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I certainly think Sam crossed the line with that incident, but he and Caro dealt with it, as THEY needed to as adults and as profesisonals. It should have been put to bed weeks ago, but with all these groups choosing to jump on it weeks and months down the track, it only FURTHER demeans women in football imo. It's not Caro doing the whinging, it's these other groups pushing their own political agendas and claiming it's in her defense, which is bulldust. It's not defending her, it's pushing agendas and only further re-iterating the misguided feeling that women in football need special treatment. We don't. It's as simple as that. We should earn respect and maintain our reputations by being professionals and fitting in with an organisation's culture, just as we would be expected to do in any other organisation, and just as we would expect any man to do if he was entering into a female-dominated culture.
If we do our jobs, do them well and fit into the team culture, gradually the culture will change to accept women as a legimitate part of the club's infrastructure. I took on a new role this year at a club that used to have a shocking reputation for treating women badly. Over the past 3 years women have won high-up positions at the club by proving that we have the goods and the club is now doing incredibly well and is considered to be frontrunner in areas such as injury management and rehabilitation because of our contributions. On my first night one of the comments was "there are more women here than players now!" and I responded "Well that should tell you something shouldn't it?" and he responded with "Yeah you're better than the blokes! We'd better watch out!" Not once at the club have the females demanded "better" conditions (apart from a women's toilet!) - everyone has just gone in, done their job (and done it well) and earned respect for being the best at what they do. Because of that the culture at the club has changed and become more respectful towards women, not because the females demanded it just because they wanted to work there. Had any of us jumped up and down and demanded that our love lives etc NOT be joked about (just like the boys' are for example), or that there not be the occasional joke about someone's "rack" (the same way the boys joke about each other's equipment) all it would have done would have been to undo our work and the reputations that have been built up because we would have looked precious and thin-skinned.
Likewise, in this situation these groups jumping up and down do nothing to "help" women in footy earn respect, and I wish they'd go away and just let the girls who are serious about their work do their jobs the same way they always have! We want respect but we need to earn it on profesisonal terms, not have some external parties dictating that it needs to automatically be given to us because we're "different." If anything I find that MORE offensive than anything Sam Newman does (which should be taken with a grain of salt anyway imo!) because it implies I can't do my job in the first place and that I need special allowances which is not the case.
If we do our jobs, do them well and fit into the team culture, gradually the culture will change to accept women as a legimitate part of the club's infrastructure. I took on a new role this year at a club that used to have a shocking reputation for treating women badly. Over the past 3 years women have won high-up positions at the club by proving that we have the goods and the club is now doing incredibly well and is considered to be frontrunner in areas such as injury management and rehabilitation because of our contributions. On my first night one of the comments was "there are more women here than players now!" and I responded "Well that should tell you something shouldn't it?" and he responded with "Yeah you're better than the blokes! We'd better watch out!" Not once at the club have the females demanded "better" conditions (apart from a women's toilet!) - everyone has just gone in, done their job (and done it well) and earned respect for being the best at what they do. Because of that the culture at the club has changed and become more respectful towards women, not because the females demanded it just because they wanted to work there. Had any of us jumped up and down and demanded that our love lives etc NOT be joked about (just like the boys' are for example), or that there not be the occasional joke about someone's "rack" (the same way the boys joke about each other's equipment) all it would have done would have been to undo our work and the reputations that have been built up because we would have looked precious and thin-skinned.
Likewise, in this situation these groups jumping up and down do nothing to "help" women in footy earn respect, and I wish they'd go away and just let the girls who are serious about their work do their jobs the same way they always have! We want respect but we need to earn it on profesisonal terms, not have some external parties dictating that it needs to automatically be given to us because we're "different." If anything I find that MORE offensive than anything Sam Newman does (which should be taken with a grain of salt anyway imo!) because it implies I can't do my job in the first place and that I need special allowances which is not the case.
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