Am I wrong in thinking people wouldn't be half as forgiving if a woman spat at a child?

[CherryChasingDotMuncher]

Jamie Carragher, ex-Liverpool player and Sky Sports commentator, spat at a 14yo girl when her father taunted him about a Liverpool loss over the weekend. Sky have suspended him.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/jamie-carragher-spitting-video-suspended-sky-sports-apology-manchester-united-liverpool-a8252001.html

He's apologised, and so he should. I didn't think the father was threatening, just having a playful dig at Liverpool losing (albeit it was dangerous to do it in a moving car!). IMO spitting at someone is fucking revolting and he's called it a 'moment of madness he can't explain'

Perhaps unsurprisingly there have been lots of people (including Gary Neville) showing their support for this scumbag. Lots of people sticking up for him on social media, I foresee a petition at some point.

Is it just me or if say Clare Balding gobbed on a child because she couldn't cope with a loss for her team, people wouldn't be so quick to jump to her defence? We know the incident was unreasonable - but I always notice these things barely impact on the men's lives and they have an army of people defending them. Look at Jeremy Clarkson who punched a colleague in the face. 3 million people signed a petition and he got a shiny new show. It begs the question - what does a bloke have to actually do before people will criticise or turn against him?

100% if claire balding gobbed in a child's face she would be off our screens gone and never work in media / sport / anything even slightly high profile again

Well yeah but then you get into a whole debate about whether or not they deserve to be able to continue their career after serving time/punishment, etc. etc. and who has time for that?

I just think it's disingenuous to claim that men are "getting away" with this stuff and that people in general let them off.

Sports stars (male ones) do seem to be Teflon coated don't they.
I wouldn't exactly say Mike Tyson has got away with it, but there seem to be as many people rush to defend him as rush to villify him. It's not one or the other.
"100% if claire balding gobbed in a child's face she would be off our screens gone and never work in media / sport / anything even slightly high profile again"
Like Cheryl Cole after her racist assault? Has she got away with it? Certainly seems that way.

I read the initial thread about it when the news broke. Literally every response was saying it was absolutely disgusting. Many people also commented that the guy driving and filming and goading behaved badly too (which is also true), but that Carragher's response was still disgusting and wrong.

No not like cheryl cole

like claire balding if she gobbed in someone's face!

TBF cheryl cole is ? the only example anyone can ever come up with... can anyone name any females in sport who have done similar to mike tyson, ched evans etc and had a similar reaction?

"I just think it's disingenuous to claim that men are "getting away" with this stuff and that people in general let them off."

I don't.

I think it's disingenuous to pretend that male sports stars don't get massive support from the public / their fans, often even after they have been found guilty.

For all this writ large, see the cases in the USA eg steubenville.

Seeing as we're talking about mike tyson this is probably relevant.

Is it maybe not a perceived class reaction? Working class - although massively rich - Cole and footballers - people forgive. Balding - clearly not WC and would not be deemed to be acceptable and career ruining?

can anyone name any females in sport who have done similar to mike tyson, ched evans etc and had a similar reaction?

I can't name any that have done similar, so there is no reaction to speak of.

Anyway, we're not going to get anywhere in this discussion. All of the men we've talked about have been punished by the law and/or their respective sporting/broadcasting authorities, as you'd expect. Where I see the public in general castigating them, you see them offering support. Obviously we're not going to change each other's minds on that. So good day to you!

Everytime I see Tyson's name mentioned on the internet, there are dozens of comments from women and men about how he is a disgusting rapist, and often dozens of comments from men mostly I think saying "great boxer though", "interesting character", and generally apologising for him. And his spoken word tours seem to be popular.
So has he got away with it? From a career point of view maybe so, but not everyone (men) is onside with him.

That might feed into it.

Everyone still remembers what Cole did and she was widely lambasted at the time, it was in all the papers.

I think part of it was shock that such a small, pretty girl could behave in such a nasty way including violence.

A lot of the reaction to this spitting guy is "well he was provoked what do you expect". I think there is a attitude that men will attack if you provoke them. And the crime stats would probably bear this out. Women are not expected to attack with anything worse than words when they are provoked, or possibly burst into tears / leave the situation. So there's a lot of shock when they do.

remember when bjork went for that reporter? there was a lot of oh look what an over-reaciton she's completely unstable, even though she was being intensely provoked by being surrounded by reporters right in her face when she had a very small child with her.

But Cole wasn't provoked - she just behaved awfully because she felt entitled to .

No I know.

The point I'm trying to make is that men do this sort of thing much more often and so when a woman does it there is much more attention.

This happens across the violent and sexual crime spectrum.

I don't think it's appropriate to react to a man provoking you by gobbing in his 14 year old daughter's face but there you go. The idea that if a man is provoked then what do you expect is common, and gives them an out, a lessening, an excuse. See also with sex offences - she was asking for it / what did she expect dressed like that. This idea that men are not entirely in control of their own actions is incorrect and dangerous.

Yeah, he went to jail for the rape. You said these men got away with the thing's they've done, which they clearly haven't. I'm just stating the facts.

"That's nice" – constructive comment. Also works vs. your totally baselss comment that "so many men" are defending Carragher for his behaviour when 99% are not.

I am aware he went to prison, you said vilified by the press and public, I have disproved your point by linking to his IMDB account which shows that he has regular work and in very mainstream films. Someone who had been "vilified" would not be a main stream actor.

Now as for my "baseless" comment that was based on my reading the comments by presumably real men when it was trending on FB yesterday.

However your assertion that " 99% of men don't support him" included a made up statistic. Unless you can back it u?

The reason I said "That's nice" is that you hadn't actually made a point, you said you hadn't heard that as though to refute my post. Which implies you hadn't read the comments on the stories themselves as undoubtedly you would have read that men were saying that. You must therefore basing your opinion as though it is relevant on men you have spoken to and have specifically discussed this story with. I don't really know the sample size so I'm not sure it's relevant. I was polite though, I didn't say it was a useless contribution despite it being one.

Anyway,
HTH.

Because a lot of women on mumsnet are saying, well, he was provoked. This is a justificaiton / explanation whether they mean it that way or not. Which is especially weird as the person on the sharp end of the retaliation was not the person who had been winding him up in the first place.

Some women on here saying they can't believe he would have done that / deciding that he didn't / guessing as to his intent, I can't believe that men are being harder on him than women on here.

More than 99% I'd say supporting him on here on way or another although I haven't added it up!

I mean more than 1% sorry.

Not that being provoked is any excuse anyway.... Just Cole wasn't provoked either - people don't provoke you to attack them, it is always a loss of control on the side of the person doing the attacking-.

Any attempt on behalf of the attacker to explain circumstances is just bollocks.

Should be: I have anger issues and I can't be trusted until I sort myself out.

Kirsty Gallagher works for sky Sports.

She’s female. She was charged with drink driving recently. Three times the legal limit, with her children in her car.

Now whilst what Carragher did is abhorrent and I’m stunned he looks like he’s going to escape with his job, it’s probably less of a danger and certainly less illegal that what Kirsty did and she’s still in a job, not even suspended if I recall correctly.

Not sure that this is a male female thing. Carragher will get off because his PR team moved fast.

He's a disgusting twat and the father did not cover himself in glory either. Goading, not stopping even though his daughter was asking him to stop. Utterly childish, the pair of them

Great advert for football...

I've been spat at by a man in a car. Twice. You have to wonder about the mentality of someone whose first reaction is to spit

I've just remembered a further two times I've been spat on by strangers (men) in the street

Women can and do, do bad stuff,

Men do bad stuff more.

Pulling examples of women who have done bad stuff out does not negate the fact that men do bad stuff more.

On public reastion -

It is well known that women are held to different standards than men, in multiple aspects of behaviour. Finding a couple of examples that contradict that, does not mean overall it is not true.

Men, especially rich men, popular men, powerful men, get away with (sometimes literally) murder, quite often. You only have to look at what has been going on in the film industry to see an example - and it's way more than the odd one or 2 people.

I can think of plenty of men who are still active in high profile roles despite being convincingly accused / by multiple people / or convicted. Hopefully the tide is starting to turn but I won't hold my breath.