The Wonderful Shrug of Indifference
- Feb 17, 2017
- 2 min read
I won’t lie. When I picked up last Saturday’s copy of The Age to see Sam Lane’s feature article on Collingwood’s Penny Cula-Reid and Melbourne’s Mia Clifford becoming the first openly gay couple in Australian sporting history, my initial reaction was admiration… shortly followed by trepidation.
Admiration because of Cula-Reid’s and Clifford’s courage in taking perhaps the most profound step towards fighting the stigmatisation of homosexuality in Australian sport. And trepidation for pretty much the same reason.
This was, after all, unprecedented territory. How would the Australian public react?
The discussion of homophobia in sport is by no means new. Prior to Cula-Reid’s and Clifford’s announcement, only 21 Australian athletes have ever publicly identified as being homosexual and only Greater Western Sydney’s Emma Swanson has played AFL. The memory of Ian Thorpe’s uneasy line, “I wanted to make my nation proud of me and part of me didn’t know if Australia wanted its champion to be gay” in his interview with Michael Parkinson in 2014 is one that won’t soon fade.
AFL Women’s inherited the issue but the complexities were magnified. Several big questions would be faced by any player considering the course of action Cula-Reid and Clifford have taken together.
Would people still see them as footballers rather than homosexuals? Would people demand that every gay player oust themselves whether they were ready to or not? And what of the audience who loved footy but would raise a red flag at any discussion of gay rights?
I had read Lane’s piece and mulled over it by the time I pulled up to cricket. I got my bag and got out of the car … with the paper tucked under my arm. My teammates are ten blokes between 17 and 55 who do not have any vested stake in women’s football. Most are passively supportive of AFL Women’s. Some are cynical of its ability to survive and grow long-term. So, I knew they would give me an honest answer.
I chucked the paper to our keeper and said, “Whaddaya think?” He gave it a brief once-over and cast a sidelong glance at the captain. He in turn exchanged a glance with our opener next to him and soon the whole changeroom was a chain-reaction of unsubtle, smirking expressions.
“Well… so?” sniggered the keeper.
In the non-verbal way, these things happen, I had become the joke of the room. Ten unbiased faces were looking at me like I had asked a stupid question. And in one glorious second, I realised I had.
They didn’t care. It didn’t matter. And they proved to be indicative of a very large audience.
Sam Lane’s story hardly made a splash anywhere. By Sunday it had fizzled out. By Sunday all the attention was on Melbourne’s maiden victory over Collingwood. By Sunday pundits and fans alike were applauding the young Demons’ guts and criticising Collingwood’s inability to win despite all their firepower – the normal analysis of an AFL match.
By Sunday, that wonderful shrug of indifference had settled the debate. Sexuality is a non-story. On with the footy.
Comments