Thursday, July 25, 2013

Sexism

Now that I have two daughters, I tend to keep an eye out for sexism - particularly my own. I guess this is what checking your privilege means. But, and I know I'm late on this, this is not a good example of sexism:
And then in bumbles David Cameron congratulating Andy Murray on being “the first British player to win Wimbledon in 77 years”.
Grace Dent piles into this as an example of egregious sexism:

Virginia Wade won the women’s title in 1977, Ann Jones in 1969 and Angela Mortimer in 1961. If you find women get exasperated about being Tippexed out of history books in this way, it’s because it’s been happening FOR EVER. Mumbling, “Oh, well, you know what I mean” doesn’t cut it, because what you mean is, “Oh stuff the women’s tournament. Let’s face it, it’s just not as important.”


But this is only sexism if ignoring Stanley Matthews' (son of the more famous one) victory in the Boys' singles in 1962 is also, somehow, sexism. Or Jonny Marray's Mens' Doubles title in 2012. They're people too - and if you ignore them on the grounds that Boys' titles or Doubles titles aren't as important as Singles titles, then Cameron was justified in doing the same thing. There are enough excellent examples of sexist people around (and, yes, John Inverdale definitely falls into that camp) without stretching it.

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