Let’s not make heroes out of men who abuse women - Women's Agenda

Let’s not make heroes out of men who abuse women

Sometimes I get mad. Mad enough that sometimes I feel like punching something. Do you know what I do? I take it out at the gym – often in a boxing class. I don’t actually punch anybody because I am a normal person and it’s illegal.

Yesterday’s Mayweather versus Pacquiao boxing match got my blood boiling. The match up of these two boxers generated an estimated $400 million in revenue. Three million pay-per-view purchases around the world helped deliver Mayweather a $180 million paycheque. One hundred and eighty million dollars. For one fight.

I have to be honest before yesterday I didn’t know who either of the men were or what a big deal it was until pictures of the fight and the hashtag #MayPac started filling my social media feed.

A quick Google search uncovered shocking details about both men’s backgrounds. Floyd Mayweather Junior, who won the fight, appears to have had plenty of punching practice. Some of it on women. He has been arrested or cited on seven different occasions for beating more than five different women. In 2010 he served time in jail for the brutal assault on the mother of three of his children. A police report written by his son, which detailed the abuse Mayweather dealt to his mother, went viral on social media yesterday.

Then aged 10, Koraun Mayweather gave a chilling and voluntary report to Las Vegas metropolitan police of the violence he saw Mayweather inflict on his mum.

Mayweather has categorically denied abusing women, even going so far as to say to American sports reporter Rachel Nichols on CNN last year that it was all “just hearsay and allegations.” His attitude to women in general appears to be nothing short of appalling and he doesn’t even appear to hide his misogynistic attitudes.

Nichols was denied access to yesterday’s fight, tweeting that she believed Mayweather had blocked her media access to the arena. ESPN’s Michelle Beadle, who has been critical of Mayweather’s domestic violence history on the social media platform also had her media pass banned. These are two of America’s most respected female sportscasters – told to wait outside with the other ladies as if it is Edwardian England, because they have been publicly critical of Mayweather’s personal history.

Fortunately Beadle could see the lighter side, tweeting: “From what I have read, looks like being banned was the best thing that happened to me today. Thanks enablers! #IHadAGreatDinner” Another tweet said she was handing in her fan card to the WWE because of its “love for a serial abuser.”

It’s important to note Mayweather has never been suspended from competing in Nevada despite his criminal convictions, and that over the last three years Forbes magazine has listed him as the world’s most highly paid athlete.

It also needs to be said that Mayweather’s background doesn’t make Pacquiao a hero. While the Philippines Congressman doesn’t have a history of violence against women (good work Manny for understanding you should only punch people inside the boxing ring), he does appear to have very little regard towards women and their choices.

In 2010 he opposed a bill that planned to increase government funding for contraception and family planning services in the Philippines. He is also adamantly against abortion, which is illegal in his country’s Constitution.

It’s also alleged Pacquiao has used his political power to oppose LGBT rights and safe sex education, quoting the bible by telling his parliament “God said ‘Go out and multiply. He did not say, just have two or three kids’. “

So there we have it – two men who have little regard for women and their rights – battling it out in a globally televised match that earned them both hefty paychecks in the millions.

And here is where my real anger lies – how many people around the world watched the fight and end up passively condoning this behavior?

Normally reasonable people whom I like to consider friends didn’t seem to see that by supporting these two men and yesterday’s match, they were actively ignoring the seriousness of violence against women. When I commented on one friend’s post, deploring what he had written about the match, he came back with what he obviously perceived as a witty remark.

Below it, someone else had inserted the crying with laughter emoji several times. Really, Australia? Domestic violence is not a laughing emoji matter.

It is claimed that every minute 24 women in the United States where the fight was televised become victims of rape, physical violence or stalking at the hands of a romantic or former partner. Here in Australia, we are literally counting dead women, with at least two women killed at the hands of men each week so far in 2015.

These are the statistics we know about. What we don’t know is those who have taken their lives because of domestic violence, or those who live in fear for their life every single day.

Yes, sport is a big part of our culture. I completely understand and respect that watching a televised sporting match with your friends, good food and drinks is a great way to spend a Sunday.

But we have to understand that a man like Mayweather will continue to earn hundreds (not a typo) of millions, because the demand for watching his fighting skills is there.

Reduce the demand and the supply will wane. Take a stand against domestic violence. Boycott matches where convicted criminals are fighting. Let’s not make heroes out of men who abuse women or deny them their rights.

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