The narrative in the media has been nothing sort of disgusting. That will come with education, but they simply need to be shamed and not constantly seeking ‘reason’’ to why the abuse occured
At one time I spent many hours in our local Magistrates Court being an advocate for some disadvantaged citizens.I was always amazed when a guy charged with assault of his partner, breaking her arm, her nose and kicking her multiple times, contravening intervention orders, and with a long previous history was not jailed. While the truck driver who drove after losing his licence for DUI, so he could feed his kids was given three months in jail.
I saw matters like this every week, and the Police were so frustrated, and often commented that next time it may be much more serious. They were usually correct.
I asked a Magistrate I knew from Heidelberg Court, and he advised that usually they didn’t want to break up families and that these domestic violence matters were complicated with fault on all sides. I told him this was horseshit but they continue to let violent people walk our streets.
Yep when i was a cop saw this all the time. Attitudes of the court need to change.
What the magistrate has failed to do in that situation is do anything to protect the victims of the violence. In many cases the battered wife returns to the scene of the crime, to find the criminal sitting there, waiting to use her as a personal punching bag again. Letting the guy go once l can understand, but time after time only reinforces his behaviour as he thinks he is never going to be punished. The number of domestic violence deaths in Australia this year is about equal to the same number of deaths in England, although they have 3 times the population. This is a damning statistic.
At our local Court, Capt J, there is no security and no private rooms to hold the violent away from the victims. I have placed myself between a scum wife basher and the woman, when he was allowed to try and sit next to her in a packed court. I am no hero, and as soft as butter, but I have big mates and I reckon the weed would think twice about hitting me.
And most of these bashers are the same drunk, on drugs or sober.
This issue is way beyond politics and all Governments and Oppositions need to work together.
Bacchus Marsh. The building is 150 years old and way past its useby date, like some of the Magistrates who visit.
There is another side to this, as some people know I work in mental health as a social worker, and my program is funded for youth 0-18, victims of DV, single parents (96% woman in our program) we have been trying to get a case management and counciling program for Males aged 18-40 and can not get it funded. Yet that Demo has the greatest suicude risk of any, we see cases of severely mentally ill men come through our doors for emergency relief (food vouchers) and the best we can do is refer them onto lifeline. It’s not good enough.
Chris Brown banned from Australia. Such an undeserving person of his “success”, hopefully stuff like this knocks him down a peg. What’s more the bloke’s a farking hack.
Pity that consistency is not used across the board - A number of musicians have chequered pasts but get visas - Somehow the lyrical content of some musical genres, which are offensive to women, as well as the personal history of artists, get a free pass to tour Australia.
An open letter to the AFL from the mother called a ‘stripper’
ANONYMOUS SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 1:35PM
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Dear Mr McLachlan,
I write to you as the mother who was with her 18-year-old daughter passing through the Hawthorn Junior Football Club luncheon at The Glenferrie Hotel on Friday, September 25. Yes, the one whom MC, Billy Brownless, referred to in a “throw away line” by saying: “here comes the strippers”.
Since going public with this abhorrent, most embarrassing confrontation, there has been a groundswell of support on social media, aligned to articles written by journalists from various mediums far and wide. This outrage and support says to me that maybe now is an opportune time to professionally address respect for women from those within the AFL community; a good place to start given we, the public, hold these athletes in such high esteem.
This is no longer about Billy Brownless. And as I’ve continued to choose to remain anonymous, this is not about me, nor my daughter. This is about how regularly women in Australia face such disrespect in public forums and are then defensively criticised because they can’t take a joke.
Women can take a joke, when it’s a joke. Abusing women either physically or emotionally is not a joke and never will be. Now is the time for an organisation like the AFL to stand up and make a difference. Sadly the AFL Diversity program isn’t resonating with those it should. A far greater public forum, worshipped by the target audience however, might just do the trick.
In my opinion, echoed by many on social media in the past 24 to 48 hours, the AFL Footy Show on the Nine Network would be a good place to start. I’m quite certain, as the respectable father of a young daughter yourself, you would prefer a mainstream television program like The Footy Show to be something you could sit down and watch together someday.
The Footy Show condones and breeds this toxic behaviour. When it’s on a major television network, perhaps the audience then believes this behaviour is acceptable. It must be, right? It’s allowed to be broadcast after all. The odd apology dished out the following week for some obnoxious sexist comment the week prior, will do, won’t it?
I question whether you, as the CEO of the sporting code which this show promotes, are 100 per cent comfortable with the display of thug-like culture — demeaning, belittling, condescending and disrespectful acts and comments towards women, from current and former players from the AFL.
I urge you, Mr McLachlan, along with a significant number of Australian women (and men), to use your power as the head of the AFL, to force The Footy Show (AFL) to significantly change their format and script NOW, while this topic is hot, and before another innocent family is subjected to such vile behaviour.
I’m not talking about a token-female host on occasion, nor am I talking about a female AFL player joining in discussions with the panel (we all know how appalling that was) and scripts don’t need to be sent to the Country Women’s Association for approval. Having a sensible woman involved in the script-writing, planning and production would be a significant step in the right direction. If such an amazing appointment were to happen, I hope the Nine Network will promote the hell out of it, because THAT might mean the show could potentially return to the ratings-winning, Logie-winning show it once was.
But enough about The Footy Show…… the best thing that could come from you taking a stand right now is that the current player lists and former football community is educated to the point whereby it changes their mind-set; pressing pause in their brain before sneering comments hit their tongues. Only then will these men actually understand the impact of their words and actions towards women. Let’s just hope this is in time for you to enjoy watching The Footy Show with your daughter.
Yours sincerely,
A mother and a dedicated football fan
Originally published as Open letter to AFL from mum called ‘stripper’
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Brownless supposedly later said he paid the mum a compliment!
■■■■■■■ knuckle dragger, what exactly does he have to be proud of?
An open letter to the AFL? Why not one to the Footy Show first? Why not to the local government or the federal one? Why even bother when it ultimately will not do anything other than make people feel better about themselves that something is being done even though nothing changes?
She is only now outraged enough to write this letter but not for the previous million things this disgusting show has done. Faux outrage imo.
This should have been dealt with years ago by both the Footy Show and the AFL but they have basically ignorted it and allowed it to go on, with the media’s blessings too. Too much faux outrage these days and this is why we continue to have a growing epidemic of domestic violence. People pay it lip service but no one with power does anything about it and most of the community ignores it.
The media were outraged by Billy but only as long as the outrage sold a few papers, once it died down so did the outrage and no solution or meaningful change was done. The Footy Show doesn’t care (C9), they continue to get people watching and laughing. The AFL don’t really care, it still promotes the game, even if negative for a bit, and their pseudo actions make everyone feel good and think they are doing something about it and it is done and dusted and buried. The government don’t really care, after all, what can they really do about it? All they will do is throw money at different causes and have working comittees write a paper about what should be done, then it all goes away and their constituents are happy again.
Meanwhile women and children continue to be abused, mistreated and occassionally killed. When a death happens that captures the publics imagination again then it is rinse and repeat.
Writing an open letter to the AFL does nothing except give people a chance to nod their heads in outrage but do nothing about it.
No disrespect IT but are you doing anything about it other than posting your view on Blitz
No disrespect IT but are you doing anything about it other than posting your view on Blitz
Yes, I have lived it with my family and have been dealing with it through my Church and NGO.
No disrespect IT but are you doing anything about it other than posting your view on BlitzUT Yes, I have lived it with my family and have been dealing with it through my Church and NGO.
So what is your advice on what the rest of us should do?
No disrespect IT but are you doing anything about it other than posting your view on BlitzUT Yes, I have lived it with my family and have been dealing with it through my Church and NGO.So what is your advice on what the rest of us should do?
It starts at home and how we teach our children about what is acceptable and what is not. Abuse of any type, whether physical, emotional and mental is not acceptable and should never be acceptable. It then also starts at school, we should be taught there in how to deal with conflict, what is the correct way and what is unacceptable. It should also start with each one of us and how we treat others and how we confront our friends when they overstep the mark.
That also goes for how we treat people online. There is far too much abuse meeted out on social network sites, this one included. Bullying is violence. If we find it acceptable online we will soon find it acceptable irl.
When we see it happening we should step in to stop it, report it and work through it. As mates we should have the courage to tell our mates it is unacceptable. When they do it in the social setting (physical intimidation, abuse or bullying) with people they don’t know, then you can bet they are doing it privately with those they do know. We need to stand up to it and confront it and help them find ways to overcome it. It won’t be pretty at first but it works.
Brownless is a dolt and clearly is at home with the other fuckwits on the footy show and dribble m. I can’t see how anyone expects the league to control former players behaviour, especially ones that aren’t employed by the league.
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Brownless is a dolt and clearly is at home with the other fuckwits on the footy show and dribble m. I can't see how anyone expects the league to control former players behaviour, especially ones that aren't employed by the league.
I call him Billy Brainless. It’s easier.
Just random thoughts from a conversation today…
Derogatory words that are aimed at females … ■■■■…■■■■■…
Derogatory words aimed at males … ■■■■
All of these deride women in one way shape or form.
Also comics etc where the females are characterised by their tight clothing and massive disproportionate boobs…
It all starts somewhere
Just random thoughts from a conversation today...Derogatory words that are aimed at females … ■■■■…■■■■■…
Derogatory words aimed at males … ■■■■
All of these deride women in one way shape or form.
Also comics etc where the females are characterised by their tight clothing and massive disproportionate boobs…
It all starts somewhere
Man up.
Man’s look.
Take it like a man.
Nearly every day I hear women make gender-assumptive and condescending comments that would see men in the HR office so fast it would make your head spin, to say nothing of unwanted hugs, grabs, stroking…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m dangerously anti-violence on women. But don’t pretend women don’t do the language thing too (and to themselves as well).
■■■■ is invalid, btw. Only works if you ignore ■■■■, ■■■■, etc.
I’ve also found ‘respectable’ women far more willing to gossip about a man’s sexual equipment and prowess than ‘respectable’ men.
Edit: Also, ■■■■ is as taboo a word as the English language has. ■■■■ and ■■■■ most certainly are not.
Just random thoughts from a conversation today...Derogatory words that are aimed at females … ■■■■…■■■■■…
Derogatory words aimed at males … ■■■■
All of these deride women in one way shape or form.
Also comics etc where the females are characterised by their tight clothing and massive disproportionate boobs…
It all starts somewhere
Man up.
Man’s look.
Take it like a man.Nearly every day I hear women make gender-assumptive and condescending comments that would see men in the HR office so fast it would make your head spin, to say nothing of unwanted hugs, grabs, stroking…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m dangerously anti-violence on women. But don’t pretend women don’t do the language thing too (and to themselves as well).
■■■■ is invalid, btw. Only works if you ignore ■■■■, ■■■■, etc.
I’ve also found ‘respectable’ women far more willing to gossip about a man’s sexual equipment and prowess than ‘respectable’ men.Edit: Also, ■■■■ is as taboo a word as the English language has. ■■■■ and ■■■■ most certainly are not.
I didn’t explain very well but I didn’t mean it’s only men that use those terms…
I wasn’t pointing fingers or insinuating one sex is more culpable than the other.
Lots of conjecture about the root causes of domestic violence.
Few relationships exist where partners never argue, and sometimes voices are raised in anger from one or both sides.
Can anyone who has been in that position explain why it didn’t (or did) escalate to punching ? For me the question is, why does one person hit others, while the others walks away.