Why Is Everyone Ignoring My Black Eye?
Is ‘professionalism’ more important than discouraging gender-based violence?
Okay, so I play rugby.
In the 15 years that I’ve played, I had somehow always miraculously avoided getting a black eye. But hey, presto, last match, I finally got one. A pretty decent and visible one (although admittedly not the best one I’ve ever seen).
In any case, I was quite excited about it: I’d be able to boast about playing female rugby — a sport I love and wish more people knew about or played. A sport that even people like me — a 39-year-old mother of two, and a successful, respected career woman — can play.
The timing was “ideal,” so to speak, for it to be a conversation starter. It happened two days before the start of the new school term, just as everyone was coming back to work from holidays.
But… it simply didn’t happen.
Everyone just ignored it.
As I dropped the kids off at school, I met countless other mums and dads who I know well, more or less. Everyone said hello, some chatted (“Did you have a nice holiday?” “Which class are your kids in?” “Are they still doing the same after-school activities?”). Everyone looked at my eye — rather awkwardly, too — but not one person asked about it.
