
It’s therefore troubling to us that campaign heads have said nothing about Franklin or about the AFL’s refusal to act. We hope sponsorship doesn’t buy silence.
We wrote to White Ribbon back in July about this. There has so far been no reply.
We also had the opportunity to raise the matter directly with the AFL in September. Still no reply.
‘Our Say’ invited readers to post a question they would like to have asked at the AFL Grand Final lunch at the Melbourne Press Club September 20. Collective Shout’s WA coordinator Caitlin Roper sent in this question, which attracted the most votes to be asked at the function.
The AFL’s Respect and Responsibility Policy “represents the Australian Football League’s commitment to addressing violence against women and to work towards creating safe, supportive and inclusive environments for women and girls across the football industry as well as the broader community”. Hawthorn player Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin is part owner of Nena and Pasadena and Neverland (clothing) store, a brand renowned for its clothing with sexually objectifying and degrading imagery of women. Franklin currently features in promotional videos and images both on the brand’s website and in national clothing retailers like City Beach. Despite protests, the AFL have failed to address Franklin’s continued breach of the R&R policy. Why has the AFL failed to address this?
However the lunch was cancelled following the tragic death of AFL footballer John McCarthy. ‘Our Say’ have told us they asked the panelists to answer Caitlin’s question, but so far she’s heard nothing. The following article by Caitlin is an expanded version of a post that appeared at Our Say (they censored some of the more distressing stuff). Here’s the uncensored version.
Caitlin Roper
Picture women naked on all fours, topless, headless and faceless, women handcuffed and bound, naked on the ground. Or even just various body parts, a naked backside, exposed breasts, a torso. Women sexually objectified, posed in weak, vulnerable poses and reduced to mere sexy body parts. Apparently this is Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin’s idea of respect for women.
I first came across ‘Nena and Pasadena’, Franklin’s pornographic fashion line, in February of 2011. It was hard to miss, given a billboard featuring the AFL star wearing a shirt depicting a women’s backside.
Feedback to the brand resulted in mockery, and retailers selling the items were not interested in consumer concerns. Working with grassroots organisation Collective Shout: for a world free from sexploitation, we discovered the AFL’s Respect and Responsibility policy:
The Respect and Responsibility Policy represents the Australian Football League’s commitment to addressing violence against women and to work towards creating safe, supportive and inclusive environments for women and girls across the football industry as well as the broader community.
The Respect and Responsibility Policy is about shifting attitudes – ensuring that people throughout the Australian Football industry are aware, and have structures in place, that recognize that violence against women and behavior that harms or degrades women, is never acceptable.
Surely t-shirt images that depicted women as objects to provide sexual gratification could not be in line with this policy? Concerned citizens, including supporters of Collective Shout, contacted the AFL back in February of last year, with no response. As a mother of a six-year-old beginning Auskick, I became uncomfortable with the supposed role models my son might be looking up to.
Nena and Pasadena’s own website listed Franklin as a ‘co-director’, as well as using his modeling images for marketing purposes. Franklin’s twitter named himself as ‘part-owner’ of the brand and the Neverland Store, a Melbourne store where he sold these and similar items. Franklin’s AFL profile was used to promote the brand on their website and Facebook page.
Fifteen months later, still with no response from the AFL regarding Buddy’s blatant breach of their policy, Collective Shout published a blog post containing evidence of Nena and Pasadena’s misogyny from their Facebook page. Pictures of semi-naked women were frequently posted, where fans were invited to rank them. Slogans like “F*ck bitches, get money” and a pornographic campaign video were shared. Fans were asked their best strategies for getting women into bed. Here are a few responses:
“Drop a roofie”
“I like to call it ‘the fight and struggle’”
“The skull drag to the bushes and then duck tape the mouth move”
“I hope to God they can’t run faster than me down that alleyway”
Nena and Pasadena encouraged jokes about raping women with their reply, “Keep em coming guys – this is very entertaining!”
Once the Herald Sun had picked up the story, and after fifteen months of ignoring the issue, the AFL suddenly felt compelled to condemn Franklin’s clothing line and claimed they would be “considering their options”. Franklin issued a statement the following day denying any significant involvement with the brand he had previously tweeted as ‘my brand’, ‘my store’. You can find photographic evidence of Franklin’s damage control here.
Months later my friends and Collective Shout Melbourne reps, Calvin and Lisa attended a game at the MCG along with a banner that read “Give porn tees the boot Buddy”, and within minutes, security had confiscated and destroyed it.
Members of the public continued to protest via twitter, using the official match hashtag. Hundreds of people signed an online petition to Hawthorn Football Club and the AFL.
It has been almost two years since the AFL have known about Buddy’s porn t-shirts, yet they have remained essentially silent, taking no effective action to uphold their own policy. When will we see the AFL taking sexism seriously? After countless allegations of players involved in sexual assault and now Franklin profiting from the degradation of women, maybe we don’t need to hear from the AFL. Their silence is deafening, telling us all we need to know.
12 Responses
It’s very disappointing that White Ribbon Foundation have not denounced Buddy Franklin’s sexually objectifying and disgusting clothing brand. I am glad that they are bringing attention to the issue of violence against women but how can they effectively do this without addressing a culture promoting men’s entitlement to women’s bodies? I guess money talks!
That’s it Vicki. I really hope AFL dollars haven’t bought White Ribbon silence.
The White Ribbon Campaign by refusing to answer questions why this male organisation which supposedly challenges male violence against women, is in fact condoning and openly promoting said male violence because it accepts money from that misogynistic organisation the AFL.
To me this proves White Ribbon Campaign is not concerned with ensuring it does ‘do the walking as well as talking’ but is only interested in promoting itself as a male organisation which falsely claims to challenge male violence against women.
So once again money supercedes womens’ right not to be reduced to men’s and boys’ dehumanised sexualised disposable commodities. So as usual men’s money buys the White Ribbon Campaign’s silence. There is no excuse for WRC because they have been given enough time to reply and justify their taking money from the misogynistic AFL which continues to blatantly hold the view male football players are entitled to commit male sexual violence against women and male football players are entitled to profit by promoting images of women as men’s dehumanised sexualised body parts.
Of course women aren’t human are they – they merely exist to accord men profit by catering to other men’s misogynistic view it is fun to wear t-shirts of female body parts! Yes rape jokes are so funny are they not – because as usual it is men who are the ones telling other men ‘men you have the pseudo male right of sexual access to any female because your sexual pleasure supercedes women’s right not to be subjected to male sexual violence.
Jennifer, once again you nail it. Thank you.
Agree totally Jennifer. These men are considered idols and role models to so many males throughout the country, yet like so many other male gatherings, the football culture promotes sexism and degradation towards women. The degradation is used as a binding common factor, making you ‘one of the guys’. Ignoring Buddy Franklin connections to porn clothing over, and over, and over again shows that they are not serious in the slightest about addressing the problem. Yet somehow, by paying dollars to the White Ribbon Campaign they get a pat on the back???? Good one White Ribbon Org, you have just proven your campaign is absolutely, positively, useless…..
It would be good to see some consistency in these campaigns Kim wouldn’t it.
I was at the White Ribbon Luncheon on Friday in Melbourne. I though the event went really well and I also attended the march afterwards. I liked what Michael Flood had to say about how the culture shapes men’s attitudes. He said that men are constantly invited to participate in sexism and mentioned pornography and video games as examples of that. He said that these things shape men’s attitudes towards women. This is important and something that I think should be emphasised more.
I would like to see White Ribbon succeed in its goals of eradicating violence against women and I liked what I heard about some of their new initiatives. I would like to see more men leading the way, as it is only men who can stop violence against women. In my view, the AFL’s involvement is an unacceptable compromise. If the AFL is not willing to take what amounts to hate speech against women seriously (like “f**k b*tches get money” from Buddy Franklin’s brand Nena and Pasadena http://collectiveshout.org/2012/04/buddys-no-role-model/ ) then why are they involved?
Hawthorn AFL player Buddy Franklin’s twitter account includes the Nena and Pasadena url in his profile. His standing with the AFL gives him access to over 350,000 people who he can advertise his sexist company to, which he regularly does through retweets of N&P’s twitter account.
Hatae speech. Exactly. When will the AFL recognise it for what it is?
I genuinely want to support White Ribbon but find myself unable to get behind them because of their partnership with the AFL. White Ribbon have already denounced ‘porn tees’ – why is it so hard for them to connect the dots and call out Buddy and the AFL?
These guys want men to speak out against domestic violence, a countercultural stand which may well come at a price for many men. Yet aren’t willing to risk their friendship with the AFL (or, perhaps more to the point, the sponsorship…) by speaking up to them on an issue they’ve spoken against elsewhere. How can we expect their work to have an impact if they can’t act consistently? It’s weak and disappointing, and it’s letting down a generation of young men and women.
Every time I see a man wearing one of these shirts, I feel intimidated, harassed and physically ill. If a man is willing to wear these pictures on his chest, what might he be thinking of me or willing do to to me or other women? If White Ribbon wants men to pledge to stand up to violence against women, telling them to pledge not to wear these shirts would be a good place to start.
I think White Ribbon need to make more of a connection between pornography, strip clubs, sexism and violence against women. I am glad to hear Dr Michael Flood touched on the issue at the WR luncheon, but I imagine the people who attended are already on board with these issues.
I think a lot of men would say it’s clearly wrong to hit a woman but have no concern with using porn or objectifying women- including wearing t-shirts with degrading images. I’d like to see it clearly spelled out on White Ribbon’s website, or social media, media commentary.
Buddy Franklin, in the eyes of the AFL marketing team, has it all.
He is an extremely talented player in a key position on the field. He is an indigenous player. He is photogenic and he plays for a successful club.
The AFL appear terrified to take action on this t-shirt matter publicly. I am not sure why. It is a great credit to the AFL clubs that cheerleaders are no longer a part of the AFL scene. Women and girls make up a large percentage of the supporter base of each club, and it was my presumption that clubs recognized that sexualized cheerleading would not bring anything positive to the game day experience.
The AFL should be taken to account about this. The puzzling news that Mr. Franklin will be an official youth ambassador highlights to me that the AFL Respect and Responsibility Policy has failed. Big time.