Did you hear about the very dodgy Aussie article about Katie Taylor and Ireland
While we have all been enjoying Katie Taylor’s Olympic success, some of the foreign press have been resorting to some fairly hoary old stereotypes.
What’s this, people disrespecting our (hopefully) Golden Girl?
Well they haven’t been disrespecting Katie so much as all of us to be honest?
Tell me more…
Well Melbourne paper The Age produced a piece on Katie by Peter Hanlon that dropped more stereotypes than that Family Guy episode where Peter looks at his Irish heritage.
At least that was funny, what did Hanlon say?
Under the headline ‘Punch drunk: Ireland intoxicated as Taylor swings towards victory boxing gold’ Hanlon’s piece originally said things like “For centuries, Guinness and whiskey have sent the Irish off their heads. Now all it takes is a petite 26-year-old from Wicklow” and “Taylor is not what you’d expect in a fighting Irishwoman, nor is she surrounded by people who’d prefer a punch to a potato.”
Sheesh, that’s pretty bad.
It is. The piece, which also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Brisbane Times, has since been amended and our Ambassador over there has put down the Ferrero Rocher to have a word too.
What did they say?
Well, Noel White, our man in Oz, said that the piece was simply ‘lazy stereotyping’ and that the piece was ‘beneath the standard expected’.
Very diplomatic language. Unsurprisngly. Did it work?
Yep, the piece has been changed, check it here, and the writer has apologised saying: “I am deeply sorry. I can only apologise and say that I abhor racism,” he’s quoted as saying in the Irish Post paper.
Well hopefully it won’t happen again..
Hold on, you know the lads in the States weren’t much better?
What did they say?
Well USA Today had a piece this morning that began like this: ‘Back home on the emerald-green isle, pints of Guinness flowed freely, perhaps enough to replenish the Irish Sea. The “punters” inside betting parlors wagered pounds as if they were bits of candy.’
Seriously?
Yep. They followed it up with ‘It is not hyperbole to suggest that, when Taylor entered the ring, the weight of a prideful, scuffling nation rested on her muscular shoulders.’
Good Lord, any issues over there yet?
Nope the piece, as you can see, is still live on their site.
Hopefully they have gotten all of the clichés out of their system before the next fight.
We hope so but we wouldn’t bet on it either…
