GEORGIE PARKER: Greater Western Sydney end-of-season scandal needed swift response

There’s a lot to unpack in regards to the Greater Western Sydney end-of-season scandal.

There’s the fact it happened, how it got leaked, the hard response from the AFL, the two opposing reactions from the public and the deafening silence from so many in the industry and players of the league.

So, let’s go from the top and address why the toxic culture in society — but particularly male sporting teams (both local and professional) — is so damaging.

To joke about something serious like sexual assault, slavery or the mass murder of 2700 people isn’t funny or harmless.

The normalisation of such jokes is dangerous and when coming from the top down, creates copy-cat behaviours from those who are looking up.

How do we stamp this out at local level, of which this sort of sexist and abhorrent behaviour happens regularly, if those who a representing your sport and gender at the highest level are doing the same?

For example, let’s go back to May this year where the entire Knox school men’s development team was stood down for yelling sexist remarks and trying to trip their women’s side over as they were running on to the field.

Or if you want to go even younger and more impressionable, let’s not forget the St Kevin’s boys, where dozens of school boys were suspended for chanting a sexist and misogynistic song on a packed tram. It’s an “if they can, so can we” situation.

This behaviour from the GWS players is a bigger and more complex issue than “boys being boys” on a ‘private’ end of season function.

It’s part of a toxic culture which isn’t acceptable, at any level, but particularly one from an AFL player, because whether they like it or not, they have to accept the fact that with the title and platform of being an AFL player, comes a higher standard of acceptable behaviour, because unfortunately it’s sets an example for those below.

The next part is how it was leaked. “It’s a private function, they can do what they want”, you can hear people say on social media.

To which I say, does it matter how? I care that it happened not how news of it got out.

The fact that young men thought it was okay to joke about sexual assault at the end of season after standing in a circle, arm in arm in round eight to make a stand against gender-based violence.

So, if you’re up in arms about the fact this was leaked, please be more up in arms about the content, because I tell you what, that is worse.

We then get on to the two sides of the public reactions. Those who think this is a beat up and those who are angered and upset.

I’ve had many conversations with men about this, who often say I’m either their point of education or voice of reason about not just women’s sports or our space in sport, but also about the societal shift we, as women, are trying to make.

Now, a positive sign for me with these conversations was that not a single male friend of mine thought what those players dressed as or did was even remotely funny.

But when asked about the suspensions there were mixed responses as to whether it was fair or not.

To be honest, I don’t know what the response from the AFL should have been, or what is fair. But the swiftness in the response from the AFL has been promising.

Sport is such an enormous platform and has the ability to shift the dial, both negatively and positively, so it’s important they make a stand like they have done. Those who think this is a beat-up, well, I don’t even know where to start with that.

And finally the deafening silence from a majority of men in the industry. The women, as you can see online are loud and angry as we are starting to find our voice in this tough and challenging space. But, right now, we feel alone.

As a woman, this industry is tough. If you know anything about me, you’d know I am a big personality and not scared of speaking my mind, but at the same time there are moments where you can feel so small and unheard.

It is an industry where the boys club mentality is strong and where the public opinion of you has such a gross gender bias it hurts and it is tiring.

It’s an industry where you feel if you make noise about misogyny in the workplace you won’t get work again, because when I have, I have suddenly no longer been needed.

That’s just the workspace but on societal level the problem is much worse. There is an endemic of gendered violence. If it hasn’t affected you as a woman personally, it has affected someone close to you with who has been assaulted or raped.

Toxic masculinity is exactly that, toxic, and it spreads like cancer and needs to be cut out at the source.

So, as someone who is very tough on the AFL, I am appreciative of the swift and hard response from the league, but don’t you wish the problem they had to fix didn’t happen to begin with?