Australian Rules Football really is becoming as soft as rugby fans have always said it is. We’ve got fans getting kicked out for correctly observing that an umpire is a “bald-headed flog”, over-zealous security guards rushing on to the field to break up a couple of players going the biff, and a special hurty-feelings hotline.
Now, they’re giving out gigantic, bronze special snowflake awards.
AFLW star Tayla Harris has hit back at critics of the statue raised in her honour, saying they simply don’t understand the significance behind it.
Oh, they understand the “significance”, all right: whinge loud enough and every intersectional victim whiner will get a trophy.
An action shot of Harris taking a kick against the Western Bulldogs went viral in March after the Carlton player decided to call out misogynistic and sexual derogatory comments left by trolls on the photo.
Harris, who is also a boxer, at the time described the comments as a form of sexual assault and received widespread support for taking a stand against trolling.
For someone who seems determined to act all tough (ooh, a boxer, too!), Harris certainly seems to be a bit fragile when one or two dickheads say stupid things. Is she competing with Adam Goodes for the Snowflake of the Century award?
There’s also the fact that claiming “sexual assault” because some knobheads on Facebook said some stupid stuff is pretty demeaning to actual sexual assault victims.
In any case, despite the endless pearl-clutching about “misogynistic and sexually derogatory comments left by trolls”, we’re left completely in the dark about what was allegedly said, and just how many comments were actually made? Was it two out of a thousand? 200? If just a handful of comments were a bit mean, it seems like an epic overreaction to go on a six-month crying jag and get handed a statue for it.
Earlier today, 1978 Brownlow medallist Malcolm Blight — a former Geelong and Adelaide coach and a “legend” in the Australian football Hall of Fame — labelled the decision to erect 3.3m bronze statue of Harris’ famous airborne kick as “lame” and “stupid”.
“The most mystifying decision I’ve seen in my life thus far,” he told FIVEaa radio.
“Mystifying! She is getting a statue for being trolled online. It’s lame, it is the most stupid, mystifying … what about the blokes? If you get trolled it’s crap, we know that.
“This is something that I’ve never ever heard of in my whole life. It’s not an age thing, it’s a stupid thing.”
…Speaking on Melbourne Triple M Radio today, Harris said…I haven’t done anything to warrant a statue as a footballer in my footballing achievements, but I have been involved in something that was a movement — and that was a sign, or a signal of a change in Australia, but also worldwide to be honest,” she said.
theaustralian.com.au/nation/malcolm-blight-lashes-lame-tayla-harris-statue
Oh, please. A few huffy snowflakes on Twitter get their knickers in a twist, and it’s a “movement”?
At least she concedes that she hasn’t done anything as a footballer to warrant her participation trophy. Blight, one of the true greats of the game, didn’t get a statue until 30 years after he retired from playing. A girl player gets one just for having a hissy-fit about some meany comments.
This is a gender statue gap of monstrous proportions. In the name of equality, I demand recognition for the two seasons of utter mediocrity I put in for the Eastern Colts little league, back in the 70s. After all, I endured my share of bullying and troll comments, too. I still remember the day Barry Bartrop called me a poofter who couldn’t kick.
Where’s my statue?