Feminism, football and one teenage girl's attempts to “fight the power”

This isn't a feminist issue, this is a "I want to be a celebrity out of this and gain anything I can" issue in my humble opinion. I am not an AFL fan either, just an interested observer anytime these footballer vs girl issues come up. This girl's youtube videos were pretty transparent. Neither side is innocent, especially the footballers in most cases but usually, also in this case I find the behaiviour of both parties disgusting.

In conclusion, both sides get no sympathy from me, especially the girl, as she is the one being painted as some type of freedom fighter or victim. She has also admitted to lying about taking the pictures on radio yesterday, and also lied about not wanting money out of it, as the court cased revealed that she bribed the club lawyers for $20000 (or a similar amount) before releasing the photos. Why? Return to my opening sentance.

I recon the st kilds girl wrote this. surely you feminists cant claim this one if you want to be seen as fair dinkum.

shes a bunny boiler and you are just as nuts if you claim her as one of your own.

These "men" have no respect for women, some of them use their "celebrity" status to take advantage & demean naive and vulnerable teenagers. They know they can influence and take advantage and do so...
Read the transcript of the texts between an unnamed St Kilda player and this teenager - she admits she only agreed to the group sex "because you asked me to do it".
He thanks her and immediately suggests she bring along a friend next time for a bit of girl on girl action for the team, for the boys. The voice of a predatory manipulator with zero respect for women - using his position to take advantage in the worst way - treating women like lumps of meat for his amusement and pleasure.
He also makes references to the group sex being great for the team, to compare performances at training...

It seems the disgusting attitudes and predatory conduct by some NRL players also applies to the AFL...how widespread are these attitudes?
I hope other young women will look carefully at these incidents and give these players a wide berth - if you want to be used and demeaned then go ahead,
but don't kid yourself these are real men that treat women honestly and respectfully.
I wouldn't let these men take out my rubbish bins - of course, most AFL players do NOT treat women in this way and would be just as disapproving of these
sorts of attitudes and conduct.
It's time St Kilda officials got serious about respectful treatment of women AND staying out of the papers and scandal - and stopped covering up and defending
this sort of unacceptable conduct - it drags down the whole Club and that's unfair to the players that don't behave in this manner.

"the police did not prosecute because the sex was consensual as she was over the age of consent"

And in typical fashion, despite the fact there is NO QUESTION this woman consented to the sex she still presents herself as a victim. Boo-hoo.

It's about time women grew up and stopped acting like victims all the time. Women have been spewing hatred at us men for 40 years now. We are sick of it. Women have been claiming to be 'equal' for 40 years now but they NEVER ACT LIKE EQUALS. They act like victims and entitlement princesses and these FALSE RAPE ALLEGATIONS that keep happening are the BEST EXAMPLE of women acting like entitlement princess victims.

I, for one, am sick of stories like this that demonise and villify men for having consentual sex with women while at the SAME TIME women commit perjury, kidnapping, extortion and theft in the Family Courts every day of the week and there is NOT ONE WORD about this from women.

Women are NOT held accountable for their actions. And by the way? Men getting sex via their job? And this is an 'outrage'? Try talking to ANYONE in my profession which is travelling IT consultant. Plenty of men in my field get sex based on the fact they spend large amounts of time in foreign countries.

It's simple. This girl is a slut. She wanted to have sex with some footballers and she did. I saw PLENTY of this when I was younger. Now that she 'regrets' being a slut she is a 'victim'. Boo-hoo.

And by the way? Men who are perfect gentlemen like me? Are we rewarded by women? No. We are hated on just as much as paedophiles. The womens claim that 'everyone is equal' means a man who an exemplary man is given no respect by women because we are considered no better than rapists and paedophiles. Well? If our women treat the BEST of men like criminals, rapists and paedophiles? Why would men NOT be these things. It's about time women took responsibility for the hatred they spew at men. And it's about time men called sluts the sluts they are instead of demonising and villifying the men who are engaging in CONSENSUAL SEX with these sluts.

Elizabeth,
"she admits she only agreed to the group sex "because you asked me to do it"."
The important point is SHE AGREED TO SEX. The notion that she is not responsible for this agreement because the man asked her for sex is LUDICROUS! Women wait for men to ask for sex. It is VERY unusual in Australia for women to ask men for sex. It is entirely NORMAL where I live now. Germany. There has been NO CRIME committed in this case because the sex was consensual. But you women? You just want to play victim and spew your hatred of men out at us ALL THE TIME NOW.

In STARK CONTRAST? When women DO commit crimes? A man like me who works very hard to bring that woman to justice to set the precedent for other men? You HATE ON US just as much. I have NO RESPECT for Australian Women. NONE AT ALL. And that is WELL DESERVED. If you or anyone else here wants to review how much I have done to gain justice for the MILLIONS of men who have been VICTIMS OF CRIMES COMMITTED BY WOMEN you can start here. So far? NOT ONE WOMAN IN AUSTRALIA has been willing to pitch in and HELP. NOT ONE. From me you women get the respect you deserve. NONE AT ALL. You raised a bunch of sluts? Well boo-hoo. Take responsibility for raising sluts and stop blaming men for asking for sex. This slut could have said no.

http://www.peternolan.com/Forums/tabid/420/forumid/14/threadid/606/scope...

It does not matter. Even if she wanted superhuman sense gratification, limits are always to be respected, and obviously in this instance they were not. Her right to define her limits is balanced by an obligation to do so in advance. If she was too weak to live up to that, the strength of the other players required them to respect her weakness in place of her limits. If they failed with that, her right to reciprocate against them is balanced by an obligation to be consistent with it. If she denies her initial goal then she might soon find out herself that celebrity is subhuman zen hell. Pride matters.

It’s quite clear that it’s your belief that men are always wrong and at fault and women are never responsible for their actions.

You see, you and many others make the matter worse by creating divisions between men and women, not uniting them. On the one hand, men are expected to change their behaviour and women are not called upon to do the same thing.

For example, this is a young woman that is mature beyond her years. This is a young woman that has been charged with criminal offences. This is a young woman that has worked as a “glamour model”.

This is a young woman, by news reports, that obtained fake ID to show that she was 19.

This is a young woman, by news reports, who flew to Sydney for sex with a man (AFL player) and then flew back to Melbourne and had sex with another man (AFL player).

This is a woman that, by news reports, was an active participant in group sex.

This is a young woman that sought to exact revenge on men she had never met. This is a young woman who called for other women to send her compromising pictures of other men (AFL players) whom she had never met and she would use those to exact revenge too.

This is a young woman that, by news reports, tried to blackmail AFL footballers and clubs.

This is a young woman that has now admitted to lying to the Police about the photographs. This is a young woman that now admits she never took the photographs.

This is a young woman that has gone out of her way to cause harm and destruction to many people, some of whom she has never met.

This is a young woman that has said what she has done was stupid.

This is young woman that has done many other things that most people would deem to be immoral, unethical or socially unacceptable but you … you believe she is blameless in all of this.

You want to hold men responsible for her actions.

Can’t you see that by having this belief that you simply alienate men and that’s one of the reasons why the debate will never be solved; the first step in addressing a problem is recognising the problem. But you don’t see any problems in what she has done.

I go back to another point, perhaps the best judge of this young woman is her parents, and where are they in all of this?

They do NOT believe she is a “feminist warrior in our supposedly post-feminist world”. They think she is an attention seeking, awful woman.

I for one know there are terrible men in this world. I also know there are terrible women in this world – who perpetrate emotional violence on men just as this young woman has done.

Human beings can be terrible.

But your view is clearly that there are no terrible women, only terrible men.

You should be ashamed for believing that this woman is not responsible for anything in this sorry saga and Nick Riewoldt and the other men who have never met her deserve everything they got even though he never met her.

Shame on you!

So, not only has this young woman lied all along on a number of issues, and not only has she sought destruction on a number of people – men – she has never met, she now admits to lying on other things.

The Age reports, “The young woman has confirmed that the players did not pursue her, provide her with their number or act in any way that was inappropriate at the AFL school visit, and that she first met the players socially in Sydney after the round one Sydney Swans match on March 27."

So, after all the drama this woman has caused – all because a couple of guys didn’t want to see her anymore – she now gets her rent paid by a football club.

I agree with the other post – the best way to jude this woman is not around political clichés (feminist warrior in our supposedly “post-feminist” world) but by why her very own parents think about her.

Who are the best people to judge her? Her mother and father. And what do they think of her?

WELL NOT MUCH.

Any women who think this is how young women should behave and any woman who think she is someone to hold on a pedestal, well, all I can say is sometime I don’t blame men for the beliefs – we can be really really stupid sometimes.

Often more stupid than men! I just hope she disappears in the quagmire from whence she came.

Great article. You have got the girl's viewpoint spot-on.
Thanks for voicing HER opinion.
I wish I had the guts to do what she has done.

Hello, I'm a feminist student activist in the US and I'd like to donate to help support this girl getting back to do the things she ought to be doing with her education and career pursuits. I am absolutely in sympathy with her and I am really interested in learning more about why the school or some nongovernmental agency couldn't take disciplinary action against the players. That to me is a real story, because some guys obviously did take advantage of her. The fact that she apparently lied about some aspects of it regarding pictures of one of the individuals is understandable given the impact this has had on her and the fact that she is trying to ask for help.

Well the feminist community should give it to her, unconditionally. She has an awesome future given how obviously creative and assertive she is being in spite of all that has happened. But I think too that she's made her public state as best as she can for now and if there's anything more she can do legally it's probably through civil court, something like that. But as I don't expect she will necessarily get any sort of favorable settlement in the way of damages I all the more want to offer her some support. Anyway I'm serious about this and I'll try to figure out how to offer some support like a donation to help her.

I want to make it clear that I do not want to have direct contact with her, I think she's been harassed enough and I don't want means to contact her because as I encourage friends -- through emails, etc, I'll not be posting something like on a public blog -- I don't want to have contact information personally get out for her and lead to more harassment.

There must be some third parties involved in helping her, and if there's not something official then maybe the author of the above article and indymedia australia could start something like a zero-fee managed trust fund for her. Girls who fight back like this -- with the exception of false statements, I don't condone that -- girls like her should be helped by our community. It will surely not encourage more girls to get in trouble like she did, no girl wants to wind up pregnant by guys who don't care about her and deal with all this girl has gone through. But if there are girls this brave who want to fight a system which is oppressing them and other girls -- and guys who care about girls like this too -- I will put my money where my mouth is and I'll do all I can to encourage friends I know to do the same.

I'm serious. I'll follow-up on this in a day or two if I don't get a reply here, but if anything can officially be said I'll look forward to maybe reading about it here. Indymedia can get my email from the field above where I entered it, I don't want to include my email in this message body to avoid spam, but again I'm serious and I think it would be an awesome precedent to get something like this going. sincerely, concerned student(s) @ university of georgia-athens

nothing to do with feminism!!! just another one-sided story that does nothing to educate the general population on the reality of the situation - we expect better from you Indymedia. I don't have much background on the story or the girl, but from what I have read/heard it seems pretty obvious that she is a vindictive money-grabber hell bent on celebrity and ego boosting. Footballers generally seem macho and shallow, they are not and should not be seen as moral rolemodels, when are people going to get this through their thick heads. If you want to get mixed up with them this sort of thing is probably going to happen, so don't cry to mummy when it does - opps that's right, the girl;s family has distanced themselves from her because they know what a nasty piece of work she is.

1. bunny boiler?? sheesh, what misogynist planet did you drop from Jimmy? Please go back there, where ever it is.

2. "i don't have much background on the story or the girl, but from what I have read/heard it seems pretty obvious that she is a vindictive money-grabber hell bent on celebrity and ego boosting. "

but, funnily enough David , in light the lack of information you have, you seem quite self righteous in slipping into a strong disregard and bitch slapping of a girl ie the 'nasty piece of work' and a situation you dont know much about.

it's like you'v been conditioned over a life time...

No means No And Yes Means Yes the girl is over 16 and she said yes so no law has been broken.
Whats the problem?
If Ricky Nixon did coke and it can be proven the Police should charge him.
May be you need to raise the age of consent to 18 if you think she is too young

To all you Feminists how do feel about the little gold digging tart now ?

Flowerpower she sucked you in, just like most of you posts they are wrong just have a look at the crap you wrote.You are a gullible fool!