by Ann Johnstone

Created on: May 18, 2009

As an Australian who has always been proud of my country, I am nevertheless becoming increasingly disenchanted with the way we hold up our professional athletes and footballers as heroes. We are, in effect, saying to the next generation, Look at so-and-so and learn from him. Here is an example of what you, too, can become. When you are successful like him, you too can have the money, the fame and the girls.

The fact that so many of these young men, bursting with testosterone yet lacking in moral discipline, are becoming increasingly involved in incidences of group sex (which is, in effect, little more than pack rape) should make our blood run cold. Young girls with stars in their eyes, starving for popularity and their short moment of fame, willingly make themselves available to groups of sports 'heroes' who, celebrating their success with copious amounts of alcohol, believe they can have whatever they want without repercussion.

Well, the general population has become somewhat jaded by this behaviour. Our most recently publicized example of this involves a well-known ex-international rugby league player turned television star who, seven long years ago, was involved in group sex with a nineteen-year-old fan while on tour with his team in New Zealand. No problem, some may say. After all, the girl consented. It was enough that she should have her few minutes of fame-by-default. This gave her what she craved. Or did it? Five days after the incident she went to the police and reported what had happened. I cannot imagine what went through this young girl's mind and emotions in those intervening days.

Sydney's Daily Telegraph commented, As the NRL fumbles another grubby scandal, insiders claim group sex has long been excused in elite sport as 'male bonding'. Some claim there is a long-standing link between elite sport and group sex, often called 'gang bang'. The police inspector in charge of the case stated he was quite satisfied that no crime had been committed.

This raises several questions. Firstly, surely such behaviour is inevitable in light of the fact that our moral guidelines today (at least those officially espoused by western culture) are: Anything is OK so long as nobody is hurt. Another way of putting it is, If it feels good, do it. The problem here is that, as was evident in the case of the girl involved, she thought at the time that it was what she wanted, yet later realized it had caused her immense trauma that she would never, apart

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