I’m rarely speechless, but I did find myself struggling for words in an interview with the ‘Human Headline’ Derryn Hinch on our campaign against lingerie football coming to Australia next month on Melbourne rado 3AW last week.
You can listen to the interview here
Hinch employs an argument relating to male divers and their brief bathers. I pause then say I had hoped for a sensible discussion on the issue. Undeterred, Hinch presses on, at his blustery best. I respond: are male divers pulling each other’s bathers off? Do they have to sign contracts agreeing to accidental nudity? Are we watching them in action because we hope their bathers will fall down around their ankles?
Having dispatched the divers, I’m then faced with Warwick Capper and his footy shorts. I am not making this up. How can I stand up in the face of such compelling, blistering arguments? Warwick Capper wore tight shorts (and a mullet, but that’s not important right now), therefore women playing porn sport is fine. Put your sunglasses on or you will be blinded by the logic.
Trying to get Warwick Capper’s shorts out of my brain, onFriday I see the following twitter stream from journalist Latika Bourke capturing an exchange at Senate Estimates between conservative Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi and Minister for Sport Kate Lundy over this piece she wrote, critical of the LFL.
Wish Senator Bernardi had done some homework beforehand. Er yes, they are running around in their lingerie actually. That’s the whole point. And I understand why he would wish to score points against a political nemesis and to point out what he believes are hypocrisy on other issues, but would he really be “delighted” to attend a game to learn more about it?
We spoke on the phone. While Bernardi said he is on the “same page”, he compared lingerie football to male wrestling. As Jan says when she’s inspecting the dinner in the oven while her bored and half starved guests wait, in an episode from The Office, “not even close”.
What I am realising is that many men who make these arguments think that we look at male sportsmen the way they look at women. Surely we are hoping to get a closer look at the bulge in a sportsman’s shorts/bathers/wrestling attire? Surely the skin shown by a male wrestler has the equivalent effect of women dressed in lingerie with garter and suspender belts? It’s the same male sexual lense focus applied to Stonemen underwear.
We don’t see promotions for True Fantasy Diving. Or True Fantasy Wrestling. That’s how lingerie football is promoted. Women in sex industry wear, getting hot and sweaty with other women on a sports field, catering for male fantasies.
As I’ve argued already, this game sets back the cause of equality in women’s sport.
And according to sport’s blogger Cleveland360 (see interviews with ex players here) there’s many other reasons to condemn the game Mitchell Mortaza is now about to export to our country:
• Mitchell Mortaza subjects players to verbal abuse
• Players have to pay for their own health insurance but the LFL do everything to stop injured players making a claim on the insurance fund
• Mitchell Mortaza rumoured to fix LFL games, and one coach has quit because of this
• Players have to submit regular pictures of themselves and are put on ‘fat watch’ and suspended from play if they are suspected of gaining weight.
• Mortaza uses ‘fat watch’ to rig games by benching key players
Please sign our petition at Change.org. Tell the sponsors including including the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Allphones Stadium Sydney, Telecafe, Seven Yahoo, Yahoo Sports Triple M and Fuel TV what you think.
And please, if you can, spare me from any more arguments invoking men in speedos and Warwick Cappa’s shorts. I’d be eternally grateful.
13 Responses
Isn’t it time for legal action under sexual discrimination and vilification (or something??). Women have the right to not be vilified, sexualised, and offended in the public space. That individual women are prepared to disrespect themselves, or don’t consider this disrespect, is the individual woman’s own business. She can do so out of the public space. There is no other group in our society that must tolerate this abuse in the public space.
Does Derryn Hinch really believe that there is no power inequality between men and women? Does he really believe that women are not victimised by social injustice due to their subject (gender position) every day? I don’t think he believes those ideas – I think he is PRETENDING that he thinks that women do not suffer from gender powerlessness at all. He is pretending because he is a fool on the side of the continuation of public sexual exploitation of women. He wants for himself and his misogynistic mates to continue viewing women in dopey things like lingerie football so that they can remind and reassure themselves of their power to do so. He is pretending that there is no offence necessitated by women playing ‘sport’ in bra and panties. He pretends these things because Derryn Hinch and his mates like to perpetuate the idea that women are dumb clowns that can also be used as sexual objects. Derryn Hinch is a buffoon who is behind the times.
If you look up the term Lingerie, this is one of the definitions:
“Lingerie is flattering or racy garments that are worn either under the clothes or as a prelude to sexual intercourse” – surely if they are not “intending” to sexualise the females in this sport they wouldn’t use the word lingerie in their name!!!
and guess what…no matter how much you carry on, LFL will still come to australia. You speak for the minority.
I’m impressed that you kept your cool! It was like listening to you debate with a desperate five-year-old.
Even you would have to admit that it would have made for a fairly boring interview if Hinch had just sat there and tutted disapproval the whole way through. I think some of his attitude is shock jock shtick and a little of it is just him doing his job as a journalist in taking a critical stance that gives you the opportunity to defend your views by coming back at him just as hard. Part of me hopes you did just that.
I didn’t hear it and I know that Hinch can be boorish, but that despite being opinionated carries his convictions to levels that few would be brave enough to dare.
It sounds to me like there’s not much to like about the LFL management and maybe that’s where your concerns should be directed.
The assumptions that you make about how men look at women and that women don’t admire male athletes make poor generalisations at best. I’m sure that you never admire any athletes for their bodies, and I can reliably report I’ve never admired the female weight lifters. But please don’t tell them that. They probably hurt me if they knew.
And the underlying idea that there’s something wrong with Fantasy is also questionable. Surely the way that sports fans identify with teams is itself a form of vicarious identification with the fantasy of triumphing over your competitors. I think at the very least then there are good and bad fantasies and that it is important to establish the harm in them before you write them off. Otherwise it comes down to a matter of taste, yours versus Derryn’s. While you may call the man tasteless there’s no real case to be made for denying him his indulgence as long as nobody gets hurt by it.
If as you say the harm is to the participants then presuming that these women lack choices and can’t stand up for themselves would be sexist in itself. Yet it is also fair to argue that when they do so against somebody like Mortaza then if he’s as bad as they say these women deserve a certain amount of support. If anything this is a sport where severe injuries and concern in particular about brain injuries is very high, so lack of proper medical care is a serious issue.
So, while perhaps It is to be hoped that his venture in Australia fails, publicity that appeals to banning it often has the effect of publicising it more by emphasising the very element of titillation that meets with your disapproval. The problem you’ll always have there for better or worse is that not everyone disapproves of titillation whereas I think more people would be concerned about the level of injuries receiving a lack of proper attention.
Typical male supremacist excuses and justifications – make it all about the men as usual. Male supremacists commonly reverse the issue so that it appears to be men who are the ones being victimised; reduced to dehumanised sexualised commodities. So whenever men claim ‘I’m/we are being victimised’ – just reverse the issue and hey presto we see what is really happening.
The images of those male wrestlers/male swimmers/male footballers clearly prove they are not wearing tiny, tiny knickers which scarcely cover their genitals – no instead what they are promoting is assertive masculinity. Look how dominant they appear – particularly the male wrestlers.
Now compare those images to the ones showing the women playing pseudo football – the women are deliberately sexualised for men’s sexual titilation. There is no symmetry whatsoever between how male sports figures are represented and how female sports figures are dehumanised as disposable sexualised commodities.
Oh and by the way just because one individual male is photographed skimpy knickers does not mean all males sports figures are commonly depicted as ‘women’s disposable sexual service stations.’ Warwick Capper is photographed wearing a shirt which is at least four sizes too large for him. Compare that with the minute pieces of cloth all female athletes have to wear because female sports is never about sport it is always about catering to men’s sexual voyeurism and male right to view women as dehumanised pieces of meat.
@Alex, women make up half the population and most of us believe we should be treated as people and not sex objects.
It’s people who want to watch LFL that are the minority.
Seriously, it is only men that think women find speedos and Warwick Capper attractive. Which woman could honestly put her hand up to agree with the statement that either are sexy?
Derryn Hinch is just an idiot.
Thank you for speaking up for this. The public objectification, sexualisation and degradation of female athletes is of concern for all of society. Obviously, we cannot stay silent because it affects all women. Fortunately, the majority do get it. If it is soft porn – as it obviously is – it does not belong in the public arena. We want our public spaces back. Keep porn, soft or otherwise for adult sides and online. All women have a right to feel safe, respected, valued and equal in society. This degrading show harms all women – and if some women are comfortable with that, let them be so in private.
Well put Hudson from a healthy female happily married mother of two
that won’t attend the LFL and knows that the willing participants
are not victims and choose to be there. Once this is acknowledged by a minority pushing their own taste on the rest of us this same ol same ol argument will never go away. It’s time to grow up ladies !
Well, this is not really about sport is it? Therefore, one can’t argue for or against it by comparing it to real sport. Let face it – Its about sex and money – a powerful combination. All the rational arguments in the world wont make a difference to the short-span-of-attention pointy heads that spend their lives looking for the ultimate perve. The best thing that can happen is that it dies a quick death through lack of an audience (and therefore sponsors). That is guaranteed to happen because some dick somewhere will think up another way to display nice looking women with little or no clothes to an audience of low brows willing to pay for it.
I am so very grateful that we have such intelligent and articulate women as Melinda to campaign and advocate for women in situations such as this. I don’t know how I would go opposite Derryn Hinch in an interview and I thank Melinda for her professionalism and patience.
With regard to Mr Hinch, he is not unlike Mr Sandilands in his complete lack of regard of human rights violations against women. I have to wonder if we will ever see a western society that is not making ridiculous excuses to objectify and sexualise women without any hint of respect for them as HUMAN BEINGS!!!! This “sport” is just another excuse to exploit women and give men a public opportunity to perve on them in lingerie. Trying to hide this in the guise of a sport is completely ludicrous.
I empathise with Melinda having Mr Capper’s image stuck in her mind!