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Eddie McGuire must be fired in light of recent comments

Roar Rookie
22nd June, 2016
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Eddie McGuire has gone from being in ice water to hot water. (Photo: Lachlan Cunningham)
Roar Rookie
22nd June, 2016
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1046 Reads

Eddie McGuire, the charming laid back voice that blokes all over Australia can relate to. He is a man that does not subscribe to any of this politically correct nonsense that our society is saturated with and he tells it the way it really is.

Yes, maybe he says things sometimes that he shouldn’t, but people need to realise that he is just joking around and having a bit of a laugh. Those that complain about McGuire’s remarks are just taking life a little too seriously, right?

Wrong.

McGuire is a parody of everything that is wrong with a culture that is saturated with verbose misogyny and racist condescension. He manages to repeatedly satirise himself with comments such as the ones he made about Caroline Wilson.

McGuire was criticised no more than ten days ago after stating that he would offer $50,000 to watch prominent AFL journalist Wilson be drowned at next year’s Freeze MND charity event.

I am one who firmly believes that we should be allowed to laugh at almost anything in this world in the right context. For example, if we watch a comedian, we enter an implicit agreement that what we are seeing and hearing is not at all serious and that anything that is said should not be taken as such.

However, McGuire is in a position of social influence and such an implicit agreement with his audience differs greatly from one that would exist between a comedian and their audience. His verbose comments reek of sexism and condescension and these comments have power.

Eddie McGuire, as he always seems to do, has overstepped the mark.

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This follows his 2013 on-air blunder when he compared AFL star Adam Goodes to King Kong and said that the star could be used to promote the musical. McGuire later managed to articulately and masterfully brush this off as “a slip of the tongue”. Genius. These are only two examples of McGuire’s many insensitive and socially dangerous comments.

The problem here is that McGuire’s comments are only criticised. That is all that ever happens. Collingwood have backed him as their president and Triple M, the radio station he made such remarks on, have decided that the public outcry and “censure” of his comments were enough to change his behaviour.

Really? This is not the first time McGuire has received such condemnation and it has done nothing to change his behaviour in the past. Why should we believe that a similar public reaction would stifle his consistently volatile behaviour?

He gets a slap on the wrist and life goes on exactly the same way. All that happens is a few pithy articles are written criticising this man, and the next day he goes on air, apologises and then continues to talk in the same condescending and demeaning manner.

It is not just the way he says these things, but the way he justifies his comments; he manages to brush off his criticism in the same narcissistic vain in which his remarks are made. He says that he was just joking. Or that he had a slip of the tongue. Or even, get this, that he was merely too tired to think straight.

In essence, McGuire is saying that in order for him to not be a bigot, he has to be thinking completely clearly with no lack of sleep, and furthermore, if he deems his comments to be a joke, they do not count as bigoted remarks. When McGuire apologises, he does so while still justifying the comments that he has just made.

The prime example – his recent comments regarding his remarks about Wilson.

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“It’s humour,” he said on Monday. “I pick up the paper every day and there’s a cartoon giving it to me. She’s a big figure in the football world. It was solely a joke. Nobody at any stage had any malice or intent in their heart other than joking about a fellow commentator.”

McGuire is not sorry for his damaging words and this means that there is a very high chance that unless he is taken off air, he will make remarks in the same vain in the future.

An even wider problem is that McGuire has an audience that responds positively to these comments. People are tuning in to hear this sort of thing. That’s part of what makes it dangerous; he has a willing audience for this type of discourse and that’s why it consistently slips past with no real consequence.

It’s hard because this rhetoric inflames a misogynist culture, which in turn, inflames the rhetoric. There is a willing audience and culture encouraging McGuire and he mirrors that by encouraging this mindset. It’s a circle and both components need to be addressed readily.

It starts by creating a culture of not accepting this line of thinking across the board, and from that you eliminate an audience. This type of rhetoric will then not be encouraged and when one makes remarks such as these, they will be thought of as an idiot more broadly.

This transition is happening, but it will only continue to happen if we lambast this condescension and ignorance vigorously. Because when we get asked by the next generation if we supported characters like McGuire and their statements, I hope that we can answer such a question with that of my favourite Stephen Fry quote: “The short answer to that is ‘no’. The long answer is ‘f*** no’.”

McGuire gets away with this rhetoric because of ‘how much he does for sport’. Well, it is time we forgo this illogical excuse. No matter how much someone does for anything in their life, they have to be held accountable for their actions that cause harm.

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If we let McGuire’s casual misogyny, racism and condescension off with no consequence merely because of the fact that his actions have had positive implications for Australian sport, then a denigration of the way we expect human beings to be treated is occurring.

We cannot put up with such mind-numbingly ignorant lines of thought from people of influence. All that happens if we do is that ignorance is spread as a common thought process and rhetoric; it insults the intelligence of a nation.

I urge sponsors of Collingwood, such as Holden, to take action that affirms the way we want to treat others in this world. Let us not continue to allow casual racism and sexism flow from voices that stream through radio and television sets all over the world; let us reject it.

You can either choose to be on the wrong side of history, or the right side. Casting Eddie McGuire’s voice aside is a step towards being on the right side of history.

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