To ask you all to sign petition regarding Oldham and Ched Evans

[floatyflo]

Actually I don't believe I am being unreasonable. But wanted to bring it to attention.

MN seems to be a quiet on this today but I think the fight should still go on. I can't link to it as I am so not tech savvy enough but it is on change.org. (Same person whk set up the Sheffield Weds one so of you sogned that one it is pretty easy to locate).Already has over 9000 signatures so please please please continue to sign and share!

They might be role models to many but they are not role models to me, my husband or my DC and I find it very odd that people look up to people for being talented with a football when those people have no personal influence on anybody's life. Why would I idolise somebody for being able to kick a ball well or ding well or act well? Their things that they can do well don't have any impact on my life or inspire me to be like them.

Also, perhaps more than the individual footballers, football clubs have a central place in the community - it is very dangerous for them to endorse somebody who gives every impression that he feels that it's not rape if the victim is drunk enough.

Society gets the role models it deserves. A role model isn't an official designation. I'm not aware that Ched Evans has specifically held himself out as being a 'role model'

The facts as they stand are:

He is a convicted rapist
He was sent to prison for the offence and served his time.

I'm personally of the opinion that once that has happened, the person convicted is entitled to get on with their lives after the offence - unless to do so would put vulnerable people at risk. If you think that the punsihment wasn't harsh enough, then that's one thing, but to deny the man the opportunity to get on with his life once he's served his time is quite another.

Lastly, I think some people are over-analysing the extent to which young lads idolise footballers (or at least their reasons for doing so). When I was a young lad, I idolised Pele - most of us at one time or another would have pretended to be him - it was never for anything other than his footballing talent.

If anything, this story could (if dealt with in an age approriate way) be an important lesson for kids.

This is being discussed on Radio 4 PM now.

Suzanne Moore is doing a great job (what about the victim? Evans unrepentant) , Claire Fox not so much (witch hunt, done his time, yadda yadda)

Should be available on Listen Again

Chunder But I'm not comfortable with arbitarily deciding who is and isn't a role model.

I think the point is, inthedark, that whilst footballers aren't role-models to you or your family - and indeed the same applies to me and my family -and no matter how illogical you think it may be - it is undeniable that they are role models for thousands of children and young people.

I am so weary of hearing about footballers being role models. Do they ask for this millstone. The next time a pop idol is busted for drugs, I want to see all the threads demanding that their music be boycotted and they be cast into oblivion as they are bad role models for our DC.
He's served his sentence, let him work.
OP thanks for asking but no I won't be signing.

Well, from CE's own mouth quoted by Sabrina at 16:52, I believe that the rapist Ched Evans didn't consider consent at all, let alone believe his victim had given it or needed to.

And from everything he has not said or done since, I also believe that he has no understanding of the concept of consent even now.

Malice, no-one is denying Evans the chance to get on with his life. He can do any job where he does not have the chance to be an adverse influence on impressionable young people, and indeed he has the offer of just such a job from his girlfriend's father.

And do you not think he has perhaps contributed to his current problems? If he showed an ounce of real remorse people might view him more favourably.

HOuse then that's a matter for the supporters - probably a disgustingly inapproriate response to what they perhaps see as a miscarriage of justice.

Excellent point Worried

I am so weary of hearing about footballers being role models. Do they ask for this millstone.

It doesn't really matter whether they ask for it, it goes with the job. You might just as well ask whether teachers ask for the millstone of having to work 12 hour days, or doctors ask for the millstone of coping with their patients dying. And the greatest role models do tend to have the compensation of rather large wages.

Just heard a mealy-mouthed non-committal comment from Oldham on the radio news and signed the petition.

I have much more respect for Sheffield United, who made their decision and announced it quite fast. Oldham look weaker the longer they delay it.

Mutha, he may have technically served his sentence (well, still be serving it, this portion of it out in the community), but he has shown no remorse or understanding that he did wrong. He contributes to the website that protests his innocence and hounds the young woman. I don't think taking drugs is that comparable to rape, but let's imagine for a moment it is: most people who are caught taking drugs at least have the sense to admit they did something wrong/illegal and show some remorse or understanding.

He has shown remorse. Let's not forget he believes shimself to me innocent.

How is his continuing in football likely to create an adverse infulence on the impressionable? That I don't get. Whatever happens - he'll forever be known as Ched the Rapist.

Sabrinaetc the "we could have any girl in the nightclub" statement was not made in court, it was made in his police interview. A subtle difference, but these things should be got right.

An interesting point, Yonic. And are you saying that it is more reasonable for a footballer to hold that view on consent than a brickie? That is surprising. Are they not equally unreasonable and unbelievable?

Any argument that suggests that CE was convicted because he is a footballer plays into the Chedgenda, though, right? I appreciate that your argument actually says the opposite (i.e. that a jury would be even less likely to agree that a view of deemed consent held by a brickie was reasonable), but it is something that may be misunderstood and misquoted by the CE lobby.

I would support a boycott of a convicted rapist pop star, yes.

"I am so weary of hearing about footballers being role models. Do they ask for this millstone. The next time a pop idol is busted for drugs, I want to see all the threads demanding that their music be boycotted and they be cast into oblivion as they are bad role models for our DC"

Weariness does not make soemthing ease to be true for swathes of society.

Drugs bust high level sportspeople have not faced the 'demands', so I don't think druggie 'pop idols' are a fair comparison.

'Pop idols' who have convictions for serious sexual offences are indeed boycotted.

So by that comparison, there is nothing unfair, unprecedented or unacceptable.

But this seems to me to be about punishing him further than the law intended. If he was a school teacher, then the law, quite rightly, would argue that he should not go back into teaching - as whatever the extent of his rehabilitation, it would be to much of a risk to take. The law makes no such provision in respect of footballers (and indeed many other professions) so I'm of the belief that he should be free to continue his career.

"He fucks who he wants, Chedwyn Evans, he fucks who he wants"

That's what they were chanting.

I'd forgotten that. We're talking about a convicted rapist here - who has not served his time - his sentence was 5 years, he is out on licence - with a fan-base who think it's acceptable that chant that ^

Rape culture in action.