Why has this photo of an Australian footballer inspired such abuse?

[Norton Canes]

This by the way is one of my favourite football photos

[Endicott]

Well known of course that the take-up of digital photography is why the men's shorts got longer.

[Pingers]

Without being crude, I was thinking that some people must have thought her crotch looked bulgy or something but it doesn't, does it?

Some people just hate women, so any pic of a woman looking powerful and athletic is going to piss them off. Those people prefer women to be demure, girlish, slutty yet chaste, i.e. controllable. So photos of women like Serena Williams and this woman make them angry.

In short, some men are weak losers. Nothing new there, sadly.

[Blumf]

[biggytitbo]

I wonder for confused rugby fans it's like a logic bomb in old sci fi films - quite a big set sporty lady is also traditionally attractive and their minds can't handle the contradictory feelings its provoking inside of them, causing them to lash out in anger and revulsion?

The same thing happened to me with Sally Gunnell.

[Barry Admin]

Borderline threatening too, it seems.

I think this is an even better photo.

Yeah, that's amazing flexibility, like a ballet dancer or martial artist. It's great how it also makes it look like her left hand is - by chance - raised in a 'peer into the distance' motion.

[thenoise]

Some lame joke about dribbling or tackle I presume. Or about losing control of balls.

[Crisps?]

it's presumably lewd comments about her fanny

I dunno why people were pretending to be confused about it. Woman + sport + crotch. Hasn't anyone been on the internet?

At one time, coinciding with the good old days, there didn't used to be comments on anything. Nobody missed it because there were already long established ghettos for people to vent their stupid, boring, useless, annoying opinions: forums.

Nobody who allows comments wants nice ones, because nice comments elicit nothing more than a nod of agreement and a click away, never to return. Hate comments and trolling = more drama = more comments = more Tweets = more visits = more clicks = more ad views.

It's the only reason comments exist.

Deleting the image, and Harris, from a digital discourse does not silence the haters and the trolls. It silences her. It silences the athletes. It silences everyone whose identity was vilified in those comments.

Silences what? Is everything "free speech" these days, even kicking a ball? They removed a picture of someone and that not only "silences" and "erases" that person, but also other people whose photo was never there?

If this was about a sport and a person everyone had heard of, the story - a pic was posted to a website and then removed - would still be of virtually zero importance.

[Twed]

She's obviously attractive and so men and some women respond in a way that is appalling when you distill it into a news story but unsurprising if you correlate it with anything you've ever seen, ever.

[Danger Man]

It's a sign of how few football fans there are on this forum that nobody has posted that pic of Peter Beardsley with his knob out.

[holyzombiejesus]

I dunno why people were pretending to be confused about it. Woman + sport + crotch. Hasn't anyone been on the internet?

People aren't pretending to be confused. I didn't get how someone could make homophobic and transphobic comments based on that picture. I even googled the woman in question. On reflection, I'm guessing that people were commenting approvingly/ salaciously on her and contrasting her with other less 'feminine' sportswomen, with all the shitty language that people who like to make those kinds of comments choose to use.

[Twed]

People aren't pretending to be confused. I didn't get how someone could make homophobic and transphobic comments based on that picture.

As Crisps? explained: internet

Also this has been filtered through news reporting, which is going to extract details and extrapolate them into key words in the lede. It could be (for example) one transphobic comment where some idiot's neurons fired to connect two concepts and they said something like "bet she doesn't have a dick like one of them TRANSGENDALS". That would be enough to put "including transphobic comments" in the article. Not necessarily the case, but this is how you have to process journalism. It could be anything, there's not a great deal of meaning in just ingesting news sources at face value.

[kngen]

It's clearly because her Aussie Rules top is made of some sort of modern stretchy sports fabric, when a real Aussie Rules top (as modelled by Jimmy 'Faackin' Loughnon here)



should have the appearance of a woolly vest like something your Granny would knit for you. but actually be made of a nylon/polyester mix that could shear your nipples off just by standing up too quickly. They don't call it the 'Ballet of Blood' for nothing!

[bgmnts]

I'm still in awe of that level of flexibility.

It hurts my hamstrings just looking at them.

[thenoise]

Because people use comments on photos as a forum to discuss whatever ideas they happen to be thinking of that day - much like they do on YouTube comments, where they very quickly descend into the usual online bickering only tangentially related to the video in question; or the quickly derailed threads on here, for example, with all the usual suspects grinding their own personal axe no matter what set them off.

There's nothing unusual about a comment on any photo descending into offensive nonsense.

[Dex Sawash]

What's the advantage of getting your leg up high? Does it make the ball go further or something? I think I need more pictures.

Don't discount the importance of a generous follow-through

[FredNurke]

And we're back to Gary Lineker again.

[Blue Jam]

Some people just hate women, so any pic of a woman looking powerful and athletic is going to piss them off. Those people prefer women to be demure, girlish, slutty yet chaste, i.e. controllable. So photos of women like Serena Williams and this woman make them angry.

In short, some men are weak losers. Nothing new there, sadly.

See also: Every time the Olympics roll round and the women's beach volleyball teams dare to complain when officials try to make them wear skimpy bikinis instead of you know, actual sportswear designed for professional athletes like the men's teams do. It's all "Just shut up and do as you're told, ladies" and "You need the ratings and no-one would watch if you covered up". Of course, if they actually chose to wear bikinis rather than proper sportswear they'd be told they're sluts who don't deserve to be respected as professional athletes.

It's all about policing women's behaviour and engineering yet another situation where they can never win.

[gilbertharding]

If this was about a sport and a person everyone had heard of, the story - a pic was posted to a website and then removed - would still be of virtually zero importance.

It is about a sport everyone has heard of: in Australia. I presume she's at least kind of famous. In Australia.

I can't help thinking that Australia is both the question and the answer, somehow.

[Blumf]

I can't help thinking that Australia is both the question and the answer, somehow.

I'm sorry, but the answer we were looking for was "antipodes". But you've been a lovely contestant. Let's look at what you could have won...

[Twed]

Antipodes trousers, youpitodes trousers!

[Chollis]

I dunno why people were pretending to be confused about it. Woman + sport + crotch. Hasn't anyone been on the internet?

Quite. Still, well done on not getting cancelled everybody.

[Twed]

When you think about, the thing people are actually confused about is the monetisation of reflecting on the ills of our society. Nothing about the way people respond to a photo like that has changed, except now there's always a shitty rag waiting in the wings to amplify it for advertising clicks. When they report something like this they are fucking overjoyed that it happened. Also Donald Trump. Clickbait. Urr. Manufactured consent? Buzzfeed. Just saying things now.

[Crisps?]

People aren't pretending to be confused. I didn't get how someone could make homophobic and transphobic comments based on that picture. I even googled the woman in question. On reflection, I'm guessing that people were commenting approvingly/ salaciously on her and contrasting her with other less 'feminine' sportswomen, with all the shitty language that people who like to make those kinds of comments choose to use.

Just seemed like people were avoiding the rather obvious.  With an image like that you have a choice of:

a) Not posting it.
b) Posting it and disabling comments. (Always the correct answer.)
c) Posting it knowing some people are going to make shitty comments about it.

I think more than the likes of 4/8chan and reddit, people being able to spew all over the internet, outside the confines of niche forums, is a significant reason why the internet and the world feels like a more horrible place in the last 5-10 years.

I can't help thinking that Australia is both the question and the answer, somehow.

Australians seem to have been very Australian this past week.

[mr. logic]

See also: Every time the Olympics roll round and the women's beach volleyball teams dare to complain when officials try to make them wear skimpy bikinis instead of you know, actual sportswear designed for professional athletes like the men's teams do. It's all "Just shut up and do as you're told, ladies" and "You need the ratings and no-one would watch if you covered up". Of course, if they actually chose to wear bikinis rather than proper sportswear they'd be told they're sluts who don't deserve to be respected as professional athletes.

It's all about policing women's behaviour and engineering yet another situation where they can never win.

Sure about this? Didn't the Egyptian team in the last tournament have a modest outfit? I'm not sure of the reasons for the bikinis, and the laddish comments on the subject are always tiresome and sexist, but I would be surprised if it were an Olympic stipulation. Happy to be corrected.

[biggytitbo]

It's a sign of how few football fans there are on this forum that nobody has posted that pic of Peter Beardsley with his knob out.

Vistaprint was having none of it when I tried to get that on a 12 foot canvas.

[Blumf]

It's a sign of how few football fans there are on this forum that nobody has posted that pic of Peter Beardsley with his knob out.

Which Panini album was that in?

[Twed]

#1, that's where they got the name from.

[The Boston Crab]

I used to coach a women's football team and we were pioneering in wearing men's football shorts and shirts to make the point that women could wear whatever they wanted under my watch no matter the regulations of that particular league and we had a load of leftover kit that already been paid for so

[phantom_power]

Yeah, that's amazing flexibility, like a ballet dancer or martial artist. It's great how it also makes it look like her left hand is - by chance - raised in a 'peer into the distance' motion.

And she is doing finger guns with the other