Susie O’Brien: I just got sexually harassed on live TV on International Women’s Day

I AM not going to cry myself to sleep over what Sam Newman said about me on The Footy Show last night, but I do think he should be aware it was shameful sexual harassment, writes Susie O’Brien.

Last night The Footy Show host Sam Newman suggested I was unlikely to need the support of the #MeToo movement, presumably because I am too unattractive to be sexually harassed or abused.

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Then he went on to make unwanted sexual references about me being “aroused” when I write about him and “secretly wishes I would chat him up”.

That’s actually sexual harassment, Sam, which would definitely give me the right to use the #MeToo hashtag.

The Footy Show tanked last year and I’d like to think this was just a pathetic grab at ratings. They’ll need something to get people to watch — last night only 173,000 bothered to tune in to watch. Ouch.

Host Eddie McGuire noted Newman had been in the headlines over his alleged bid to be lord mayor of the City of Melbourne.

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Sam Newman, Rebecca Maddern and Eddie McGuire on ‘The Footy Show’.

“Even your nemesis at the Herald Sun, Susie O’Brien, is writing that it could well be conceivable that you could be the next lord mayor of Melbourne,” he said.

“I reckon that woman gets aroused when she writes about me,” Sam replied.

“I am keeping her in business, I reckon she secretly wishes I would chat her up.”

“I don’t think so,’ host Rebecca Maddern was good enough to add.

But Sam wasn’t finished: “I don’t think she has ever got to worry about the #MeToo movement because I don’t think that will ever visit her”.

“All right, all right,” Eddie said, cutting him off, before Sam added: “She is delusional”.

I have no problem with Newman attacking what I say or the way I say it, but he should keep my sexuality out of it.

It may come as a surprise to him, but I do manage to write about him without getting aroused. And I am in a very happy relationship, so don’t particularly want him to chat me up.

Such sexual comments have been used by men to put women in their place for years.

When a woman gets too opinionated or successful, some men use her appearance or body shape to bring her down a peg or two.

It’s no secret Sam Newman and I have a professional hate-hate relationship going back a few years. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

While I am not about to cry myself to sleep about what Newman said, I do think it’s shameful and disappointing that a professional woman is treated in this way on International Women’s Day.

It is no secret Sam Newman and I have a professional hate-hate relationship going back a few years.

I have copped the abuse he’s thrown at me over the years because I have dished it out, as well. In this game you do need a thick skin.

For example, in 2015 I called him a man “past his amuse-by-date” who pushes a “sexist, Benny Hill-style comedy that relies on putting others down, objectifying women and being boorish”.

I also called him a “pathetic, ridiculous dinosaur who belongs in the prehistoric age”. He responded by wearing a T-Rex suit on the show.

In 2016 I called him a “sexist seventy-year old with the face of a schoolboy and the maturity to match”.

In July 2017 I called him a “geriatric man baby”.

It may come as a surprise to Sam Newman, but I do manage to write about him without getting aroused.

Funnily enough, the latest rant from him about me was elicited by a column that was the most benign of all: I said it was possible he could be elected lord mayor.

I am willing to cop most of the robust commentary that comes my way — from Newman and everyone else.

But I do object to being reduced to a sexual object by Newman when I am simply doing my job.

Sadly, Newman wasn’t the only one to have a crack yesterday. I wrote a piece about International Women’s Day and immediately copped it from a bunch of blokes who didn’t like what I wrote. Many chose to make sexual or gender-related comments. For instance, Shane said: “Why are none of the women who stand up for women’s rights hot?”

And there was Norm, who went to the trouble of emailing me to tell me I only had my job because I was a token woman.

I object to such comments, not just for me, but for all women who are too scared to speak their mind at work because of the backlash they fear from men.

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