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Daily Life writer Kasey Edwards recently wrote about the “horror” she experienced when her daughter requested to watch the AFL.
Edwards’ reasons for her reluctance to allow her daughter into the male-dominated world of Australian rules football are not entirely unreasonable:
“A female footballer … will never be taken as seriously as even the most second-rate male reserve.”
“[Edwards’ daughter] will not be welcome as an umpire, as a coach, as an announcer or as a journalist”
“Women are only really welcome on the sidelines: as supports to men and boys, to stroke their egos, and to be objectified as WAGs.”
I’m not writing to tell Edwards that women are of course as big a part of footy as men. Nor am I telling her that Aussie rules is a bloke’s game first and foremost and she should just deal with it. Neither viewpoint would be helpful nor accurate.
Instead, I question her reluctance to allow her enthusiastic daughter to become a part of the change AFL so desperately needs.
The AFL’s problems with sexism and misogyny are well-documented, not least on The Footy Show, where Rebecca Maddern recently made her debut as co-host.
Unsurprisingly, many people, including women, were unimpressed by the change, saying that having a female panellist on a show produced primarily for blokes would be a step in the wrong direction.
They felt that having someone who had never played professionally would not fit in, and that the move was nothing more than a surrender to political correctness. Perhaps worst of all, one commenter wondered when she would “get them out”. Yuck.
Needless to say, the keyboard warriors’ fears were unfounded. Maddern’s football knowledge was more than sufficient, as one would expect for a journo who has spent nearly 20 years covering a wide variety of topics including sport.
But the mere fact that her performance was being so heavily scrutinised is an indication of the double standard that exists between men and women in sports broadcasting.
However, Maddern’s appointment to a programme which has suffered a fair amount of deserved criticism for its outdated attitudes towards the fairer sex should be seen as an opportunity, not as another example of how ignorant footy fans can be.
If more women can become a part of football through the boardroom, press box, footy field or grandstands, then it will be because of pioneers like Maddern. Young girls need to hold the belief that they have just as much a right to be a part of the experience as boys do.
Ultimately, if women understand the game and are actually interested in the sport itself, why the hell shouldn’t they be allowed to participate in the coverage, support, umpiring and governance of the sport?
This is why I disagree with Kasey Edwards’ reluctance to allow her daughter to watch AFL. Admittedly, I am neither female nor a parent, but I feel that Edwards would be denying her young girl the chance to forge a new path for women in AFL and sport in general.
Men are not going to roll over and allow women into footy’s inner sanctum with open arms. Rightly or wrongly, the onus lies on young girls and women to push hard for equal standing in the game.
It has already been a tough journey for women to reach this point in AFL history. Caroline Wilson, Peggy O’Neal and Eleni Glouftsis have all shaken up footy’s status quo in the fields of journalism, business and umpiring respectively. Unfortunately, several generations will have passed before footy can deservedly shed its image as a ‘boys’ club’.
In the current landscape of Australian rules football and sport in general, I can totally understand why parents like Kasey Edwards would be unwilling to allow young girls to be a part of a culture so uncompromisingly full of testosterone. But no one ever reached Everest’s peak without leaving base camp.
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