Women have changed. Why are men struggling to keep up?

August 25, 2026 — 3:30pm

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I’m at the markets and a couple we’ve known for ages are desperate to talk Sydney Swans. As is just about everyone we meet.

He speculates, and I paraphrase: Sex work/adult entertainment are dangerous jobs, and she didn’t manage her risk appropriately. She says: They should all be chemically castrated. And this, my friends, is where we are at. In 2026. While no charges have been laid and the police are still investigating, the bloke is claiming it’s the responsibility of the women at the centre of the case. The woman recognises who is really at fault.

I talk endlessly to friends, to family. And men keep telling me they were saved from “dickhead” values by their bolshie partners. This, of course, puts the responsibility on women again.

There were no women present, as far as I can see, at a Tigers’ Mad Monday celebration at the Garfield Hotel in Gippsland, where several Richmond players were drinking and striking one another with belts. Young midfielder Josh Smillie pulls down his pants and feigns shock as he’s belted on the backside by a teammate. After the fourth slap he reacts differently, maybe a recreation of allegations that the adult entertainer wasn’t too pleased she’d been asked to do more than she’d been paid for. I’d love to see how these blokes would act if that happened to them. Mind you, it’s clear some footy players appear to do much less than they’ve been paid for.

Let me say this, I’ve had a few happy successes in my life. But not once, in the wake of these events, did I ever hire an adult entertainer to celebrate with me. I didn’t stay up all........

© The Sydney Morning Herald