A photo and a shameful reaction
Two days ago Fabio Quartararo wanted to share a photo with a friend of his through his social channels, accompanied by the phrase: “What are we talking about?“complete with a grinning face with a drop of sweat – commonly used to indicate a narrow escape.
However, the image is not current and published identically by the other boy present in the photograph – Ethan Doux – last July 1st, and which depicted the 'making of' of an advertising video. Doux is in fact the scion of Doux Joaillier, a French luxury brand that deals with the sale of watches and jewelery and which has collaborated with Fabio Quartararo for years.
One photo like this was enough – with Quartararo laughing and resting his head on his friend's shoulder to provoke a real wave of reactions on social media. Many saw in the shot a alleged outing of the Yamaha champion and sent him their best wishes (so much so that a British site went so far as to produce an article on 'Quartaroro's boyfriend'), but several others revealed their most shameful and intolerant side, going so far as to commit real online abuseincluding sexism, homophobia, cyberbullying and trolling.
Quartararo pushed to delete the photo on X
That was enough for Quartararo to deleting the photo on platform X, while on Instagram he chose to disable comments below the image. What happened then sparked a debate online started by some English journalists, who were wondering about the homophobia surrounding the MotoGP, with a reflection from Mat Oxley who wanted to encourage MotoGP in terms of integration and education: “MotoGP really needs to do somethinglike most other sports, to say that racism, sexism and homophobia they will not be tolerated. And not just because he wants to attract new, younger fans, and therefore needs to be more enlightened. I've been in the paddock for 36 years and NO gay people have come out. This means that there have been hundreds and probably thousands of people pretending to be straight in their working lives. This is a bad position to put people in. THINGS NEED TO CHANGE.”
A reflection that can be widely shared, even if only in comparison with the other major category of motorsport, Formula 1, which for years has been fighting – as a movement and individually with some drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel – for inclusiveness at all levels and who has recently also taken a stand against online abuse. MotoGP has never dealt with these issues. It's probably time to act and open up on topics that have always been considered taboo in the paddock, to raise a generation of better fans. Regardless of everyone's sentimental choices.
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