Why should we be angry about Eddie’s jokes? Because they help foster violence against women

HOW incredible that Eddie and co’s comments were said “in the spirit of fun”. Because accepting sexism – even in “banter” – normalises violence against women, writes Wendy Tuohy.

Eddie McGuire’s comments have been condemned by anti-violence advocates.

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THE evidence is in: a society that tolerates, even laughs at, comments about harming women is more likely to tolerate actual harm to women by men.

Tolerating sexism and misogyny even in “banter”, means potentially tolerating real world violence against women.

Seeing the sky fall in on Eddie McGuire and co. (eventually) after their enjoyment last week of jokes about having veteran footy writer Caroline Wilson held under water offers cause for hope: perhaps we have finally reached a tipping point and footy is just slow to catch on.

The intensity with which McGuire’s comments have been met by anti-violence campaigners, community leaders and everyday people suggests that a large and decent chunk of our population knows it is true that if you walk past jokes about drowning women you’re walking past wider attitudes that support it.

Casual misogyny is not just something used to combat the power of Wilson and other powerful women in the work world, it’s something everyday women experience so often you start to barely notice it.

Objecting to an article on my Herald Sun blog once, one guy suggested he’d “love to see what a homicidal dictator would do to you”.

As AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said in his press conference today: “In the past we might have just ignored the comments as part of the culture of footy. We might have said that ‘Caro’ is tough and resilient.”

Veteran football writer Caroline Wilson.

Strong women were once seen to be fair game to cop this misogynistic crap: remember TheFooty Show’s attempt to disempower Wilson by having Sam Newman do degrading things to a mannequin with her face on it?

But McLachlan stressed now, “we can’t say we are committed to making and leading change if we don’t step up and call it out.”

Potential harms done by laughing at “hold her under” jokes about powerful women flow directly to vulnerable women with no power or support, and to men who are made to feel their urge to control women with violence is fine.

After all, look at all those high achieving dudes guffawing at it.

Research studies done by the World Health Organisation, the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Commission about the association between sexist and discriminatory attitudes to women and creating cultures in which violence against women flourishes has found undeniable links.

Usually, when you dare highlight this link it is howled down aggressively as some kind of feminist conspiracy (cue very aggressive comments under the article).

But according to the CEO of Domestic Violence Victoria, Fiona McCormack, “the evidence is overwhelming and has been reinforced over and over again … just like there is a link between racist jokes and violent racism, homophobia and homophobic violence, there is a link between sexism and violence against women”.

“People often think violence against women is caused by drugs, alcohol, mental illness, economic pressures; all of these can be contributing factors they are not necessarily causal factors. What we know is what’s crucial for allowing domestic violence to flourish is community attitudes,” said Ms McCormack.

Particularly when these attitudes are “communicated by men to other men”, and when violence against women or women generally are spoken about in disrespectful terms or violence against women is minimised or joked about “there is a really strong message sent that it’s actually not that serious, it’s part of being bloke, that’s what you do”.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan says McGuire’s comments were right to be called out.

Amazing, really, to hear someone with McGuire’s intelligence and influence still apparently not getting the magnitude of the dangers attached to making fun of the idea of a violent act on a woman.

At least he firmed up his initial dismissive response to criticism.

“I’m really disappointed that these comments have led to these feeling from people,” he said, also retracting the comments broadcast on radio last Monday night.

The football powerbroker had initially said he made the joke “in the spirit of the fun of the day and who would be going next down the slide (into the vat of iced water for the AFL’s Freeze MND fundraiser).”

But we need something much stronger from McGuire, the AFL and all the other guys McGuire brought in on the joke who laughed at or didn’t challenge him.

With 79 women killed by men last year, and 31 women killed in Australia by men so far this year, we simply cannot afford for powerful men to be seen saying such destructive stuff.

Our Watch’s CEO, Mary Barry, reinforces Ms McCormack’s statement that “while there is no single cause of violence against women, there is evidence that shows people who support gender inequality and sexism and more likely to hold attitudes that condone violence against women”.

“Research shows the public is very heavily influence by the way violence is portrayed in media,” she says.

“We know that sexist, misogynist comments and jokes about violence lay the necessary cultural conditions for violence against women to occur; language matters and comments that trivialise or condone violence against women are unacceptable and wrong coming from anyone.”

How incredible that in this case, those kinds of comments were broadcast “in the spirit of fun”.

Well done Australia for getting loud about it, but what a shame this tawdry moment shows how far we have to go.

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