Some idiots went online and commented about how close it was to showing female genitalia, and if it was trans footballer Hanna Mouncey that you would see her penis.
Channel 7, who posted the photo, succumbed to the trolling and removed the post, saying it was too negative and they didn't want it to be a platform for cyber-bullying. I understand that response, having worked in PR, but obviously people then reacted to Channel 7's response, saying they had let the trolls win by getting the photo taken down, which is correct.
Fortunately, the reaction to Channel 7's decision to pull the photo motivated them to re-post it, and now this image has become widely celebrated as a win over cyberbullying.
Not only that, the image has become the unofficial logo of the AFLW (in silhouetted form), it's been made into t-shirts, badges, and male players and broadcasters have also supported the image. I've made a copy and stuck it to the window in my office.
Best of all, Tayla has now created a the #TaylaKickChallenge competition, where she asks for people to post videos of themselves trying to kick like Tayla, with the winner getting a pair of Nikes.
I’ll choose the best impersonation to win a pair of @Nike boots 🤙🏼#TAYLAKICKCHALLENGE pic.twitter.com/4I528XSuhh— Tayla Harris (@taylaharriss) March 21, 2019
I have no problems with this being corporatised by Nike. There has always been a relationship between commerce and culture, and more corporations should be active in denouncing antisocial behaviour.
I also went online and voted in the NAB Mini Legends competition, where you vote for what AFL players should be made into 'legends' by having little AFL AusKickers dress up as them in a NAB commercial. You can see an old one here:
Tayla Harris MUST be a mini legend. It's a changing moment in the women's game. It's really affected people, like the journalist Sam Lane.
It's such a positive, and Harris seems to have handled it like a champ, and you only hope it doesn't have a lasting negative impact on her or her family.
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First round of AFL is in the books. So glad to have it back (no disrespect to the AFLW, AFLX, or JLT Series intended). Some observations after round 1:
- Skills were rubbish. Lots of dropped ball and fumbles.
- Rule changes are ok, but heard an interesting observation that the play-on from fullback rule might reduce scoring, instead of increasing it. This is because under the old rule, a turnover from a kick-in was within a shot at goal, whereas under the new rule, the turnover is about 70-80m from goal, making harder to score from turnovers.
- Swans are disappointing. They are a slow starting team traditionally, but we almost had our best team on the park last week, and lost to a very average team.
- Happy for Brisbane and GWS and Freo and Port. I'm ok with the interstate teams being competitive.
Off to the Swans game this Friday night, against Adelaide. My membership arrived in the mail. Looking forward to it!
