On not getting it!

One suspects that Rugby player and (former) media personality Matthew Johns is in for a rude shock today or soon in the wake of his 'apology' for participation in fairly aggressive group sex behaviour. He just doesn't get it
Last night on A Current Affair (ACA), I thought interviewer Tracey Grimshaw made a good attempt at asking the hard questions. Johns also did well at fending off some of the difficult ones.
When, for example, Grimshaw asked him whether or not a 19 year old girl who began what may have been "consensual sex" in a room with two men and ended up participating with considerably more than that, was subject to a power imbalance he just seemed to ignore it. Either he doesn't get it or he knows how to play the media. Perhaps both.
Increasingly as I have participated in more and more of this sort of education I have understood that sexual abuse is firstly about power, and only secondly about sex.
When Grimshaw used the expression 'sexual abuse', Johns steadfastly asserted he had not been involved in abuse. He just doesn't get it!
When you can use your status, physique, and charisma to influence the consent that others might give there is potential for abuse.
The footballer's wife, Trish Johns, looked tragic......one fears that her pain will not be easily resolved. He does get that no amount of apology will undo that woman's pain.
Whilst agreeing that the moment the woman's inappropriate consent to have sex with two men became something worse when others joined in, he was asked to identify the other participants. Out of seeming team loyalty he was obviously not going to name those persons. Even though, as it was pointed out, those other persons are possibly guilty of sexual assault and/or rape (since the woman did not consent to have sex with them). He just doesn't get it.
Former Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Pru Goward, noted that the NRL should not condone Johns' refusal to pass apropriate evidence on to police (that may of course have been done).
There is of course the deeply disturbing issue that we may be witnessing damage control by the NRL and/or Channel 9. One suspects that the complainant will be already be being spoken to and great wads of cash are being waved at her.
Nor should we be satisfied to think that if the NRL deals with this then that solves the problem. It cannot be thought that this attitude towards women is confined to male sporting bastions.


(POST 999!!!!)

You've gotta laugh - creating a Rudd mythology

Last night's Q&A continued to show that this show is good for a laugh, and has a totally different style from much of the dreary garbage that passes for pacey debate between politicians.

Much of the action comes from the almost random throwing together of diverse politicians which last night included the Nationals Barnaby Joyce(left) and Labor's Peter Garrett. There was also Green's Sarah Hansen-Young, and Liberal Pru Goward. Along with black playwright, director and dramaturg Wesley Enoch  the mix was right for many good exchanges.

One thing that interests me is the way that the right has obviously been advised to create a Rudd mythology. This has many aspects. One of them is that he is too smart for his own good...and by implication ours. And that he talks incessantly.

So I had to laugh when the "never backward in coming forward" Senator Joyce accused Garrett of taking lessons from the PM and creating a "wall of sound"  ie. talk, talk talk and never allowing discussion. 

I don't think this is true, I think this is the mythology that they are trying to create.

What was farcical was that Joyce had himself talked down almost everyone on the panel throughout the show, Ms Goward, ever perceptive and articulate, was getting quite annoyed by the end. The main "wall of sound" was coming from Barnaby Beagle  himself.

He also added to the creation of the Garrett mythology ("what has happened to Peter Garrett activist Rock star?")  by jokingly, persistingly and embarrasingly interrupting the Minister "OOOh where's Peter Garrett, where's Garret...he's disappeared."

As I say to my children, funny once not funny twice!

In the end this sort of perception-creating politics is not about  truth, it is about creating perception. And the two are not necessarily the same. They are more about manipulating the voter.

I suppose it happens on both sides; Turnbull is maligned by his opponents (as Andrew Lloyd Webber says about Cameron Mackintosh..."isn't he rich...richer than me" (You tube here))...while Ruddy is just as rich. The politics of perception and mal-image is not helpful