{"id":2006,"date":"2016-01-05T12:23:30","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T11:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/?p=2006"},"modified":"2016-01-05T12:23:30","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T11:23:30","slug":"the-game-is-changing-baby-chris-gayle-and-sexism-in-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/the-game-is-changing-baby-chris-gayle-and-sexism-in-cricket\/","title":{"rendered":"The game is changing, baby: Chris Gayle and sexism in cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cricketer
Cricketer Chris Gayle\u2019s comments to journalist Mel McLaughlin in a mid-game interview left her reportedly \u2018embarrassed, angry and upset\u2019. Network Ten<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you were hoping to turn to the innocuous TV spectacle of cricket\u2019s Big Bash League for some light relief from the politics of gender<\/a>, Melbourne Renegades player Chris Gayle just spoiled the party. Instead of spouting a few sporting platitudes in a live interview, he hit on broadcast journalist Mel McLaughlin.<\/p>\n

Gayle said:<\/p>\n

So hopefully we can win this game and we can have a drink after. Don\u2019t blush, baby.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin played it laudably straight and would discuss only the cricket and Gayle\u2019s fitness, but it was an excruciating moment and she was reportedly<\/a> \u201cembarrassed, angry and upset\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mel McLaughlin interviews cricketer Chris Gayle:<\/p>\n[youtube http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=b1q5rXZskYk&w=460&h=259]\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
TEN Sport later deleted this tweet. Twitter\/Mumbrella<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

Broadcaster Network Ten\u2019s commentary team initially handled the incident with their usual forced blokey bonhomie and TEN Sport attached the hashtag #smooth to a tweet about the interview. But then, commentator Mark Howard criticised Gayle and supported McLaughlin. And the approving tweet was deleted.<\/p>\n

Network Ten<\/a>, the Big Bash League<\/a> and Cricket Australia<\/a> have all expressed their displeasure at Gayle\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\n

Federal cabinet and the Big Bash League are now caught up in the familiar cyclical dance of condemnations of the sexist conduct while opposed by those who see<\/a> only everyday banter and harmless flirtation threatened by terminally political correct \u201csocial justice warriors\u201d.<\/p>\n

Part of the ritual is the perpetrator\u2019s non-apology: not for what was said, but for how it had been taken and its unintended effect. Gayle\u2019s was a textbook example<\/a> of the genre:<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t anything at all meant to be disrespectful toward Mel, or offensive.<\/p>\n

If she felt this way, then I am really sorry for that. There wasn\u2019t any harm meant. It was a simple joke.<\/p>\n

In the space opened between offending statement and offended reaction is the familiar case for the defence \u2013 suck it up princess, I was only having a laugh, don\u2019t be so sensitive, can\u2019t we have a joke now? It is a variation of the calls last year for Indigenous AFL player Adam Goodes<\/a> just to accept being booed every time he took to the field.<\/p>\n

It is extraordinary how the perpetrators of offence and their followers are so often sensitive to criticism themselves but blas\u00e9 about the hurt they do unto others. A particularly unfortunate aspect of the Gayle controversy is that it has happened when some significant progress is being made in improving the position of women in Australian sport.<\/p>\n

Only the day before, the Women\u2019s Big Bash League was celebrated as \u201ca ratings hit\u201d<\/a>. Advances are also being made on other sporting fronts, including women\u2019s cricket<\/a> in general, and football. However, progress has only been made after protracted negotiations, and in the latter case following a player strike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But, as Gayle has so amply demonstrated, there is still considerable resistance to the full integration of women into sport culture, and not least in the sports media. At least his behaviour occurred in plain sight, unlike the well-documented cases of female sports journalists being refused entry to male locker rooms or being disrespectfully treated when they did reach the inner sanctum.<\/p>\n

One of the best-known examples is that of Lisa Olson<\/a>. As a sports reporter for the Boston Herald, she sued the New England Patriots gridiron team for sexual harassment in 1991. After reporting the abuse and being continually harassed and threatened in the US as a result, Olson\u2019s then-employer News Corporation transferred her to Australia.<\/p>\n

It was only a couple of years later (1993) in Olson\u2019s new home that leading sports journalist Jacquelin Magnay<\/a> took the Balmain Rugby League Club to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission to gain access to its locker room.<\/p>\n

Although these events happened in the last century, the recent accounts<\/a> of sports journalists Erin Molan, Julie DiCaro, Caro Meldrum-Hanna, Jessica Yates and Nicole Jeffery indicate that McLaughlin\u2019s experience is by no means an isolated one, and that much worse can happen to women on the sports beat. In some respects, the job has got worse because of the violent misogyny of social media trolls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Eva
Eva Carneiro (left) is suing her former employer, Chelsea Football Club. Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is not only women working in the sports media who get an especially hard time. Chelsea Football Club\u2019s now-ex-manager Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s, his club\u2019s and the Football Association\u2019s appalling treatment<\/a> of team doctor Eva Carneiro led her to leave her position and file legal action against the club and Mourinho for constructive dismissal. Mourinho called her \u201cimpulsive and naive\u201d for treating an injured player at a crucial stage of the game.<\/p>\n

The cited cases from the UK and US demonstrate that institutionalised gender inequality is not just a problem for Australian sport, although its scale and reactionary resilience in this country is notable.<\/p>\n

The point is not simply to list one depressing instance after another, but to create the conditions \u2013 starting with increasing women\u2019s participation at all levels of sport \u2013 that will prevent the \u201cgreen shoots\u201d of women in sport being continually trampled by the studded boots of male entitlement.<\/p>\n

Last November, Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Michelle Payne famously told everyone<\/a>, especially the \u201cchauvinistic\u201d horse racing world, to:<\/p>\n

\u2026 get stuffed, because women can do anything and we can beat the world.<\/p>\n

TV protocol did not allow McLaughlin to tell Gayle to \u201cget stuffed\u201d, but many people have now effectively done so on her behalf. The game is changing, baby \u2013 get with the program.<\/p>\n

\n

Previously published by\u00a0theconversation.com<\/a>\u00a0(Academic rigour, journalistic flair).<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Copyright \u00a9 David Rowe 2015<\/strong>
\nEmail:\u00a0d.rowe@uws.edu.au<\/a>
\nTwitter: @rowe_david
\nWebsite:\u00a0http:\/\/www.uws.edu.au\/ics\/people\/researchers\/david_rowe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you were hoping to turn to the innocuous TV spectacle of cricket\u2019s Big Bash League for some light relief from the politics of gender, Melbourne Renegades player Chris Gayle just spoiled the party. Instead of spouting a few sporting platitudes in a live interview, he hit on broadcast journalist Mel McLaughlin. Gayle said: So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,21,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-2006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-okategoriserade","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-gender","10":"tag-sexism"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/gayle-mclaughlin300x210.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2JbBl-wm","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idrottsforum.org\/forumbloggen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}