The Rise and Fall of Rice

Did Stephanie Rice deserve the dump?

Well, yes, I’m sorry to be the big bad wolf, but unfortunately I support Jaguars decision to dump Stephanie Rice; if I was the one making the decision there I would have done the same thing.
This was not caught on a mobile phone, nor was it on a live feed where she was heard saying it and could not be rectified. She got on the internet, logged into her twitter account, typed it, and then posted it. Four separate actions that lead to the fatal outcome of her being dropped.
There was plenty of time for that little part of the brain, known as the frontal lobe which controls your filter system, to kick in, and it didn’t.
Although I firmly believe that she intended no offence to anyone (except of course the South African team and probably all of their supporters), the exact wording of her rants could not have been more poorly chosen. “Suck on that faggots!” You even feel like you are doing the wrong thing when you type it out quoting her. Not only did she make the mistake of using the known derogatory “F Bomb”, she had to lead up to it with a sexual connation of “suck on it”. That was totally inappropriate and was left open to the world to interpret.
She has now given herself a reputation as a homophobe, which I think is sad, as she has homosexual friends. Her Olympics teammate, gay diver, Matthew Mitchum defended her saying: “She meant no malice. It was offensive and very thoughtless, but being friends with her for two years, I know she is not homophobic."
Perhaps a better word to describe her would be ‘Redneck’, or maybe just young, naïve, stupid, inconsiderate, foolish, selfish…hmmm, none of which I imagine Jaguar would have in their description of who they would like representing their super elite car company.
Jaguar’s market would have a high level of male clientele, high end, with money, and with that, comes a higher percentage of homosexual men. By keeping her on as a representative of the company, it would be seen by many that they are in support of her behaviour, and possibly hold the same feelings or thoughts as her, not a clever business decision.
She was chosen for her role as a good looking, up and coming athlete from Australia who had a good, clean and positive image. That was torn down in a moment yes, but she did it. It was her choice. This is not a case of someone else to blame.
I wish Stephanie Rice all the best in future sporting endeavours and truly hope that she finds endorsements through someone else who is more appropriate for her age and style and hopefully she has learnt from her mistakes and keeps her juvenile comments to herself.
The story of Stephanie Rice is the perfect example of how today’s electronic world of communications, although fascinating, fun and …empowering, can take a turn for the worse and get a life of its own. Once it’s on the net, it’s on the net!