Sunday 4 January 2015

Role Over

Of course footballers are not role models. Who, exactly, models their behaviour on them?

But they think that they are. And condescending middle-class people and women think that working-class people and boys do.

Ched Evans maintains his innocence and is appealing, as is anyone's right. Nevertheless, he is a convicted man, and he is free only on license. He has not completed his sentence.

Therefore, it might have been better if he had not found work until after that completion. That, however, is a call for him to be dependent on State benefits.

The acts that he does not dispute are morally reprehensible enough, and the willingness of his girlfriend's father to fund his legal representation is a most discombobulating insight into an entirely different world.

But when the younger male fans of Oldham Athletic follow those of Sheffield United in not committing anything remotely resembling either the disputed or the undisputed acts of their supposed idol, then football itself will have to confront the fact that its practitioners simply are not national figures, or moral bastions, or "cultural icons", or even persons of the slightest especial importance.

When that happens, then feminists ought to be as pleased as I shall be.

8 comments:

  1. Do you really think what he did was rape? I don't mean legally.

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    Replies
    1. Rape is purely a legal concept.

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    2. There must be a reason why the acts are held to be wrong. Forcing someone to have sex is obviously an assault, but if you go out and get pissed then sleep with someone you wish you hadn't, were you assaulted? If you were a man they would say no. If you're a woman they say yes.

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    3. You are now entering the realms of "Victim Blaming". It's a nasty place where criminals are excused because the victim was in the wrong place, wrong time and had the wrong level of alcohol.
      If you leave your kitchen window open slightly in the hot weather so Fido can breath then it's your fault you got burgled, not the light fingered criminal who stole all your belongings 😒

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  2. I'd be quite happy to victim blame, except I don't believe there is any victim. Drink people who have sex are responsible for that choice, must like drunk people who decide to drive. Sex isn't like burglary because it isn't bad. Only rape is bad and drunken sex isn't rape.

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  3. It's irrelevant (to me) whether he's cleared or not. What he was convicted of shouldn't be illegal.

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  4. By which I obviously only mean having sex with a drunk person.

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