Clementine Ford will never miss an opportunity to man-bash, not ever. It came as absolutely no surprise to me when I read her article regarding an incident that happened at the Horn vs Pacquiao fight.
A woman films a man who is covering his face, making a rude sign and using bad language, and can be heard hectoring him from behind the camera.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XZeOJCpTxjY
Her article is the usual diatribe; women are the victims, men are always in the wrong, etc etc…
The title of the article is curious; “Women shouldn’t have to ‘play cool’ even at a sporting match,’ curious because men are expected to play cool almost daily, even more so when confronted with someone who is acting in a threatening manner.
This kind of double standard is stock-in-trade for the feminist and Leftist movements. It’s hardly worth worrying about other than to call it out when it happens.
My concern is with how this situation was treated. I watched the video in question; the woman is filming the man who has his middle finger up covering his face while ‘manspreading’. He uses some bad language (that I have used plenty of times, not proud, ‘just saying’) and laughs at her.
You can hear the woman asking him the standard questions “is this how you speak to women” (I thought we were supposed to treat each other equally) he responds by laughing at her and calling her a bad word.
What I want to know is where the actual evidence of harassment is? Yes, I agree he could have handled it a little better and didn’t need to swear, but at the same time he was being filmed against his will and clearly not happy about it.
He tells her to go away, using slightly more colourful language than that, but who wouldn’t do this if being harassed by a fool with a camera? The language is bad but is the behaviour bad as well? (Crimes against fashion and sitting etiquette notwithstanding.)
I commented on the The Age’s Facebook post of Clementine Ford’s article asking for evidence of clear harassment, not just bad language. This resulted a barrage of abuse and vitriol that made me laugh. Does that mean I am guilty of harassment?
How do we know she wasn’t also in the wrong? How do we know that she didn’t say or do something to spark him off and they were both as bad as each other before she got her camera out and tried to play the victim?
He may well have been harassing and hurling abuse at her for hours but where is the evidence for this? What evidence do the police have other than the film, the woman’s statement and that of her friends? How does Queensland Sport Minister Mick De Brenni know? Where is the evidence he has to justify a two-year ban from all Queensland stadiums?
Do we just assume guilt because a woman made the accusation against a man?
Where is the objective and undeniable evidence of harassment on behalf of this man? What specific behaviour justifies the ban?
Is swearing and calling women bad words enough to get you banned? If so, why isn’t calling men bad words also grounds for banning? If calling people rude words is grounds for banning then wouldn’t that mean half the nation should receive the same punishment?
This reeks of a witch-hunt to me, it reeks of an excuse for the Leftist media to get on their high-horse about bad male behaviour whilst excusing the poor behaviour of women. It reeks of a “journalist” trying to boost her profile.
What I think happened, and this is pure speculation based on experience, is one of them said something to the other, they both had a bickering match then the woman decided to film him and shame him. This would mean they are likely as bad as each other, yet he was punished and she wasn’t.
The man was clearly laughing at her with others so she could easily have been acting foolishly and out of line.
It looks to me like the ban was for the crime of being “bogan”, the crime of manspreading and the crime of daring to say mean things to a nice looking woman with access to the media.
I suspect we will never know the truth, but this “journalist” has certainly boosted her profile.
All I want is evidence of harassment; is that so much to ask?
You can find MattysModernLife at https://www.facebook.com/MattysModernLife.