As the face of football in Australia, it’s no surprise to hear SBS sports presenter Lucy Zelic has been on the receiving end of brutal online abuse. When mixing fanatical sport fans with online anonymity, it often can bring out the worst.
But the seasoned professional was horrified when an anonymous coward commented on an image of her `Burn you fucking witch and your child too’.
As the affable and passionate sports presenter outlined in a confronting column (We Need To Talk About Trolling) in the April issue of marie claire, the incident sparked an ‘irrepressible rage’ in her and sent her on a mission to find out the identities of these trolls. What she found out shocked her to her core, and her passionate response was the reason we asked her to be a guest on our inspiring podcast ‘Finding Fearless with marie claire‘.
“When you say the word trolls you think they are degenerates so I wanted to find ‘who are these people?’,” Lucy explains in the latest episode of Finding Fearless with marie claire podcast. “It makes my skin crawl when I start to talk about this but I’ll tell you they are: they’re nurses calling me a slut, they’re mothers telling me that I’m a disgusting c*nt; they’re fathers of daughters and young kids telling me I’m just a pair of tits and I should just put myself out onto the street as a prostitute; they’re uni lecturers calling me a whore. These are people we go to work with, people we run into at the supermarket; they’re everyday people.”
For Lucy, who had previously been in the spotlight for online abuse after sports fans complained about her pronunciation of names during the the 2018 World Cup broadcast, this was heartbreaking news. (And to see what the definition of #BestWorkHusband ever looks like, see the impassioned response from her colleague Craig Foster who rose to address the madness)
For the big-hearted, generous Zelic this was a shocking finding, and she realised we need a different way to deal with online abusers by shining a spotlight on their socially irresponsible behaviour. And at a time of social isolation where online behaviour will be more under the spotlight than ever, her #BeAccountable campaign could not be more timely.
“I’ve tried everything with these people,” she explains in the podcast. “I’ve tried engaging and conversing with them; I’ve tried to be a jokey smart-arse; I’ve tried ignoring. I’ve tried it all and I’m telling you it doesn’t work. We need to tackle it head on.”
You want to hear what passion sounds like then listen now to hear Lucy’s amazing campaign to reform the online space which aims to includes politicians, corporates, high-profile broadcasters and everyday people. Hit play on the podcast above (or listen on the podcast platform of your preference), and find out how you can jump onboard.
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