‘Made money from violence against women’: Women’s groups demand AFL ditch Snoop Dogg at grand final

Groups fighting to end violence against women are demanding the AFL scrap Snoop Dogg as the main act at next month’s grand final pre-game show.

The rapper’s history of using misogynistic and sexually demeaning lyrics, and the fact he has discussed his past work as a pimp, make him a “dangerous” choice of performer on a weekend when violence against women spikes by up to 40 per cent, they say.

Respect Victoria chair Kate Fitz-Gibbon, who was instrumental in the creation of Australia’s National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children, described the AFL’s choice of Snoop Dogg as a “grave mistake” given his “public history of boasting about violence against women”.

“It is unfathomable that the AFL would deem this artist [as] an appropriate choice for its flagship event,” Fitz-Gibbon said.

“Sport has enormous power to influence culture. By elevating an artist with a track record of degrading women, the AFL risks sending the message that misogyny is entertainment.”

She said it was especially ill-considered since five women had been killed in Victoria, allegedly by men they knew, in the past month.

Women’s safety groups (including the state-funded violence prevention agency Respect Victoria, Safe and Equal – formerly Domestic Violence Victoria – Gender Equity Victoria, Sexual Assault Services Victoria and Women’s Health in the South East) have released a joint statement saying hosting an artist who “has openly talked about and made money from violence against women” represents a failure by the AFL.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said on Thursday that Snoop Dogg would bring a new audience to AFL football and would sing family-friendly versions of his songs in his pre-show performance at the MCG.

Dillon described the rapper, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr, as culturally relevant after performances at the Paris Olympics and the American Super Bowl. The AFL was contacted for comment on Friday’s statement from the women’s safety organisations.

Cara Gleeson, acting chief executive of Our Watch, said: “Strong evidence shows that attitudes that condone or excuse violence against women result in higher rates of actual violence against women. Grand finals are some the most watched events in Australia and provide an important opportunity to promote a culture of respect and equality, both on and off the field.

“Sport has the power to lead cultural change. That includes setting a standard for respect for women and zero tolerance of attitudes that condone violence.”

Our Watch chief executive Patty Kinnersly, a former football player and the vice-president of Carlton Football Club, said on an AFL podcast in May that football needed “to work to engage men” in the conversation about ending violence against women.

Snoop Dogg has said in several interviews since about 2013 that he has changed his attitudes to women, and has discussed how artists Dionne Warwick and Pharrell Williams raised these issues with him.

In the same interviews, he has said he does not regret his past lyrics regarding women.

Before Snoop Dogg changed his ways, words in his back-catalogue tracks, including 2004’s Can U Control Yo Hoe, were criticised as harmful to women.

It included lyrics such as: “You got a bitch that won’t do what you say … she hardheaded, she just won’t obey … You’ve got to put that bitch in her place / Even if it’s slapping her in her face.”

Oprah Winfrey declared Snoop Dogg “a misogynist” in the late 2000s because of such lyrics.

His past treatment of women also attracted criticism after a 2013 Rolling Stone interview in which he discussed the pimping operation he has said he ran for two years, before changing his ways.

Though he said he had evolved as an artist and distanced himself from earlier attitudes, he told the magazine: “I did a Playboy tour, and I had a bus follow me with ten bitches on it. I could fire a bitch, f--- a bitch, get a new ho: It was my program … A lot of athletes bought pussy from me.”

Regarding his policy of allowing the women to keep their income, he was quoted as saying: “I mean, shit, I’d choke her, slap her around, make a motherf---in’ show of it, but at the end of the day, the bitch earned that money f---kin’, all them ball players I sold her to. I ain’t no monster.”

He told Sky News in 2013 his attitude to women had shifted: “I am more sensitive and more vulnerable writing-wise and accepting a woman for being a beautiful person, as opposed to me saying she is a bitch or a whore because that was how I was trained when I first started, so I have no regrets.”

In more recent years, Snoop Dogg came out in support of the US women’s soccer team players being given equal pay to the US men’s team and starred in a cooking series with American home-making star Martha Stewart.

Fitz-Gibbon, who found the 2013 comments on the Australian music website Music Feeds, said that despite Snoop Dogg’s stated move away from sexist attitudes in his music, “platforming a performer with a public history of boasting about violence against women directly undermines the AFL’s own commendable work in recent years to support violence prevention initiatives”.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service (1800RESPECT) on 1800 737 732.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.