Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

September 15, 2010

A Traitor to My Gender?

Not sure if any of my overseas readers have heard about the latest flap (read: sexual harassment claim) over a Hispanic reporter, Inez Sainz, who was doing a sports report for Azteca TV in Mexico, and alleged acts of harassment by the New York Jets.

First of all, the woman is a former Miss Universe contestant, so you know she's hot. Second, I believe that Mexicans and/or Hispanics, don't view skimpy or tight clothing the way prudish Americans do. Clearly nothing comes between Ms. Sainz and her Calvins. She says that this is considered appropriate attire for a Mexican TV reporter. Sure, in Mexico. Not so much for America. Nevertheless, she was covered, it's just that everything was extremely skin tight.
Fortunately, she has the figure to get away with this look.
But the NY Jets players, being the stupid idiot neanderthal MEN that they are, not only ogled her on the sidelines, they threw footballs in her direction so that they could run by her. How old are these guys? 14?? Then she went into the locker room to do an interview. Can you see where this is going? Crude and suggestive comments were made to her. Now she is claiming she felt sexually harassed by that incident, and the NFL is looking into it.

This brings up the age old question of whether female sports reporters belong in men's locker rooms. There is no easy answer to that. There are plenty of women who enjoy sports, like myself, and many who have pursued that interest by way of a sports broadcasting career. It's no longer a job exclusively for men, although women have had a hell of a time breaking into it.

Years ago in college, when I was a Sports Department intern at Channel 7 in Boston, I found myself the lone female in that department. My duties included fetching coffee and carrying heavy equipment from place to place. I got to do some cool stuff, like go to Celtics practices. One time, we went to the old Boston Garden to do an interview with the Bruins. I helped my internship supervisor bring all the stuff into the Garden. I asked Bob if I was going to be allowed to watch the interview. He told me it would be in the locker room. I told him I didn't care. I was a professional. I lived in a co-ed dorm, I was engaged. It's not like I hadn't seen a dick before. He told me he was afraid that the players would give me a hard time. I retorted that if anyone wagged their wienie at me, I'd simply say, "I've seen better heads on a glass of beer" or "Last time I saw something that small it had an eraser on it." While Bob thought my clever retorts were quite amusing, and he was tempted to bring me in just to hear me cut down a professional athlete, at the door of the locker room he suddenly decided that it would be a very bad idea, and asked me to wait outside. He probably realized that having a girl intern in the Bruins' locker room was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Can open, worms everywhere.

Well it's the 21st Century, and there are lots of women reporters who go into the locker rooms for interviews after major sporting events. The men don't like it, and I don't blame them. Can you imagine the uproar that would ensue if male reporters demanded to be inside the WNBA locker rooms when the girls are walking around naked or in towels?

Let's face it, men are visual creatures. They get all stupid and bug eyed whenever some young hot chick shows some skin or cleavage. They can't help it. It's in their DNA. Probably a throwback to their knuckle-dragging cavemen days. They even start grunting, "A-huh, a-huh, heh heh, BOOBIES!"

This also brings up the issue of whether a woman deserves to be harassed if she's going to dress like a tart. Perhaps "deserved" is too strong a word. Should a woman expect to be harassed if she dresses like that?

Now this is where I become a traitor to my gender. You'd never find sports reporter Pam Oliver (or any of the other women reporters) dressed in skin tight clothing, while doing interviews with football players on the sidelines or locker room. So yeah, if you wear sexy clothing and look like a slut, or a bimbo, you need to expect men to act like the moronic, drooling cavemen that they are, no matter if you are a professional reporter or just a woman out and about.

What did Ms. Sainz expect was going to happen when she went into their locker room? For the Jets to keep their eyes above her neck and take her seriously? She admits their behavior on the field wasn't that bad and was more silly than anything else. But seriously folks, what did she think was going to happen once inside the locker room with all those sweaty, naked men and her in those painted-on jeans? Them to NOT make jokes or stare? It's like the intelligent side in men's brains switch off (assuming there is one) and the sophomoric teenage boys emerge. A-huh a-huh, BOOOOBIIIEEES!!!!

The only way I can see an end to this problem is to stop allowing reporters of both sexes to do any locker room interviews. There has to be a more appropriate place within the clubhouse to conduct interviews with the athletes.

What say you?

15 comments:

  1. Apparently those pants aren't the only thing that wants to crawl up her ass.I'm NOT saying clothes "mean" anything is justified BUT if we all lied and said we don't read people by their clothes.....

    Hello,she was going into a MALE locker room!What did she expect knitting and a tea party?Bitch please!

    Here's what I say (pardon my language..she's a stupid ***t.

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  2. THANK YOU! OMG I totally agree!!! I am disgusted with the whole sexual harassment claim. She asked for it dressing like that. Completely inappropriate!

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  3. I know for a fact that women do enjoy looking at men, to correct your misconception.

    Unless you don't like stereotyping people, in which case you should stop stereotyping men as well.

    Ines is a media whore, now everybody knows it. And if the men acted differently, they would be calling them gay. Can't have it both ways, sistah.

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  4. Yeah, but "stereotyping" aside, she should dress appropriately for the occasion, as is the case in most avenues of life.

    Men and women should also know there is also appropriate REACTION, (formerly known as "manners")to any given situation.

    Clearly here, that was not the case.

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  5. Anonymous8:15 AM

    Is this not a clue that modesty is the best policy? I warn my 16 year daughter all the time about her clothing choices. She's pretty naive and in I way I'm happy about that. It bothers me that I have to warn her about men that will think of her as an object for their self pleasure. These are some of the harder lessons to learn in life. You would think Ms.Sainz was mature enough to have understood that this was one of lifes 8 Simple Rules.

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  6. Anonymous9:59 AM

    Maybe if she could develop a sense of humour, she could have thrown some pithy one-liners back at them.... She doesn't exactly look like she'd faint away the minute someone said something 'off-colour'

    I don't know who she is, but perhaps I could suggest that next time, she should wear something more 'suited' to her obviously delicate sensibilities; like a nun's habit.

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  7. hardboy - I have no idea what you mean by 'can't have it both ways'. That's NOT the issue. It's whether or not women who dress provocatively should expect to be harassed, and whether or not they belong in a locker room.

    Yes women like to look at men, and yeah we may think, 'wow he's hot', but women are more emotional and the 'he's hot' comment is usually followed by 'i wonder if he's available'. I have never, nor have my female friends ever, hooted at and ogled a man. Not like me do to women.

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  8. not like 'men' do to women.

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  9. Men are stupid when they look at a pretty girl. Some women can handle it, some can't. Those who can't need some protection. (I'm not including this woman.) Coincidentally something akin to this subject was on the radio this morning. One side wanted sexist comments to be outlawed in the same way as racist ones. I sort of agree, and sort of don't. All I know is, I've given a few keen retorts to men making sexist remarks before now. I even had one saaved up and ready to go for ogling workmen - "You putrid piece of excrescence, why don't you go and masticate your own faeces?" By the time they worked out what it meant, I was far away!

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  10. Oh, and women shouldn't be going into men's dressing rooms.

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  11. She is not a reporter. This is the woman who showed up at the Super Bowl dressed in a wedding gown and asked Tom Brady to marry her. There are Serious women sports reporters out there, and this bimbo damages their credibility.

    I do believe that locker rooms should be off limits to ALL reports. I mean really...Would you want a complete stranger in your bathroom (which is what a locker room is)

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  12. Ummm, that should be 'reporters', not reports.

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  13. NO THEY DO NOT. It's idiotic. Men are different and when they are athletic men and all riled up from a game and there is a crowd of them... well, you know that pack mentality. We are only human.

    This girl is an idiot pure and simple. If she doesn't want to be oggled by a bunch of millionaires paid to hurt each other, she should be interviewing other kinds of people. DUH.

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  14. Anonymous1:15 PM

    Why doesn't her company have a dress code like most companies do? Even "business casual" wouldn't include those jeans that fit like a second skin. I think she likes attention and she got more than she bargained for and now is crying "fowl"...doesn't work that way. You reap what you sow. Keep the reporters out of the locker room and these issues wouldn't happen. I'm all for women celebrating their beauty and sexuality but there is a time and a place. A men's locker room is not the place.

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  15. I agree with you here. I mean if a male reporter went into a female locker room, wouldn't that be looked down upon? I mean it isn't even allowed to my knowledge.

    Just a little bit of common sense can go a long way.

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