Greg Proops -US comedian, a regular on the TV show, Whose Line is it Anyway?, once said: "I'm always looking for that place ... , that place where we all get along, and I never find it. I went to Australia..., I thought Australia was going to be a groovy, surfnoid, G'day mate, no worries [place], and it's like Arkansas with a beach. It's a whole country with a "No fat chicks" sticker on it!"
To say that Stephanie Rice totally reinforced that stereotype is not hyperbole.
So, as they say in America, the second mouse gets the cheese, and I hope this will inspire other swimmers to carefully measure their words when they get near a keyboard because if you are under 30-years-old, your fingers are "loaded."
Here is a link to the usual, perfunctory, apology she gave when a celebrity screws up: [Link]
5 comments:
A link to a video of her apology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaU9E1muhEo
I don't think she'll be doing that again..
Thank you for the video, thank you for taking the time to post it here. I did a post regarding it and for the life of me I can't figure how she could be so unmeasured and so stupid. Alcohol must have been involved.
no problem. Btw, Eamon Sullivan has been in a bit of a PR controversy himself - about advertising sugar. There seems to be a bit of a debate about it in Australia i.e. should an athlete be advertising sugar. Although it's not as big or bad as Rice's controversy.
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/blogs/pep-talk/sullivans-sweet-sugary-hot-mess/20100901-14ng4.html
Australia is a large country with the landmass almost equivalent to mainland USA. As you would expect from such a large country, the culture is not homogeneous, but differs in the same way that the American Deep South is very different from San Francisco.
Unfortunately the Australian National Swimming team is not representative of the Australian population. The majority of swimmers come from Queensland, even though the State only makes up a fifth of the population. Queensland is Australia's Deep South; significantly more conservative than the rest of the country (evident in the recent election), racism is more prevalent, and the culture is generally more backwards. Queenslanders are not representative of the general population.
I was shocked that Rice could be so stupid as to tweet what she did, but perhaps that's because I'm from Melbourne. Perhaps that sort of language and attitude is more common in Queensland. I wouldn't know, the place is pretty much a different country and I have no interest in visiting.
Thanks for the clarification. I really was wondering. My apologies for the broad brush.
Looking at what Ian Thorpe has to go through to have a guarded, private, life, how badly Geoff Huegill was treated for gaining weight, and finally Stephanie Rice gay slur, I thought that maybe that G. Proops was right.
I will be more aware.
Post a Comment