The Todd Carney “bubbling” social media scandal

ABSTRACT

In June 2014, Australian rugby league player Todd Carney had his contract cancelled with the Cronulla Sharks and received a lifetime ban from the National Rugby League after a photo in which he appears to drink his own urine in a public restroom went viral on social media. This article performs a critical analysis of the image at the centre of the Todd Carney bubbling scandal, as well as discourse surrounding it—on two contrasting forums, SharksForever and JustUsBoys. The analysis uncovers various insights into this particular image and the unspoken codes and unseen homoerotic rituals and bonding boy cultures of Australian team sportsmen and their “mates.” The argument is made that the image itself, along with its widespread publication on social media and construction through discourse, points to the limits of “proper” masculinity and, ultimately, perversion of the expectations placed on league males as heterosexual hero icons.

Notes

¹ In Australia, rugby league is the more popular variant of rugby, compared with rugby union, which predates league and is generally the more popular sport elsewhere in the world. In addition to key variations in rules, such as that in league the ball is not contested following a tackle, league is also generally more of a contact sport than union.

² It is worth noting the context of Carney’s dismissal, which in addition to other earlier off-field incidents, also included his club’s desperate need at the time to attract major sponsors—following the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority’s (ASADA’s) probe into the club—and how this context may have been a contributing factor in Carney’s swift removal (see Horne, 2014).

³ For an introduction to the culture of sport in the Australian context, see McKay, 1991.

⁴ For a summary of the significance of Lumby’s reading, see McKee, 2003, pp. 141–145.

⁵ http://www.sharksforever.com/forums/showthread.php?92922-Todd-Carney. The thread has accrued 6,342 comments as of 8 October 2015.

⁶ http://www.justusboys.com/forum/threads/424593-A-new-fad-from-Aussie-Land

⁷ http://www.justusboys.com/forum/threads/424594-Todd-Carney-pissing-into-his-own-mouth-!!!

⁸ Suggestion that urolangia is potentially deviant invites connection with concepts similarly categorised, such as the abject (see Kristeva, 1982).

⁹ Statement to Nine News 30 June 2014. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/Tmaxy0wpfmI

¹⁰ I acknowledge here that Butler’s and Johnson’s reading styles are not wholly congruent, and that there is a risk of evacuating the determinacy of context by pointing to multiple contextual possibilities of the image. However, these readings also serve as evidence of the polysemous nature of signs, while distinguishing the image’s homoerotic significations as more readily realised, as evidenced by viewer discourse I draw on to support my own reading. (My recent discussion of Duchamp’s Fountain in the context of homoerotic fan art is further illustration of the multiple readings made possible by the artist’s work; see Brennan, 2016.)

¹¹ ‘A form of critically investigative social history which is primarily concerned with redressing the ignorance of social structuring within narrative and descriptive historical methods. (Hutchins & Mikosza, 1998, p. 247).

¹² See Miller (1998), who problematises the hegemonic masculinity thesis in the context of gay athletes and the commodification of male beauty.

¹³ Speaking with Fox Sports, 29 June 2014. Retrieved from http://video.news.com.au/v/225027/Paul-Kent-on-Carney-sacking

¹⁴ For an example of such comments, view Hindmarsh’s interview with Fox Sports, 30 June 2014. Retrieved from http://www.couriermail.com.au/video/id-F5OGtpbjoC0CYMPwNFl8YVYUxc1sQOoN/Hindmarsh-on-Todd-Carney-Blake-Ferguson

¹⁵ Speaking with Fox Sports, 30 June 2014. Retrieved from http://www.couriermail.com.au/video/id-F5OGtpbjoC0CYMPwNFl8YVYUxc1sQOoN/Hindmarsh-on-Todd-Carney-Blake-Ferguson

¹⁶ This homosocial tradition perhaps explains the relative acceptance “watersports” has as a sexual practice among homosexual men—and only homosexual men—in stark contrast to the abjection of scat play. (See Ellis, 1997, pp. 382–383, whose psychoanalytic reading includes an examination of a man’s interest in exploring homosexual sex involving urination.)

¹⁷ Statement to Nine News 30 June 2014. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/Tmaxy0wpfmI

¹⁸ Statement to Nine News 30 June 2014. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/Tmaxy0wpfmI

¹⁹ Speaking with 2UE’s Stuart Bocking 29 June 2014. Audible at http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/todd-carney-lewd-photo-a-setup-says-agent-20140630-zsqim.html