Commentators

[Ziplock]

Or maybe, god forbid, there are multiple intelligent, cultured and modern thinking people on fanfooty :p

Haha, if I come across anyone like this I'll hook you up. Opposites attract ;)

Oh dude, but I just wouldn't feel right stealing them from you if that's the case :/

[elephants]

Haha nah mate, cant just try flip my burn on me. Doesn't work like that :P

[Ricochet]

I've always seen insults to be seen how the person who receives it thinks they should be seen. Harry didn't have an obvious issue with it at the time so I really think it shouldn't be pressed. Stuff happens, BT has publicly apologised. It's always better to leave it here and just finish with the sorry and that is shouldn't be said again.

And luckily because you are open minded and willing to learn, you will realize after reading this thread that the insult was (intentionally or otherwise) aimed at homosexuals not Harry and therefore it was offensive.

Glad we cleared that up then.

Ziplock is right - again.

Well it definitely wasn't aimed at homosexuals, it was aimed at harry. If he had called Harry a big 'girl' instead would we say he was insulting females as a whole? And call for his head for being sexist?   I'm sorry but I still feel that in terms of Insults this statement was such a low level that it definitely didnt deserve to blow up like it did. There certainly wasn't any hate in the way he had a crack at Harry or any hate towards homosexuals. Again I just think we're being too precious or trying to grab a headline

[tor01doc]

I read yesterday that in the 'good old days', if a family didn't want their newborn female infant, they left her out to die of exposure.

It was deemed OK in those times.

My, how far we've come.

I guess though, there will be people still dragging the chain arguing that 'exposure' is not offensive and that there is nothing wrong with it.

We are an evolving species.

[Ricochet]

I read yesterday that in the 'good old days', if a family didn't want their newborn female infant, they left her out to die of exposure.

It was deemed OK in those times.

My, how far we've come.

I guess though, there will be people still dragging the chain arguing that 'exposure' is not offensive and that there is nothing wrong with it.

We are an evolving species.

And "hip hip hooray" was believed to be a Nazi war cry. Times change, but they're examples of extremes. We're not talking about something that extreme

[tor01doc]

Tell that to the guys who get a good old fashioned poofter bashing.

[tor01doc]

At risk of monopolizing (or duopoliZZZZZing) this thread, I read over the Adam Goodes / Swans thread and was pleasantly surprised at the consensus of opinion apart from 'wake_up'.

Similar concepts.

[Ziplock]

I've always seen insults to be seen how the person who receives it thinks they should be seen. Harry didn't have an obvious issue with it at the time so I really think it shouldn't be pressed. Stuff happens, BT has publicly apologised. It's always better to leave it here and just finish with the sorry and that is shouldn't be said again.

And luckily because you are open minded and willing to learn, you will realize after reading this thread that the insult was (intentionally or otherwise) aimed at homosexuals not Harry and therefore it was offensive.

Glad we cleared that up then.

Ziplock is right - again.

Well it definitely wasn't aimed at homosexuals, it was aimed at harry. If he had called Harry a big 'girl' instead would we say he was insulting females as a whole? And call for his head for being sexist?   I'm sorry but I still feel that in terms of Insults this statement was such a low level that it definitely didnt deserve to blow up like it did. There certainly wasn't any hate in the way he had a crack at Harry or any hate towards homosexuals. Again I just think we're being too precious or trying to grab a headline

It doesn't matter who the insult's aimed it, it matter's who it's insulting. And for the record, if he had called harry a girl, it would have been sexist and personally I would be calling for repercussions- albeit, in an AFL context it's not nearly as damaging, since we don't have women playing in the AFL.

The use of homosexual terminology as a slur indicates an underlying societal problem/ belief that gays are essentially inferior to heterosexuals, and BT furthered that opinion in his comments. It wasn't intentional, but that doesn't mean it wasn't damaging.

if you want an appropriate analogy- It's like if a street you drive on every day has it's speed dropped from 60 to 50 because there were too many accidents on the stretch of road. But you don't see the speed sign/ hear the news so you continue going 60- if you hit someone, sure you didn't mean to do it, but it doesn't stop you from being in the wrong- you should have been more attentive to the changes. While if you'd hit them before the change, yeah they would have been hurt, but because you were technically following the rules, you'd probably be fine. 

and ftr, hip hip hooray has been in use since the 1800s, several years before the hep-hep riots- which weren't technically nazi riots (but were anti-Semitic). 

[Ricochet]

It doesn't matter who the insult's aimed it, it matter's who it's insulting. And for the record, if he had called harry a girl, it would have been sexist and personally I would be calling for repercussions- albeit, in an AFL context it's not nearly as damaging, since we don't have women playing in the AFL.

And this is where we have different views mate. What was said was on the same level as calling him a girl, idiot, etc A low level insult that had no reason to offend. Which certainly did not deserve the spotlight it got or the calls for his head. It has been blown up far too much

[tor01doc]

It doesn't matter who the insult's aimed it, it matter's who it's insulting. And for the record, if he had called harry a girl, it would have been sexist and personally I would be calling for repercussions- albeit, in an AFL context it's not nearly as damaging, since we don't have women playing in the AFL.

And this is where we have different views mate. What was said was on the same level as calling him a girl, idiot, etc A low level insult that had no reason to offend. Which certainly did not deserve the spotlight it got or the calls for his head. It has been blown up far too much

And if BT had called him a 'nigger' because he looked like he was stealing, I guess that is OK too.

I am glad we disagree.

PS Who defines what is a low level insult?

[Ricochet]

It doesn't matter who the insult's aimed it, it matter's who it's insulting. And for the record, if he had called harry a girl, it would have been sexist and personally I would be calling for repercussions- albeit, in an AFL context it's not nearly as damaging, since we don't have women playing in the AFL.

And this is where we have different views mate. What was said was on the same level as calling him a girl, idiot, etc A low level insult that had no reason to offend. Which certainly did not deserve the spotlight it got or the calls for his head. It has been blown up far too much

And if BT had called him a 'nigger' because he looked like he was stealing, I guess that is OK too.

I am glad we disagree.

PS Who defines what is a low level insult?

Again Doc that is an extreme and that is definitely not what I was saying at all

[tor01doc]

20 years ago, that would not have been considered extreme.

[Ricochet]

20 years ago, that would not have been considered extreme.

not all words become disgusting unsults like the N word mate

[Ziplock]

It doesn't matter who the insult's aimed it, it matter's who it's insulting. And for the record, if he had called harry a girl, it would have been sexist and personally I would be calling for repercussions- albeit, in an AFL context it's not nearly as damaging, since we don't have women playing in the AFL.

And this is where we have different views mate. What was said was on the same level as calling him a girl, idiot, etc A low level insult that had no reason to offend. Which certainly did not deserve the spotlight it got or the calls for his head. It has been blown up far too much

I don't agree with it being alright for someone to use the word girl derogatively either, but that's what the problem is- you shouldn't use insults that refer specifically to people who are grouped together by some characteristic they were born with that are synonymous to things like 'idiot'.

It's the use of 'causal homophobia' that supports actual homophobia, especially in sporting environments.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/study-shows-gay-athletes-face-rampant-homophobia-20140715-3bzlm.html

To use a personal anecdote, as a kid I used to pull out homophobic/sexist/racist jokes a fair bit... they were all jokes, and I was largely saying them in response to constantly having political correctness shoved down my throat and I tried to avoid saying them around people who would be offended (except for the sexist ones, because that was like half the fun). And because I started doing them, and for like 14 year olds or whatever they were really funny, a lot of people started doing them.
Then when I was in either year 12 (or it might have been just after, I can't really remember specifically), I was with a group of friends and one of them said something along the lines of 'omg, I told this racist/sexist/homophobic joke and xxxx got really  offended and went off at me, what a crazy dog'.
And I was like-   Yeah, people seriously overreact to harmless jokes, like, we're just talking shower, we don't actually believe that (women/other races/ gays) are worse than us.
and everyone just looked at me really confused and were like- what do you mean?

Anyway, it turned out we'd been talking so much racist/sexist/homophobic shower and telling jokes for so long, that basically these guys who hadn't been racist/sexist/homophobic when we were kids, had by now just kind of subconsciously accepted that what we were saying was essentially true.

I felt really, really bad about what had happened, since I'd basically been the ring leader in it and then had to slowly go through with everyone why what we'd said was unacceptable, how I didn't realise they didn't know I'd just been mucking around, how I wouldn't be making those jokes again etc. And after a while, everyone got a lot better- there's almost no racist jokes or homophobic jokes now, and far less sexist.

Anyway, that's a really long anecdote and obviously is just one situation therefore isn't really evidence, but casual racism/ homophobia/sexism can seriously influence people into adopting actual racist/homophobic/sexist mindframes. And it's so much worse when it's in a media scenario.

Anyway we might be at a bit of an impasse ric... in which case, if you have a close friend/ family member who's gay/bi etc., or know someone who specialises in gender studies, maybe ask if they can explain to you why people are so upset over this situation. Even if they personally weren't insulted or upset, they should at least be  able to explain why other non-heterosexual people might be.

20 years ago, that would not have been considered extreme.

not all words become disgusting unsults like the N word mate

ftr, even 20 years ago it was a disgusting, it's just that white people didn't give a flying flower how insulting it was.

[Ricochet]

Anyway we might be at a bit of an impasse ric... in which case, if you have a close friend/ family member who's gay/bi etc., or know someone who specialises in gender studies, maybe ask if they can explain to you why people are so upset over this situation. Even if they personally weren't insulted or upset, they should at least be  able to explain why other non-heterosexual people might be.

I do. and I have. They did not find it insulting at all.

Just to clarify I certainly do not approve of homophobic slurs. My comments here were based on what was said and how it was said by BT, and that it wasn't offensive. And did not deserve the blow up it got.

I'm happy to leave it at that though.