Channel Seven personality and Olympic swimmer Stephanie rice has apologised for a comment she made on her Twitter feed which has been branded as homophobic.
After the Wallabies’ win over the Springboks in South Africa on Saturday night, Ricetweeted; “Suck on that f**gots”, adding; “Probs the best game I’ve ever seen!! Well done boys.”
Rice has since removed the comment and apologised.
“I made a comment on Twitter last night in the excitement of the moment,” she told news.com.au.
“I did not mean to cause offence and I apologise. I have deleted it from the site.”
Former NRL player, openly gay Ian Roberts slammed her actions.
“She is an idiot and anyone who continues to endorse her as an athlete is an idiot as well,” he said.
“And I say that with a very sad tone in my voice. What a fool.”
Rice was signed by Seven following the Beijing Olympics for a reported $700,000, but so far her on-air appearances have included a 90 second appearance in Make Me a Supermodel, plus a guest appearance on Better Homes and Gardens.
Source: news.com.au
Reports are that Jaguar has now dropped her as their ambassador…
You would think someone in the public spotlight would be a bit more media savvy. If you’re a celebrity and using Twitter or any other social media, you really should be thinking “Can this be taken the wrong way?”, “Could this be offensive?” or “Could this end up on the front page of the Daily Telegraph” before posting something.
@SomeoneBBBA
If you’re not gay then this isn’t about you. Period. Who are you to say how gays should feel in response to anti-gay slurs?
It’s not about grammatical nuances either. She tweeted a word that historically was used to ostracise and ridicule a group of people for being who they inherently are. When gays use the term, they do so as a means to ‘reclaim’ the word, to take ownership of it, just like African Americans do with the N word.
You should really check your privilege before commenting on issues like this.
Rice is finding out that high school comments don’t get the same response as they do in the real world.
Wow, this is just sad. I would have hoped that by 2010 we would have gotten over this nonsensical idea that words can somehow be inherently offensive. Alas, it seems as though every time a word becomes more acceptable to use, another word is forced to take it’s place as a new taboo. It’s pathetic. The meaning of a word is assigned to it by the person who uses it. The person interpreting the word can either choose to interpret it as it was intended, or they can refuse to do so and carry on like a petulant child who is incapable of understanding grammatical nuance.
i simply replace the term ‘faggot’ with ‘hetero’ to get me through my day.
@koverstreet – you’re talking bollocks again. Homosexuals as a group were not burnt at the stake in the middle ages. The correct etymology is that the term “fa**ot” was first perjoratively applied to old women and later, like other female words such as “queen” and “nancy”, was then applied to men who were considered to be effeminate (who may or may not have been homosexual).
That said, Rice was wrong to use that word in that sense publicly, and is no doubt rightly feeling the heat of people’s outrage. Hopefully she’ll learn to think before she types/speaks in future, essential skills for someone who is presumably looking at a career in TV.
In response to some comments:
I agree that it’s really ok if you use the word non-offensively. But the thing is, it’s quite hard to use the word non-offensively. Most of the time, (young) people use the word with their friends as a name-calling thing: “Ben you’re such an idiot, stop being a fa**ot”. That’s probably not something that would sit well with me, but there is one thing coming out of a situation like that, that I agree with. And that is the word starts to become used in contexts that aren’t referring to gays, and possibly the word would become less and less offensive. But in this day and age, people still use the word to be hurtful towards gays, so that’s the reason why we shouldn’t use that word in any context. Because it is hurtful (it can be hurtful).
Here’s a little story from my childhood:
Two grade 2 girls were crossing the road while I was walking home from school (I was in year 7). One girl made it across the road first, and screamed at the other girl: “Hurry up you fa**ot, you’re so slow!”
I’m still undecided about what I feel about that incident. I also feel the four-letter C word is also offensive. It’s used amongst men who call their mates a ‘vagina’ as an insult… Which basically says it’s demeaning to be a “vagina” or have a vagina. I.e. to be a woman.
That’s my interpretation as a young person. Oh a side note, I’m not that offended by people using the word gay instead of stupid, because they’re not offending me in the process. However, overusing it doesn’t sit well with me. Anyway, this story’s getting old… I’m gonna move on!
Celebrating a win should never be about the slagging of the loser. Really poor form from a supposed sport star.
email Devonport and complain as i did
customerservice @ davenportunderwear.com.au
Ian Roberts takes offence and then proceeds to call her an ‘idiot’ and a ‘fool’. Hmmmm. Anyway, the f word is quite generic today with most people not using it to describe anyone a homosexual.
Revenge is sweet – Do not buy anything she is paid to endorse.
eg: Davenport.
The suppression of words give them power.
@ steve lol can’t see that happening
@ kfed – well that makes the whole “excitement of the moment” excuse a pile of crap if she mocked those who took offense to her hateful comments.
Yep she’s officially an idiot. And what a load bull saying in the heat of the moment. If you use it off the cuff like that, it’s clear you use the word quite often in everyday life. I’m not surprised though, she seems to behave like a 12 year old schoolgirl. Wouldn’t say she’s homophobic, just a stupid ignorant little girl. Grow up Steph.
Whatever, slow news day, Next!
Dear People! Surely some of you are missing the point.
It doesn’t matter if some folks take offence and some don’t. It’s that Any folks do.
When you are in the public eye (and unfortunately that includes so-called sports stars – a group not reknown for their intellect) you have to screen everything you say or write because like it or not you are a role model. Countless children reading Rice’s blog will now feel justified in using the word and thus the bar is further lowered. Do we really want a world where one day the ABC TV newsreader says ” Good evening fa@@0ts, here’s the f#@*ing news. In f#@*ing Canberra today a bunch of c$%ts debated increasing GST again…. ”
You’ve got to draw the line somewhere surely?
Young people use “that word” (!) all the time but never as any kind of nasty putdown of homosexuals. I don’t believe that Rice had any homophobic intention whatsoever and the friends she tweeted would have understood that perfectly.
Anthony….very wise words from a teen.
Anybody who read the tweets before Stephanie took them down will know the “heat of the moment” lasted quite a lot longer than a moment. She not only did a few “hahahaha”s about people’s responses, she also retweeted people’s support for her having written it, and wrote “Too right!”
@Ian It is hard to unread things. I didn’t realise following Stephanie meant I would be subjected to biggoted tweets. And you’re right, “homophobic” isn’t the right word. Anti-gay, hateful and ignorant are better. She not only implied that being gay was a negative, she also used a highly derogatory term to do it.
@Paull So people in Australia who are belittled and abused should just be thankful they aren’t murdered? Wow, how good of you.
I also don’t like the fact that it rhymes with maggot… It’s hard to pronounce the word without using a bit aggression in your tone.
As a gay teen, I do find it offensive. That six-letter F word has been used to ridicule homosexuals and was used to offend. I don’t even use that word amongst other gays. Some of us want to take ownership of that word and to lessen it’s offensiveness, but we also want to change what context it can/be used for.
If that word was used in a joke that didn’t anyway use the word’s link to gays as part of the joke and it wasn’t offensive, then I am ok with that. But Stephanie Rice used it as a substitute for words like losers and morons, as someone pointed out. The word “suck” makes it worse!
I’m gay and I’m not offended by the term ‘fa**ot’. I was actually eating at an English restaurant not so long ago with my partner and fa**ots were on the menu, and it was quite amusing watching the waiter describing them to us! I think he knew we were a couple and he felt more than a little uncomfortable telling us what they were.
Anyway, I use the word ‘c**t’ sometimes so it goes both ways.
Anyone who thinks this isn’t a common choice of words is kidding themselves. As a gay guy I take no offense to this at all…it’s simply too common and proves nothing of her being homophobic. Ian Roberts needs to get back in his box (so to speak
)
I really don’t think it was a swipe at the gay community. I’ve heard many teenagers and people in their early 20′s using exceedingly coarse language to describe their own best friends. It seems to be part of the vernacular these days for some people of that age.
That said, there’s just some words you should avoid like the plague when saying/writing anything for public consumption. And that’s one of them. No excuse for it really and I definitely think she should suffer some detriment because of it.
Really really disappointing. What mature person even has that word in their vocabulary ready to pull out?
@Paull her using that word shows that she has no respect for the gay community and associates losing with being gay.
She was not using the word to describe the collection of firewood.
She could have written, “Suck on that losers” or “Suck on the morons” but she didn’t. Even if she didn’t mean to cause offense, she did.
@ian – she didn’t use the word ‘homosexual’, she opted for an incredibly offensive word
I think it’s poor that, “in the excitement of the moment” Stephanie choses to use ‘fa**ot’. Out of all the words in her vocabulary, she went with that one. She should be ashamed.
So she called them a bundle of sticks….
To PAull..Reading lots of books like Lord of the Rings doesn’t make you an intelligent person . Free speach doesn’t mean you have the right to abuse or make generalised derogatory remarks about groups of people you don’t like.When you “publish “these remarks via twitter they are no longer a private conversation.
t70 years ago.
I was wondering if Paull thinks it ok to use the “N” word to describe your disgust at a certain group of people?
Hope all gay people boycott Davenport.If she made this comment in the US she would be out of a job immediately.There would be lots of protests from the gay community.I have already complained about her to Davenport
@ paull – the f word is a bunch of sticks/wood and that’s how it originated as a derogatory word for homosexuals when they were burned at the stake in the middle ages.
At least it wasn’t about kookaburas in an old copyrighted song.
If anything I think that Ian Roberts is a fool. We all have tikes where we are made fun of/ offended, but that does not mean that the person making the offensive remake has committed anything unforgivable!
Besides, if the word bleeped out up there is what I think it is, then I think anyone who thinks that word specifically is owned by the gay community is an idiot! I was reading Lord of the Rings recently and that ‘word’ was used often in reference to wood being collected for a fire.
Ian Roberts and the rest of the gay community that were offended by that remark need to live in a country where being part of a certain minority can actually get you killed!
The word was not said to incite hate, nor was it a deliberate swipe at gay people.
What’s the big deal? So she implies that the losing team are homosexuals – this does not indicate any form of homophobia on her part, it just means that she thinks they may not appreciate being called homosexuals.
Sure, it may suggest that she believes homosexuals are not as good at playing rugby as heterosexuals, but so what. Not everyone has to like homosexuals. If you found her comments offensive, toughen up.
Admittedly it wasn’t the smartest thing to tweet, but then again, if you don’t like it, don’t read it.
we now await her predictable comments like “i wouldn’t offend any gays as I have so many gay friends and they are such the best friends”
What’s all the fuss about?
Now she has all the qualifications required to achieve “star” status on any of the commercial stations. And maybe to co-host a ‘punked’ type show with that other mental giant, the chk-chk girl.
I’ve never warmed to this woman and now I know why. She should stick to swimming, I have always found her very underwhelming as a public figure. It will take ages for her to live this one down. I don’t really get Twitter. I don’t understand the brain numbingly banal nature of it. It has always struck me as a supremely narcissistic way to communicate.
I agree with Ian Roberts that was an idiotic thing to post/tweet and “excitement of the moment” is no excuse.
With that $700,000 contract she’s also been a guest co-host on The Morning Show
She’s young and talented…she’ll get away with it
I am deeply offended that these words are in her vocabulary,to describe her negative feelings about someone or something. Ian Roberts is so right..she is an idiot and Davenport should dump her..If she used the “N” word, the same reaction would apply.
typical sportsperson with a sub par IQ (only the F1 drivers seem to be intelligent types). Ya know Im gen Y, late gen Y..i just dont get why my contemporaries seem to think they they can write crap like that and it wont get them into trouble.
What a complete idiot! Is she so stupid that she thought publishing that comment on Twitter wouldn’t cause an uproar? Is her use of the word f@ggot in her day-to-day vocabulary that common?
Matthew Mitcham should lay the smack-down on Rice (via Twitter of course).
So, it’s okay to make offensive slurs at oppressed minority groups when one is excited?
She deserves the same criticism and condemnation that Andrew Johns got.
Just a comment made in the “excitement of the moment”…in other words, the type of comment I often make before my management team can apply a filter. From hero to zero in four easy words!
Im not sure what is more offensive – her comments or the fact that she is paid $700,000 a year by Seven to do nothing !!!
As Ian Roberts said “Idiot” – both her and Seven
She does a better job when her head’s in the water, not out. Bogan.
I’m sure it has been said before, but Twitter and tweets brings out the Twit in some people! When are people going to get the viral nature of posting such a stream of consciousness? Silly girl.
Ian Roberts needs to get over himself.
ian roberts is correct. she is an idiot and i have no repsect for her now. to say she made the comment in the excitment of the moment is a copout. if she had of used the N word inside of the F word it would be taken a lot further. what a (sounds like ) s***t. oh sorry i said that in the excitment of reading this article stephanie.
Idiot! Never have liked her!
wow, she can go f*** herself then… “in the heat of the moment….” whatever
I wonder will this be enough for Seven to give her her own show?