After rugby league commentator and former player Matthew Johns gave an insincere and misdirected apology on The Footy Show on May 7 — preempting the ABC Four Corners program that named Johns as part of an alleged sexual assault in 2002 — Paul "Fatty" Vautin slapped him on the back and declared: "Well said, now let's get on with the show."
Apparently this meant the popular panel show would switch the theme to homophobia.
Immediately after Johns's apology, the program aired a skit in which Johns dressed up as his fictitious gay younger brother. His name was Elton. That is, "Elton Johns".
The skit was called "My Three Sons". It featured interviews with Johns, his brother Andrew, their father and "Elton".
"I'm so ashamed of him", said Andrew Johns, also an ex-rugby player. The audience laughed hardest when he commented that Elton and Matthew "minced about" together, and he was "surprised [Matthew] turned out so straight".
"In the '70s, switched at birth was rife", said father Gary Johns. He took the young Elton to hospital and told a nurse: "I want to return this — it's faulty."
Elton himself was grossly stereotyped, portrayed in an orange feather boa and star-framed glasses. He was a flamboyant character who never "fit in" with the famous family.
The explicit "humour" of the skit was entirely based on the idea that someone being gay was wrong and a reason for ridicule and mockery. It promoted the idea that homophobia was acceptable. It legitimised the view that being queer was undesirable and something to be ashamed of.
Former NRL player Ian Roberts, who is openly gay, was jokingly referred to in the skit as Elton's possible lover. Roberts told the Daily Telegraph on May 17: "Guys, what you don't understand — you think it's funny, but there are gay kids in the suburbs who are killing themselves because they don't know what to do about their sexuality. They kill themselves."
Roberts said: "I'm not talking about me. You can't hurt me. But you know what guys? There are kids out there you do affect."
The impact extends further. It's a short step from portraying homophobia and ridicule as acceptable, to beating up someone for being "faulty". Harm against queers is carried out when the violent offenders have their hatred fuelled.
With the kind of popular appeal of The Footy Show, homophobes only gain a sense of legitimacy when they bash a queer in the street.
The sequenced shift from violence against women to violence against queers on The Footy Show shows the abuse of women and queers is simply interchangeable in macho sports culture.
Johns's "apology" focused on his family and himself when he expressed regret about the sexual assault in which he was complicit. About the woman publicly known as Clare, he stated that he was sorry for her "embarrassment and pain". But he did not acknowledge any responsibility for it.
Other cast members empathised with Johns, as though he was the victim — as though the problem was not what he did but that it was publicly exposed.
The mistreatment of a young woman's sexual abuse and a homophobic skit reflect social efforts to push back the gains of the women's and queer rights movements, and all in the name of male bonding. This culture of macho behaviour in sport is only a heightened form of what already exists in society.
What this series of events most clearly shows is the fact that sexism and homophobia are a dangerous ongoing reality. Resistance campaigns to build a movement for total liberation from sexual oppression, in which everyone is able to reach their full potential.