Let’s talk about the ‘invisible’ misogyny that exists in Australian sport

If you’ve ever read a news report and felt your heart rate go from 60 to 200. If you’ve ever felt the sweat start to form on your clammy hands or if you’ve ever felt your blood boil, you know what it is like to feel anger, to feel the fight.

This fight is largely invisible.

It’s bigger than sport and it’s certainly bigger than football.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you have invisible privilege.

Privilege is not a dirty word. And no, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have. It is however, a bad thing to have privilege and be complicit in the oppression of others.

Fox Footy posted an article on Tue 19 May titled, Olympian Morgan Mitchell tells Pies she’s ‘just as important as football’ in stunning confrontation. I’ll spare you the finer details.

Morgan Mitchell and Nana Owusu-Afriyie are women and incredibly talented elite athletes in their own right. The Fox Footy reporters had other ideas.

The topic is an otherwise uneventful confrontation. It has been reported however, to make headlines, incite division and covertly breed a culture of misogyny. It included an out of context photo of Morgan Mitchell looking angry whilst the footballers look carefree. The article even made mention of her former relationship, like it had anything to do with the content. It described the two women as having “quite a bit of attitude” and that they “made a scene”. And yet again, we are reminded of how women are all too commonly referred to in the media…

To write or read an article, such as the one by Fox Footy, and to be a stranger to the rapid heart rate rises and boiling blood is to not know what this article is really about. This is invisible privilege.

This article is not about a football team being burdened with female athletes sharing their training grounds. This issue, believe or not, is much bigger than football. This news article is evidence of invisible privilege that is all too common in Australian sport.

Oh, but it’s harmless reporting, right?

If the public’s responses are anything to go by, this is in fact not harmless reporting. Tweets flooded in; praising the article and responding to the women. Ted posted a gif saying, “hurry up and make me a sandwich”, Raymond wrote, “take a walk toots, big boys are up” and John described the topic as, “toxic femininity at its finest. This is what happens when you tell females they can act how they like and not suffer any repercussions.”

I think you’ll find John, when women are allowed to speak out. We fight.

We fight for each other, we stand in solidarity and call out misogyny when we see it. Women’s sport gets such little positive publicity as it is. Didn’t we learn anything from Tayla Harris? Powerful forces such as football should know better, but alas, invisible privilege is blinding.

Author: Georgie Buckley - May 2020