Scrap the Lingerie Football League and support women's sport says 14 year old Texus

We recently shared with you a guest post from the teaching staff of the Southern Teaching Unit in Melbourne. They shared with us about the work they do with students and in particular, their approach to health and media literacy education. Yesterday we published an interview with 14 year old Nova Stewardson, a former student of STU. Today we hear from 14 year old Texus Kent, also a student at STU.

Texus started a petition through change.org to challenge the Lingerie Football League's introduction to Australia.

The petition Triple M: stop the promotion and support of a Lingerie Football League in Australia has now gathered over 1800 signatures.

Texus tells us how he came to hear about the Lingerie Football League and why he started the petition.

Can you tell us how you heard about the Lingerie Football League?

I certainly can. A few weeks ago I had stayed behind after school was finished waiting for someone to pick me up and was in the time out room meditating, when I heard my teachers in the next room talking, using fairly foul language, discussing something that I could tell they were very passionate about. After a few minutes I decided that I would go and see what it was that they were talking about.

When I got there I saw a rather inappropriate picture on the television of the Lingerie Football League (although I didn’t know that that was what it was called at the time). My teachers apologized for their language and I told them that it was fine because they had a right to be so furious with such a thing.

Perhaps because of my reaction to it, or perhaps it was already their intention to do so, but later our teachers taught the class about every horrible detail of what I at that point did know was called the Lingerie Football League.

What bothered you about the Lingerie Football League?

The thing that bothered me the most about the “LFL” is that it was real. All the sexualisation that had been seeping through popular culture had suddenly gone from being a transparent poison that was running over our “clean” society to a fully visible change in the dynamics of how the human race thinks and acts.

Subliminal messaging has been making people over sexualised for years now but it has never stood this obviously or brazenly, proclaiming that it is feeding off of peoples sexualities. Sexuality is part of life but the LFL is physically making sexuality the most obvious and biggest part of life, the apparently most important.

There are millions of things that bother me about the LFL that I could explain but I won’t because it would take far too long for me to type and more importantly it would take up too much of your important time. And so I will not go into the inequality that is reappearing, objectifying and dehumanizing women.

And I will also not get into the fact that the LFL will not only further encourage aggressive sexual behaviour in men but will also further encourage physical aggression in men. Nor will I speak of the fact that these are practically the only women athletes on T.V. and definitely the only few getting paid, even if it is an unimaginably tiny amount and how this is sending the message to young women that they need to be completely sexual to get anywhere in life, but I will instead leave you with the information that I have already given you and hope that you can understand how revolting this “sport” really is.

Why did you choose to speak out against it?

I chose to speak out against it because I did not want that to be the world that I lived in and because I hope to have a child one day and I cannot stand the thought that this would be the world that they lived in. I also decided to, because my teachers offered a chance to help the fight against it and that is not often something that makes itself apparent so I took advantage of the opportunity.

Did you know how to go about challenging the LFL? Did someone help you?

When I was first made aware of the LFL I did not at all know how I could help to stop it until my teachers showed me and the rest of the class all the ways that we could support out cause. We wrote letters to many officials such as Julia Gillard, AFL teams, the Minister for Sport and to many organizations that promoted and condoned it such as Triple M. We also started a petition at change.org to explain to people what was going on.

Triple M: stop the promotion and support of a Lingerie Football League in Australia

The campaign’s main force is the petition that we have set up. We have also recently joined with another petition that was made because the people who made it saw our petition and decided that they wished to help. The campaign has quickly spread to many countries and is making minor appearances in a few local newspapers. Another large tool of the campaign is to simply spread the word of this so that by the time it is public knowledge it will not be too late to stop it.

How do you feel about speaking out?

I feel positive and calm about speaking out and would be perfectly happy to do it in any form. I feel that it is an honour to be able to express my opinion. I am happy that the letter I wrote to Triple M was useful for furthering the aims of our petition campaign to help stop this abomination.

What would you like to see happen with the LFL and women’s sport?

I would greatly like to see the extermination of the LFL, or at the very least for it to not come to Australia and I would greatly like to see existing women’s sport being televised a lot more and the athletes being paid and valued as much as popular sports men.

Is there any other information you would like to tell us about?

There certainly is. The players of the LFL are not paid except for when they play in an ‘All Star’ game. The players must sign a contract to join that states that they must accept any “accidental” nudity. The players will be fined $500 if they wear anything under their uniform to conceal themselves in case of “accidental” nudity. The players are not allowed to talk about their personal lives or their sexuality however, in one of the promos two of the players are kissing.

I am aware that my audience is Collective Shout, so if you are the experts that I understand that you are then I expect that the next few facts written here will all be facts that you are already aware of. However they are important facts and ones that I feel very passionate about so I will remind you of them.

Almost solely because of media, people have for the last few years been seeing women and life in general as being a very sexual thing. Because of this children are dealing with sex and watching pornography at a much younger age. It has gotten to the point where children are watching pornography while they are still at an extremely impressionable age.

Many young men have come to think that women are solely sexual beings and that they are merely on the earth for men’s enjoyment. And what’s more, many young women are starting to believe that they have to be sexual so that a man will want them and that being sexual is the only way for women to get ahead. This has happened with the media’s portrayal of women in advertising and fiction and reality shows but it hasn’t been as overtly obvious as what is now intended with the LFL …. which is such an obviously sexual role model. I fear the influence that this will have and the outcome is something that I cannot even bear to think about.

I deeply hope that what I have written here has helped you to see my point of view. Thank you for your time.

Texus Kent ( 14 year old student at the STU)

Thank you Texus! We are so pleased that you created this petition and that you and your fellow students have been bold enough to speak out. Collective Shout is a growing community of thousands and we are all encouraged when we see young people like yourself and your fellow students taking action. You have our full support.

Please sign the petition: Triple M: stop the promotion and support of a Lingerie Football League in Australia