I was baffled by the response to Bob Murphy's column in The Age this week – an excellent piece about the changing face of masculinity in football. I was baffled, because most of the responses on social media focused not on the broader message of the article, but on one letter of the alphabet.
Who would have thought the letter M could cause so much drama?
The name of the game: The term AFLM has prompted some heated responses.Credit:Vince Caligiuri
Here are just a few of the responses to the Murphy column posted as comments on The Age Real Footy Facebook page.
"No real man would say AFLM lol."
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"AFLM he's lost the plot."
"There's no such thing as AFLM you muppets."
It was even brought up on SEN radio on Thursday morning, with the hosts of the breakfast program, Garry Lyon and Tim Watson, speculating that it was an Age directive to use the term AFLM, rather than Murphy's own choice.
Incidentally, the man himself says he used the term for a couple of reasons, none of them related to a non-existent mandate from AgeHQ. Firstly, he was conscious that it's AFLW grand final week, with lots of coverage of women's football, and he was specifically talking about the culture in the men's game. And secondly, it's just good writing to avoid repetition – in this case, of the phrase "the men's game".
So why do people care so much? Is it a case of AFL fans feeling threatened? And if so, what is there exactly to feel threatened about?
Like it or not, there are now two competitions badged as the highest level of Australian Rules football – one played by men and one played by women. Is it so crazy that the names of both competitions reflect that?
Changing the label on the game does not change the game itself. In fact, the game is Australian Rules football, and the AFL is just the league. If you can believe it, here in Victoria it used to be called the VFL. Amazingly, when the name changed and more teams joined, our game actually expanded and grew, reaching even more people. What a terrible outcome.
A couple of years ago, Cricket Australia made the decision to call our national teams the Australian men's cricket team and the Australian women's cricket team, respectively. Unbelievably, the sky did not fall when they did so.
That change can be laughed (or frowned, as the case may be) off as political correctness. But it's more than that. It's a very public declaration that the Australia's women cricketers are just as important as the men.
Language is hugely important, whether it's subtle or not. Kate Seear, an associate professor of law research services and member of the Outer Sanctum team, wrote about this just days ago. She argued, citing Our Watch, that there is "a strong connection between disrespectful and stereotypical language about and towards women, and violence against women".
"If the AFL womens league is to be known as AFLW, the mens league should be Read More – Source
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