Footballers have never been known for their communication skills.
The biggest reason I need to stay offline when I'm working is not that I'll get distracted by fic or talking to people. It's because it's when I have work to do that inevitably someone is Wrong On The Internet and I have to talk about it.
So Jason Akermanis has taken it upon himself to make some comments about the possibility of gay AFL players coming out. I first heard about it through the Crikey commentary, which makes it out to basically be a really homophobic piece of writing. Based on the Crikey piece, I thought so too, and had a look through the comments. Then I looked at what Aker actually wrote and thought a bit differently.
I won't deny that there's a lot of meathead nonsense in it. The headline is "Stay in the closet, Jason Akermanis tells homosexuals" which is not a good start. Lines like "I believe the world of AFL footy is not ready for it. To come out is unnecessary for a lot of reasons" and "I believe it would cause discomfort in that environment should someone declare himself gay" are stupid and really aren't all that helpful. But looking at the context, it makes more sense. He hasn't just suddenly decided to stand up and say he doesn't want out gay players in his sport: he's responding to increasing pressure for gay AFL players to come out. He's saying that because coming out in the environment of an AFL club would be difficult, they shouldn't be pressured into coming out.
Sure, he expresses it absolutely terribly, but he's sort of coming from a good place. And buried in amid all the bad lines about how openly gay players would change the nature of interaction between teammates, which make him sound like he's afraid that having a gay player in his team will make hugs and group showers seem gay, he's buried an excellent line that nobody seems to have picked up on:
"It's not the job of the minority to make the environment safer."
What I think he's trying to say with this whole article is that he wants the AFL to be a place where gay players can feel welcome, just like the AFL, but putting pressure on players to come out is not the way to do it, because it's the responsibility of everyone in the AFL to change the environment so that players feel that it's safe to come out. He's just bad at expressing it so that it comes out sounding like he's telling gay players they shouldn't come out. Which is just as bad as putting pressure on people to do it. But despite the amount of fail in that piece of writing, I think it needs some points for trying as well, especially since he's made two good points that I haven't seen elsewhere in the AFL homophobia discussions.
I just wish he'd gotten someone else to word it for him. Someone get the man a press secretary.
So Jason Akermanis has taken it upon himself to make some comments about the possibility of gay AFL players coming out. I first heard about it through the Crikey commentary, which makes it out to basically be a really homophobic piece of writing. Based on the Crikey piece, I thought so too, and had a look through the comments. Then I looked at what Aker actually wrote and thought a bit differently.
I won't deny that there's a lot of meathead nonsense in it. The headline is "Stay in the closet, Jason Akermanis tells homosexuals" which is not a good start. Lines like "I believe the world of AFL footy is not ready for it. To come out is unnecessary for a lot of reasons" and "I believe it would cause discomfort in that environment should someone declare himself gay" are stupid and really aren't all that helpful. But looking at the context, it makes more sense. He hasn't just suddenly decided to stand up and say he doesn't want out gay players in his sport: he's responding to increasing pressure for gay AFL players to come out. He's saying that because coming out in the environment of an AFL club would be difficult, they shouldn't be pressured into coming out.
Sure, he expresses it absolutely terribly, but he's sort of coming from a good place. And buried in amid all the bad lines about how openly gay players would change the nature of interaction between teammates, which make him sound like he's afraid that having a gay player in his team will make hugs and group showers seem gay, he's buried an excellent line that nobody seems to have picked up on:
"It's not the job of the minority to make the environment safer."
What I think he's trying to say with this whole article is that he wants the AFL to be a place where gay players can feel welcome, just like the AFL, but putting pressure on players to come out is not the way to do it, because it's the responsibility of everyone in the AFL to change the environment so that players feel that it's safe to come out. He's just bad at expressing it so that it comes out sounding like he's telling gay players they shouldn't come out. Which is just as bad as putting pressure on people to do it. But despite the amount of fail in that piece of writing, I think it needs some points for trying as well, especially since he's made two good points that I haven't seen elsewhere in the AFL homophobia discussions.
I just wish he'd gotten someone else to word it for him. Someone get the man a press secretary.