harmless fun? stripper pole joke leads to online rape threats for critics

In a move labelled controversial by many commentators, earlier this week popular breakfast television host David Koch gave his co-host Samantha Armytage a stripper pole.

The gift was a joke in reference to Armytage’s comment she made earlier in the show about her new shoes. Armytage reportedly made an off hand remark about her shoes along the lines of ‘Have you seen my new stripper heels?’

The joke was then carried throughout the segment where colleague Kochie later came out on set with the pole, so he could present it to Armytage whilst Joe Cocker’s famous stripper song ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ played in the background. For a full account, watch the footage here.

Whilst Armytage herself seemed to play along with the skit, it was clear that her’s was a reaction of genuine surprise for the live television segment (which was only played online). Whilst the executive producer has labelled the stunt as ‘all in a bit of fun’ and Armytage tweeted that she did not take offence to the stunt, others have criticised such an act as being sexist and demeaning.

Mamamia editor in chief, Jamila Rizvi criticised the skit, stating ‘Samantha Armytage is a journalist, not a piece of eye candy there for the titillation of Kochie, the crew or the viewers’.

Kochie hit back at Mamamia’s claims, stating that Ms Rizvi was a ‘classic political spin doctor’ given her history of working for former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and Labor member Kate Ellis.

Armytage also responded by saying ‘Can I step in here and say at no point was I humiliated.’ She also stated that ‘I don’t like this part of the sisterhood that insists on running down men to be a feminist. I like the men I work with. I respect the men I work with. I won’t do it and I won’t be a part of it.’

Leaving aside the questionable debate within these comments as to what it means to be a feminist, Rizvi’s article did raise an important question about whether women are meant to ‘take a joke’ in a workplace and how far that line needs to be stretched before standards of inappropriate behaviour are reached. Whilst this may not have been the case for Armytage in this incident, the public outcry against Rizvi would suggest that socially there is still this expectation on women.

However, perhaps most disturbingly is the online response given to Mamamia. Within hours of Sunrise’s response, Rizvi and her publisher, Mia Freedman were being harassed by violent threats on Twitter and Freedman’s Facebook page. In a statement Freedman said that both her and Rizvi had received rape and death threats.

In my opinion, this is where the true issue lies. What started out as a ‘harmless’ joke between two media personalities, has led to the all to familiar result of women being threatened online with rape and death. As one Fairfax reader commented: ‘Are we missing the point here? This woman got rape and death threats for expressing an opinion. I wonder who many rape threats Kochie got… I would hazard a guess and say zero.’

Regardless of how one feels about the incident on Sunrise, there can be no denying the increasingly accepted levels of harassment against women online as part of social discourse. As Michael Lallo states that whilst the original catalyst generated much discussion about what constitutes appropriate behaviour, ‘Precious little of this was expended upon the resulting threats of rape and death. Such threats might be increasingly common – against women, at least – but we don’t have to accept them.’

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