In a wide-ranging conversation with managing editor Michelle Pini, long-time campaigner to end violence against women, Phil Cleary, discusses the recent Sydney Swans controversy and the responsibility of powerful institutions such as the AFL and the media to help drive cultural change.
Cleary argues that ending violence against women requires action from sporting organisations and governments but lasting change begins within families and communities — through challenging harmful attitudes, holding people accountable and refusing to remain silent.
If everyone is saying men are suffering violence from other men, and women are suffering violence from men, can we not say men’s violence?
“Historically, if you look at the way rape laws operated and rape trials were rolled out, they were always blaming women.”
“I'm feeling a level of optimism about changing attitudes. Community, I keep saying, there's the place to change the world, in your community, in your family, in your sporting club, in your locality. That's where we've got to be.”
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