It’s an odd feeling, flipping the bird in front of 50,000 people. It’s even more bizarre hearing 50,000 people laugh, cheer and boo you at the same time.
But this is exactly what I did on Tuesday, because a hapless, and no doubt very well-meaning, cameraman decided I might like to play tonsil-hockey with my manfriend in front of a baying crowd.
Yes, we had been featured on the all-new Vodafone Kiss Cam.
There I was, relaxing in the drinks break after watching Sachin Tendulkar effortlessly waltz to make 50 off nearly as many balls when I looked up and saw myself on the big screen, encircled by a large red heart. Me and, of course, my boyfriend. The implication was clear. We were to get it on for the amusement of the crowd.
Instead of obligingly locking lips, I swivelled round and thrust my middle finger upwards in entirely the wrong direction (when will I work out where the big screen cameras are?). The boyfriend ducked.
Now I know test cricket is in crisis. Two lovely-sounding cricket enthusiasts told me as much on the radio yesterday during another break between play. They’re so interested in the fate of the game they’re making a documentary about its potential death.
And I understand what Vodafone and the MCG are trying to do to address the decline of the gentleman’s game. They are attempting to make test cricket more entertaining, more like the ODIs and Big Bash games, where there are fireworks and sideshows galore.
But what they’re actually doing when they home in on unsuspecting couples and associates alike, coercing them into kissing for kicks, is undermining Tendulkar’s elegance with the bat, Sehwag’s solid-footed theatrics, Hilfenhaus’ resurgence with the ball and Siddle’s terrifying aggression with the same. Cricket be damned, they’re saying, let’s watch people make out for no reason.
Even worse than that, they’re alienating a huge potential fanbase when they engage in this kind of facile populism. They’re pissing off the women.
One of my best friends and I have been going to the Boxing Day Test together for years. Sometimes our male friends, boyfriends or fathers might come along, but the two of us are always there.
And we don’t go to the cricket to holler at hooligans getting ejected, to howl at opposing fans, to make giant towers out of beer cups or engage in Mexican wave after Mexican wave. We do not don hats sculpted from watermelons. We do not drape ourselves in Australian flags. We do not fashion beer paddles out of cricket bats. We go, astoundingly, to watch the cricket.
We certainly do not go to be forced into kissing for the amusement of a belligerent, boozy crowd. But that’s what so many female fans were bullied into on Tuesday when Kiss Cam (laughably referred to by Vodafone as an “At-ground privilege“) singled them out. Some acquiesced and were greeted by roars of approval. Some, clearly uncomfortable, demurred and were resoundingly booed for their efforts. It’s intimidating, facile and unutterably chauvinist.
I’m fairly used to women being cajoled into kissing for men’s titillation in clubs and bars. I’m not used to seeing it done for a cast of tens of thousands with the endorsement of a once venerable institution such as the MCG.
I’m not surprised at Vodafone, whose modus operandi this summer appears to be simply to ruin games of cricket. But I’m also not their performing monkey.
It’s not often I trumpet the achievements of the AFL when it comes to respect for women. In fact I’ve been known to do the opposite. Hundreds of sex scandals, alleged rapes and a couple of viewings of the Footy Show have made sure of that. But in one regard they have got it right.
According to AFL CEO Andrew Demetirou, 48% of people who attend AFL games are women. At the cricket, we’re outnumbered two-to-one.
So here’s an idea for Cricket Australia, the MCG and Vodafone, one that could help stem the haemorraghing of test cricket attendees they’re currently experiencing. Instead of marginalising women, why don’t you try to engage us a bit more? Why don’t you do something to address the misogyny that permeates your average cricket crowd, members of which frequently yell “tits out for the boys” at each passing woman? Why not get yourself a female commentator to go with the guffawing boys’ club that currently occupies the commentary box?
Or, for a simple start, why not take your infantile, patronising, offensive Kiss Cam and throw it in the Yarra?
Otherwise we will, in no uncertain terms and with the power of one digit alone, tell you all to get f***ed.
I pretty much love everything about this blog, except that you cast every woman up on that screen as victims. You basically assert that all the women that kissed their boyfriends on camera were either acquiescing to peer group pressure, or being pushed into it by their dominating boyfriends. This may be true for some of them, however there is ample evidence that there are many women for whom exhibitionism is something they actually actively stake out (citations: myspace.com, myyearbook.com etc). As abhorrent as I find this new chapter of ‘girl power’, and as much as it may be an indirect result of a chauvinistic society’s values internalised within our young women (see Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy) I think that completely reducing every woman at the cricket into passive victims without autonomy doesn’t really help the cause.
As a male at the cricket, I too would have been incredibly uncomfortable being put up on the screen like that. This has nothing to do with my reactions to a chauvinism but rather it is my discomfort with a crass and decadent culture. Also, I’m not on the whole a fan of the PDA (Public Displays of Affection), and my girlfriend is monstrously ugly.
Perhaps it would have been better to stick more with the idea of what this does to cricket, and the experience of it. Or better yet, how it changes the audience’s interaction with the game, making it yet another pastime where WE have to be at the centre, where WE MUST be given equal prominence to masters like Tendulkar. It’s more naval gazing than chauvinistic.
Yep, I do agree that for some excessive PDA and sexual exhibitionism is part of female empowerment for some. But the point is that they have a choice. Kiss Cam doesn’t give anyone the choice. The two women in front of me who kissed for the screen seemed to enjoy themselves and the attention. Not all the people on Kiss Cam are victims, and yes, the boyfriend was equally unwilling to pucker up for it, but Kiss Cam is just one installment in a legion of anti-women experiences I’ve had at the cricket.
Men do not get hollered at to get their tits out (this has happened to me), they do not have beer thrown across their chest as part of an involuntary wet t-shirt competition. Men do not get groped on a crowded cricket tram by three huge sniggering men (this has happened to me). Men do not get belittled by commentators such as Kerry O’Keefe, who guffaws that he is “owned” by his wife, but brags that he “keeps” her to his fellow blathering stuffed shirts on air.
Thus I would say women, who are in the significant minority at the cricket, have more to lose than men when being coerced into kissing someone of either gender on a big screen in front of tens of thousands of bellowing, mainly male, fans.
I could’ve have gone into a multiplicity of reasons why Kiss Cam is appalling. It’s a lose for cricket, a lose for men and a lose for women, but as usual, women hurt the most. And I genuinely think that given the state of test cricket, Cricket Australia would do well to try to engage women more, not alienate them further. That’s the positive suggestion at the heart of this rant.
I’d like to add that when, for a laugh, a friend working as a cameraman at the MCG tried to put two men on kiss cam he was told he wasn’t allowed too, yet several times there were two women up on the big screen with the red heart around them.
i was there tuesday and saw 2 girls highlighted twice, and 2 guys highlighted once.
i agree that its a pretty stupid gimmick but thankfully like all of them it will surely disappear. though to be honest i didnt mind it so much as at least it is something generally kind and loving, and not encouraging binge drinking (vb boonie dolls and stuff). in general i thought that there were plenty of girls who looked ok with the idea of it when highlighted, and plenty of guys who looked awkward about it. its unfair to make it out as if every girl was a victim and every guy was some cajoling bogan.
Vodafone really do know how to piss off the cricketing public dont they.
Well spoken, Ma’am.
My own opinion here is that we need to see the highest level of womens’ cricket competition represented more on TV – the womens’ test series are every bit as good as the mens’!
I think this would do more to combat the inherent sexism seen in the commentary box and the stands than anything else.
Perhaps it’d be good to have a mixed test series – teams to include not more than six and not less than five members of each gender. Since the female competition is better developed in Australia, NZ and England, it may need to be Australia [or England, or NZ] vs World XI or something similar. I’d certainly watch it!
And for the record, I am a man.
Great entry Meg!
While I feel cricket is like watching paint dry it would be great to see some of the leading sports events lose that ‘boys club’ mentality.
Totally agree. It’s stupid and offensive. Nice read.
There’s a typo. “Demetriou” not “Dimitriou”.
Otherwise, great stuff. You should send to Jezebel or similar.
Excellent post. I was there too and saw what they were doing. The number of times they took shots of two women to fire up a leering crows was unforgivable. They deserve worse than the bird for creating such a sick, bullying atmosphere.
Great work with raising the finger. The only reason I don’t go to the cricket is the atmosphere. And your blog was beautifully written. I have become a fan.
Hey Meg, they should put you on the big screen at the MCG reading out this blog entry. You could be the next Pamela Anderson.
Nice work, mucho respect!
Great response!
Yeah it definitely has the “you are a plaything” ring to it. That’s hillarious that you flipped it off.
I was there, and cheered your bird-flip. It was awesome. It wasn’t just kisscam that I hated; it was the decision throughout the day to put young women up on the big screen to get a leery cheer out of the men. At one point 2 women were booed by tens of thousands of men for being perceived as less attractive than the 2 who had been on screen just before them – how utterly humiliating for them, and they surely didn’t go to the cricket to be judged on their appearance by a crowd. I sent some tweets about this topic, one of which was retweeted by a journalist and – whether by accident or design – the big-screen pictures and kisscam were more appropriate for the following days of the Test so who knows, hopefully cricket Australia / vodafone were just massively misguided and are in fact willing to be agents for change, and that continuing the pressure re kisscam will get a result.
I should add that watching at home instead of the ground sometimes brings its own horrors; for a Test in South Africa the broadcasters were showing shot after shot of women and imagine my dismay when Tony Greig said it was in honour of International Women’s Day. Radio is also no escape – listening to abc yesterday the commentators joked about how a woman who’d been asked to move away from behind the bowler’s arm should feel pleased that she was noticed by Tendulkar.
Wow you sound like lots of fun Meg. I wish you were my friend….
You sound like a douchebag. I’m glad I don’t know you…
You possibly already do Nick. Not that it matters but I’m a fairly regular, left wing, open minded man. I Support womens rights and personally believe this is some of the most self righteous, attention seekjng tripe I’ve read in some time.
The kiss cam is pretty lame, but its no more than a bit of fun.
Talk about your pointless first world problems.
Who is it hurting? Sure there were drunk men cheering it on. There were also people of all creeds, gender and age having a chuckle at it.
Couldnt hurt to gain some perspective and possibly a bit of a sense of humour.
I have no issue with one ‘flipping it off’, i do take issue with the sensationolist crap in this blog and the insinuation i may be a cave man because I find the kiss cam funny.
Apologies for my grammer, iphones and the shakes…..
I’m just flabbergasted that the Indians agreed to TKC at the beginning on the series.
“I’m a fairly regular, left wing, open minded man”, Al, who is also a male chauvinist pig but hey “I Support womens rights ” Women will be so happy to know that Al.
Good post. At the last two Sydney Thunder games we have also had the kiss cam and the spectacle of some pretty lame dancing girls. At one stage my 10 year old leaned over to tell me that our friends really should get their 7 year old out of dance class or this is how she will end up.
On top of it all, these girls got up and danced for every wicket and boundary, usually cutting short the replays of great fielding/stroke play etc. What a wind up for us and them. Dancing to a near empty stadium must be as disheartening for the women as it is annoying to the punters.
Al: “Pointless First World problems”? You mean the cesspool of misogyny and the rape culture in Australian sport? I was not aware that these issues were so unimportant. Thanks for the mansplaining!
You are part of the problem and I’m ashamed to share a gender with people like you.
The comment on first world problems by Al… bravo
One statement for Meg she might want to ponder a bit in the new year “When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail”.
I hope that is self-explanatory enough. There are serious issues, and feminists do play an important part in raising the national dialogue about such issues. However, when something as innocent as kiss cam is part of “the evil male-dominated patriarchical society” MANY main stream people get tuned off to the valid issues you have.
I expect a full-throated, insult-laden respones (if not then I TRULY will give you credit for raising the dialogue from the other feminist blogs I have been reading) which call me names instead of address the validity of my point.
So… simply… do you not agree that making a big deal out of this does harm to the effectiveness of feminisim on more important issues?
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Sportsguy, the kiss-cam is a form of public voyeurism that people are forced to take part in, whether they like it or not. Consent is not asked, and there’s clearly a lot of people who don’t want to be part of a ‘sex sells’ promotion. It further marginalises women at an event they already feel marginalised at. I don’t think it’s something that I’d like to see become mainstream. So yeah ‘sportsguy’, I reckon it’s worth discussing.
Now, in terms of the validity of your points or otherwise: Something doesn’t have to be life or death to be worth discussing. If it did, all political debate in Australia would stop. We’re lucky, because we get to care about how our society treats each other. While I would hate to see a political agenda restricted to any one sort of issue, I see no reason why we shouldn’t debate all sorts of issues.
Also, just a side note, it’s probably better to only use quotation marks when you’re quoting something. Otherwise people might accuse you of creating a straw man argument, something I’m sure you’re not interested in doing at all.