For those of you who remember me, the ad hominem of "Social Justice Warrior" is a cap that doesn't fit well on my bald head; however, I do consider myself to be an advocate of social justice.
Around mid 2015, I was browsing YouTube in a fashion as to what I used to do on this forum - i.e. taking in what others said and ignoring about 95% of it. One particular day, I happened upon a video on The Young Turks network which replayed a podcast from somewhere in Bumfuck Idaho where two fools engaged in a podcast where they said (and I'm going to censor this but you'll get the idea) "I've always said, the best thing a n**** can do is to get shot by a white man".
Again, not an SJW, but that was pretty jarring - so I did the thing that I do only 5% of the time. I made a comment in the YouTube comments section. An African American girl from Jacksonville in Florida responded to me and was beset with all sorts of nonsense from what we now recognise as the MAGA hat brigade.
Roll forward to 2019 and I'm pleased to say that the girl from Florida and I, just this last weekend, celebrated our first wedding anniversary.
Forgive me for engaging in that personal annecdote but it segues me into the topic at hand and that is James Graham's and Steve Mortimer's comments in response to the current spate of 'sex tapes' being disseminated on social media and the incredible disrespect the game affords to women at large.
Phil recently wrote a post expressing his frustration with the off-season torpedoing of the game by some of its most high profile beneficiaries and the negative trickle-down effect it has. Turvey's comments, and those of James Graham on NRL360 serve no other purpose other than to 'pile on' further misery.
James Graham, who, after espousing some sort of theoretical dichotomy between 'culture' and 'nature', was thanked and lauded by Ben Ikin as 'highly intelligent'and a 'deep thinker of the game'. Seriously, what the f*** was James talking about? 300 to 400 physical collisions, the army and the prison system is an analogous amalgam of the game of rugby league and the actors to which it draws? He's effectively saying that violence, criminality and brain damage, whilst not excuses, are explanations for deplorable player behaviour! Maybe he should take that to Greenberg as a slogan for the upcoming season launch! That'll convince the Mum's from sending their kids the way of the AFL Auskick programme and the GWS Giants pathway!!
Next, we have our good little Christian Crusader from out Bankstown way, Steve Mortimer, telling us, albeit in his usual dulcet and reverered tones, that, maybe the girls need to take ownership of their part of the 'blame'; after all, as he opined, some girls enjoy the social prestige and physical excitement of being with a strong, young, masculine, physical specimen! It's great for their Instgram hits and even greater for their ego!
Now, I happen to know that there's a fair to reasonable sample size that could be drawn from the members of this very forum that would entirely concur with Turvey's view. And here's where Turvey (and those members) are wrong:
It is falacy to conflate the reality that some girls enjoy the social prestige of being with footballers such that their privacy, dignity and reputation is effectively 'sold' for public consumption. It is falacy to suggest that being photographed, arm-in-arm with a rugby league player, for the social pages of the Telegraph gives licence to broadcast them in moments of sexual intimacy. It is falacy to even contemplate that a drunken night of, possibly ill-advised fun, deserves a lifetime of derision, ridicule and loss of chance.
From what is being reported, there's a WhatsApp group that receives daily uploads of sex tapes by rugby league players, presumably to gain the acceptance and admiration of their peers. If this is the peer group that has been forged, then rugby league has a very serious problem!
If person x makes a sex tape without the consent of person y, the likelihood is that it won't gain too much long-term traction because person x and person y are not in the public spotlight. If a rugby league player makes a sex tape - it's going to have permanency by virtue of the fact that it is, for better or worse, a public interest story. But, no matter who the participants are, the personal impact on the victim is no less pertinent and damaging.
Some of these players earn more in a 10 year span than most will earn in their lifetime - and they have the pleasure of the employment in a career of which they love. Yet they are destroying the game and setting an appalling example for the next generation of players and of men.
The NRL must come down even harder on this!
Otherwise, the cycle will continue. The violence will continue. The disrespect will continue.
And, most tragically, the next generation of me won't get to meet and adore the next generation of my beautiful wife :-)
Go the Eels in 2019!!!!
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Never heard someone score a chick of youtube?? Anyway good to see you around. You and i used to write alot, my original username is “Bert Kenny”
Yep, it's a bit of an unusual one!
I've been off the airwaves the last 18 months on account of work and being newly married. I'll try to annoy you lot with my opinions a bit more often this year!
Well blow me down...
Its Bourbs!
Is it true that you have been tied up at Ken’s of Kensington for the past five years, hands against the wall and finding yourself as the most popular glory h ole in Western Sydney? A glory h ole of which several members on this site have earned thousands of frequent flyer points.
Pfff been off getting married etc., what a crock of shit.
Welcome back mate and let’s hope you visit and contribute a little more often, I enjoy your posts, always have.
For the record I agree with your post. The violence against women is nothing new but it seems more frequent and all of it is now higher profile because of social media. I wonder whether anyone caught Stacy Dooley in Russia on SBS a few nights ago? It is the norm there for men to flog their wives or partners and some of the attitudes of the men were absolutely incredible, so 100 years ago and just so so wrong.
And, as usual, the NRL managed to bollocks this completely up! How could it be the case that General Counsel didn't advise the administration that a "no fault stand down" policy for contracted employees wouldn't pass muster under Part 3 of the Fair Work Act?
Just keep it simple! Deregister the pricks for breach of contract, namely, bringing the game into disrepute. If it turns out that they are exonerated by the Courts, re-contract them and back pay them.
The Courts are extremely reluctant to provide interlocutory relief to a dismissed employee to continue in his employ, preferring to award damages if the employee's grievance is upheld.
It won't make a practical difference and, if a player wants to try and sue the NRL for deregestiring them for breach of contract for bringing the game into disrepute after they're paraded outside the Downing Centre - well - good luck!!
Well said. A very reasoned and intligent analysis of the problem. Every female is soneon's daughter!
I'm increasingly growing tired of all the excuses that get trotted out as to why Rugby League players HAVE to be dickheads. ie; the code attracts aggressive men, lower socio-economic circumstances, etc.
I said this on a Facebook post yesterday; the thing that Rugby League players have in common is not aggression; it's bravery, it's self-lessness. I'm pretty sure any coach will put the players who is willing to run through brick walls for his teammates, over the ill-discisplined hothead who just wants to hurt people. Aggression is a by-product of anger, and elite sports with all of its technicalities and required concentration needs cool heads, not hot heads. And I generally take umbrage at people who want to make sweeping generalisations that anyone from a battling family is more prone to dickheadness than those from priviledge.
The sport needs to take responsibility for providing welfare/mentoring its emerging players when they are in those impressionable teenage years and the earlier the better.
Good blog bourb's, I watched that segment with James graham and sat there shaking my head, the amount of ex and current players that make excuses for bad behaviour doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence that we will see an improvement in off field behaviour anytime soon.
Hey Bourbon man. Loved the 12th man reference to that little town in Idaho in your opening stanzas.
I was on the Facebook SuperCoach addicts site the other night.I was disappointed when one of the members said in a blog that they had a copy of one of the Panthers sex tapes and in the space of a few minutes 50 or so other members requestedhe/she PM a copy of the tape. As a father of three girls I'm genuinely concerned about the opportunity for their private moments to be distributed without their knowledge. There doesn't seem to be much of a disincentive for the unauthorised filming of intimate relations.
Mr Bourbon. Thank you for your eloquent expose of the culture amongst some of the playing fraternity, where sexual exploitation of the opposite sex seems to be admired as proof of their manhood. Respect for normal standards of decency appears to be missing by some of these footballing gods, who feel that they are above it, and it does not apply to them. It is good to see these practises finally brought out in the open and being widely discussed. Thank you N.R.L. for finally acting for what has been a blight on the game for a long time.
Lock up your daughters :)
Agree with everything here but would also add that, as a parent, it is wise to educate your children with the realities of the society we live in and the inherant dangers, or elevated risks that certain activities carry with them and then hope like hell they heed said advice.
It's one of the great "life lessons"; Stay Out Of Harm's Way. It's extremely important - every animal teaches it's young how to stay out of harm's way.
That's not condoning this grubby activity, and it's not shifting blame or responsibility. It's just a way of trying to ensure your kids have the right intellectual tools to make smart decisions.
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