Troubling mix of booze and rugby
As the All Blacks prepare to start their defence of the Rugby World Cup against South Africa tonight, a new study suggests female staff of pubs and clubs around the country will be on edge, because the mix of men, alcohol and big matches means trouble. Will Harvie reports.
Drunk male rugby fans are abusing female bar staff, bartenders, bar managers and sex workers on the nights of big rugby matches, according to frank new research.
These women reported being belittled, harassed, shoved, elbowed, punched, spanked, groped, sexually assaulted, and coerced into sex by fans and players, they told Victoria University criminology student Genevieve Courtney, who details their testimony in her 153-page masters thesis.
They were ‘‘treated like dirt’’ and ‘‘treated like sh..’’. They regularly faced ‘‘inappropriate comments and sexual propositions’’. Their bums were grabbed. They had to tell men, ‘‘don’t touch me that way’’.
Working the nights of big rugby matches was like ‘‘putting yourself in a dark alley at night’’. Women working faced a ‘‘pack mentality’’.
Rugby culture was ‘‘like binge drinking on steroids’’.
Courtney’s interest in rugby culture was piqued when Wellington Lions player Losi Filipo physically assaulted two of her sister’s friends in an unprovoked attack on four people at 3am in October 2015. Her thesis concludes: ‘‘New Zealand rugby culture cannot be considered a safe culture for women.’’
She says she isn’t ‘‘attempting to give rugby a bad name’’, as some have alleged. She acknowledges a ‘‘more subdued and respectful side of rugby’’ that promotes health, facilitates friendships, creates belonging, and teaches lessons such as teamwork.
She interviewed 15 women who worked in Wellington, but there’s a sense that what they report happens across the country.
In short, on nights when a big rugby game is on – whether live or on television – hordes of men descend on the central city to get roaring drunk and celebrate.
As the night progresses, and sometimes depending whether their team won or lost, some of these men abuse the female staff.
This isn’t domestic violence. It’s about fans and professional players sometimes abusing the female staff of bars, pubs and clubs.
‘‘Rugby culture is basically big groups of boys going out to get drunk,’’ said Olivia, a bar manager.
‘‘New Zealand has a huge bingedrinking culture, which I think goes hand in hand with rugby,’’ said Holly, also a bar manager.
The names of the 15 women were changed by Courtney, and their workplaces were not identified, to encourage plain speaking.
‘‘I do think rugby culture promotes and normalises excessive drinking,’’ said Katherine, a bartender.
Customers were ‘‘hugely different on rugby nights’’, said Joanna, an exotic dancer. They were ‘‘really gropey’’.
Monique said that, while violence was ‘‘not confined to rugby by any means’’, on rugby nights ‘‘it’s so much worse, it brings it out’’.
Aimee, a bar manager, had ‘‘been in the middle of multiple brawls trying to pull guys away from each other and there’s girls getting knocked about’’.
She had been ‘‘elbowed in the face a couple of times’’.
‘‘I saw a very small girl go flying because she got in the way between two blokes who decided they were going to have a punch-up. That can happen potentially anywhere,’’ said Brianna, a bartender.
‘‘I’ve been called a bitch. I’ve been called a slut, and that happens a lot with the players. I’ve actually been labelled the bitchy manager,’’ said Holly.
One co-worker asked to change places with Danielle behind the bar because a drunk man kept ‘‘commenting on the size of my boobs’’ and she ‘‘couldn’t deal with it any more’’.
Often these women workers heard ‘‘competitive boasting about sexual feats’’. ‘‘Guys boasting about who they’ve had sex with, who’s banged the most girls, who can knock a guy out, it’s those typical things that you think of, but it’s so true because I see it all the time,’’ said Monique.
‘‘Every female person who has worked at a rugby game would have experienced those inappropriate comments and been hit on,’’ said Katherine, a bartender.
And sometimes it’s a lot worse. Jessica, an exotic dancer, described a sexual encounter with a professional player in the Wellington region. The player’s name was withheld from Courtney’s research.
‘‘He was 27 and I was 17 . . . I liked him and went back to his place and had some quite forceful sex. I wouldn’t call it rape but it was definitely, well I said, ‘OK I’m tired now, let’s stop’ and he kept going. I was actually really swollen down there the next day.’’
Another time, the player drove Jessica somewhere, parked up, and ‘‘made me give him [oral sex] . . . It was coerced. I didn’t want to do it, but I didn’t say no.’’
Research to empower women
About the same time as Filipo’s attack – for which he was sentenced to nine months’ supervision and counselling – players from the Chiefs Super Rugby franchise allegedly sexually assaulted an exotic dancer named Scarlette at a players’ function.
Rugby, in combination with alcohol, seemed to have a problem, and Courtney wanted to know more.
As a feminist, she sought to ‘‘validate women’s perspectives and knowledge’’ because she considered ‘‘women’s voices are often rendered invisible’’ by New Zealand’s dominant male culture – and more so in rugby culture.
She used ‘‘feminist interviewing’’ because it ‘‘promotes building emotional connections and rapport with participants’’.
In short, she listened to what these women were saying. This had not been done before with women staff in New Zealand’s night-time economy, she said.
‘‘Really excited to see this MA thesis by the brilliant Genevieve Courtney,’’ tweeted her university supervisor, Dr Lynzi Armstrong. ‘‘Really important new research on interactions with rugby culture among women working in the NTE in NZ.’’
The 15 women Courtney recruited included three bar managers, and seven bartenders and waitresses. A further five worked in the sex industry − three as exotic dancers and two as full-service sex workers. They had worked these jobs from less than a year to more than 10 years.
She interviewed each for about an hour and analysed the results.
■ Eleven of the 15 witnessed violent behaviour involving rugby fans and players in the night-time economy.
■ Thirteen of the 15 experienced some form of violence involving alcohol and rugby.
■ Fourteen of the 15 experienced sexual violence or harassment on rugby nights.
■ Fourteen of 15 described women as ‘‘at risk, unsafe or vulnerable when interacting with rugby culture’’.
■ Twelve of 15 expressed ‘‘feeling unsafe, hyper-vigilant, or fearful of male predation’’ when working nights.
Courtney didn’t survey a representative sample of the population and draw conclusions about the whole population, which is what political pollsters attempt. Her work was more like a focus group.
‘‘Genevieve’s research is qualitative,’’ wrote Armstrong in an email. ‘‘Qualitative research is a well-recognised and respected approach to social science research. The goal is to explore the complexity of people’s individual perceptions and experiences.’’
What it lacks in breadth, it makes up for in depth. ‘‘This is my experience,’’ said bar manager Aimee.
Courtney believed her – and all 15 of her subjects.
‘‘This research cannot speak for all women,’’ she wrote, but it highlighted a ‘‘myriad of issues regarding the safety and welfare of women’’ when interacting with rugby and alcohol at night.
She also acknowledged the problem was ‘‘not all men’’. Probably a ‘‘small proportion’’ of men were abusing female staff, she said in an interview, an idea repeated in the thesis.
‘‘There will be the occasional funny chat to someone who is wasted,’’ volunteered bartender Katherine.
‘‘When they’ve been drinking, you get to know the customers better, which makes it more enjoyable,’’ said bartender Danielle.
But there was also a ‘‘code of silence’’ around male behaviour. Men who were uncomfortable with their mates’ conduct nonetheless said nothing, according to many of the 15 women.
Men in rugby culture ‘‘have each other’s backs. Like, if one of them grabs your bum, they’ll all protect each other,’’ said bar manager Olivia.
Moreover, these women worked hospitality, where the customer is always right and bar owners expect their female staff to put up with drinking men.
Pro players as role models
The women served professional rugby players, who were sometimes behaving badly.
Players think ‘‘they’re entitled to behave in a certain way and do what they want to people’’, said Grace, a bartender. ‘‘That’s not a generalisation of all rugby players, that’s just some of them.’’
‘‘I’m constantly telling [players] . . . ‘no, you can’t come behind the bar, no, you can’t harass other customers, no, you can’t be too rowdy’,’’ said bar manager Holly.
‘‘They’re rude, disrespectful, and they harass people, and I constantly have to treat them like children and tell them how to behave.’’
Courtney granted the players – and their teams, which may have been visiting – anonymity because she feared their celebrity would take away from the women’s stories. The women were her priority.
Several women noted how players served as role models when drunk in bars.
Some players ‘‘think it’s OK to treat women like sh.., and that whatever behaviour they display isn’t a problem’’, said Holly.
‘‘Fans see players misbehaving, and do the same . . . they get rowdy, inappropriate, and don’t listen to staff or security.’’
She said her bosses wanted players in their bars. ‘‘They’re good for business. The [bosses] love that the fans come in when the players are in, and that they bring us extra money.’’
Sex workers had a harder time. Clients were ‘‘rougher’’ on rugby nights, said Rose, a fullservice sex worker.
‘‘I never have issues unless there’s a rugby game on,’’ said Jane, an exotic dancer. ‘‘On game nights, customers are more aggressive and will spank you, trip you up, and sh.. like that.
‘‘It’s not just because we’re in the sex industry and they think it’s OK to treat us like that.
‘‘It’s because we’re women and they think it’s OK to treat any women like that.’’
Fans outside rugby’s remit
Drunk rugby fans are ‘‘probably outside of our remit’’, said Nicki Nicol, New Zealand Rugby’s chief operating officer and the manager responsible for implementing the Respect and Responsibility Review (RRR). Published in 2017, it was sparked by reports of poor player behaviour off the field.
‘‘We don’t condone violence towards women,’’ Nicol said. ‘‘We work really hard to try to create . . . more welcoming environments.
‘‘We want our fans and members of the public to behave in respectful ways, but that’s a little bit further outside of our immediate remit.
‘‘Our ability to influence that is more removed and is a wider work in progress.’’
Her focus was the off-field behaviour of the roughly 500 players in the NZR’s programmes.
These days, they get education on domestic violence, alcohol, drugs, porn and the like, usually starting in their teens.
Fans not so much.
‘‘We can only start with what we can control,’’ Nicol said.
The 166-page RRR, which pointed out widespread problems within rugby, contains the word ‘‘player’’ more than 500 times and the word ‘‘fan’’ fewer than 30.
With players, ‘‘we’re making progress, but we’ve some ways to go’’, she said.
After that, she spoke of a pebblein-a-pond ripple effect that could permeate into the wider community.
‘‘Masculinity,’’ for example, ‘‘is something we need to change across New Zealand – in some pockets. Again, there are many wonderful men in our society who this isn’t an issue for.’’
‘‘The sad reality in our culture is that gendered violence is often normalised,’’ said Rob McCann, manager of White Ribbon, which campaigns against violence towards women. ‘‘I love nothing more than watching the All Blacks, but working in violence prevention, I get to see the unhealthy attitudes that are a part of being a man in New Zealand.’’
Courtney’s thesis highlighted that men are still trapped in the ‘‘man box’’, where they feel they need to act tough, be unfeeling, have sex with women rather than having relationships and are afraid to show a range of emotions, McCann said.
In rugby culture, that can be men allowing ‘‘themselves to become pigs and treat women like absolute sh..’’, said Jessica.