Supporting Journalists Who Challenge Sexist Remarks
Dave Heuschkel, a columnist with a Sports Illustrated blog, is finding out what it’s like to be a journalist who takes on a sexist remark. He wrote his February 7 column about statements made by a commentator for the NBA’s Orlando Magic regarding Violet Palmer, the league’s only woman referee.
Richie Adubato, in criticizing one of Palmer’s calls during a game between the Magic and Indiana Pacers, suggested that she should be coaching in the professional women’s league, the WNBA.
In his column, Heuschkel pointed out that there was nothing wrong with Adubato criticizing Palmer’s call. But he noted that it was offensive to suggest that she didn’t belong in the NBA. Commentators often disagree with male referees, but Adubato managed to simultaneously attack both Palmer’s credentials and the level of professionalism in the WNBA.
Heuschkel’s column drew a large response from blog readers. A few were supportive, but most disagreed with him. Some personally attacked Heuschkel, others attacked the idea of a woman referee, and some directed sexist posts at post-ers who defended Heuschkel. The consistent theme of the negative posts was, “She’s a bad referee, and she should be subject to the same criticism as male officiators. If she can’t be criticized because she is a woman, then that is ‘reverse sexism.’”
This misses Heuschkel’s point. He doesn’t take the commentator to task for his negative assessment of Palmer’s call. Women’s performance should be subject to the same level of scrutiny as that of men, and pointing out a mistake by a woman in a highly public role is perfectly legitimate.
But if when a woman is criticized, it’s implied that she should be working in a “woman’s arena” because the expectations are lower, that is sexist. (In this case, the commentator alleged that she should be refereeing in the WNBA because, according to him, the women’s league has lower standards.)
We can help encourage journalism that challenges sexist stereotypes by supporting writers like Dave Heuschkel who do so. We can also ask media executives to tell their personnel who use sexist remarks that such behavior won’t be tolerated. I’ve written to the Sports Illustrated blog to thank them for running Heuschkel’s column about Violet Palmer (you can contact them here). I’ve also written to the Magic’s owner (whom you can contact here). Sample e-mails to both the blog and the Magic are here. I hope you’ll do so too.
Steve
