Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Author and podcaster Dee Salmin has announced her decision to boycott the Brownlow Medal this year as she questions the culture around women in the AFL.
The outspoken feminist and partner of Collingwood captain Darcy Moore made the declaration on her SubStack, advising those expecting her presence that she has “decided not to go” due to a dissonance between her values and the league’s.
“I’ve spent the past few weeks thinking about the important conversations we’re having about women and the culture surrounding AFL, and I’ve realised I can’t keep encouraging other people to interrogate the systems they participate in, without being willing to interrogate them myself,” Salmin wrote.
“I haven’t made this decision thinking my absence will be noticed, or a big deal, but as someone who believes in leading with your values, I just don’t feel comfortable being at an event that doesn’t align with mine.”
The call to skip the awards comes a fortnight after a handful of Sydney Swans players became the subject of a police investigation following an alleged incident involving drugs and exotic dancers at Melbourne’s the Pullman Hotel.
The five players — Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice, and James Jordon — were swiftly stood down by the club and will not feature in the AFL finals series.
No player has been arrested or charged and this masthead is not suggesting any of the five suspended players have committed sexual assault or any criminal wrongdoing.
As host of Triple J’s The Hook Up, Salmin regularly discusses issues on love, sex and relationships where she dissects trends and societal norms.
She suggested there needed to be major change in the AFL’s attitude towards women.
“Of course, there are people within the sport who I love and respect (my partner being one of them), but that doesn’t mean the entire culture is above criticism,” she said.
“I think when it comes to the AFL’s attitude towards women and gender-based violence, there needs to be some serious change.”
Salmin has become a regular at the Brownlow Medal in recent years — the AFL’s award for the season’s best and fairest player — as the partner of the Collingwood captain.
However, she suggested her and Moore have vastly different experiences leading up to the night, this year held on September 21, with her DMs usually flooded with enquiries asking: “What are you wearing?!”
“Stylists, MUA, hairdressers, designers, content creators, photographers, tanning salons, hotels etc all reach out in the lead up to September,” Salmin said.
The radio presenter admitted she has historically enjoyed answering such queries, and despite her decision to skip the count this year, will miss the occasion.
“The Brownlow red carpet has become one of the occasions in my life where I get to properly play with fashion, talk about some of my favourite artists, designers and the art of upcycling,” Salmin added.
The pair met through mutual friends in 2023.
Salmin claims there were “green flags” exhibited on their first date which foreshadowed how she would be treated by him in a relationship.
“I think one of the biggest green flags about him was that some of the conversations we had on our first date — that I really like about him and was intrigued by, (such as) the way he spoke about his sisters and his mum and family, and the things he loved and was passionate about with reading and music — that was all true . . . he was exactly the type of man with integrity that everyone says he was,” she told STM earlier this year.
In her podcast series The No Chill Girl, as well as in her debut book, Salmin documented her shedding of a cool girl persona portrayed in her teens and early 20s.
As voiced in the part-memoir, part-manifesto: It’s Not Love, Actually, the feminism advocate outlined how her perspective towards society and relationship dynamics had evolved.
“I took up space and voiced my opinions, I spoke at length about things that made men uncomfortable . . . I was loud. I said no and set boundaries. I told men when they disappointed me. And was honest about who I was and what I wanted,” she wrote.
“I got called ‘too much’, ‘abrasive’, ‘crazy’, ‘difficult’, and ‘high-maintenance’, but ironically, everything I was so scared of being called in the past ended up being what I loved most about myself.”
