Did You Hear The One About The Sexist Sky Sports Presenter?

I have a real and deep rooted fear that my child will grow up into a sexist / homophobic / racist bigot and get a job writing for the Daily Mail. It’s a hypothetical fear; because it assumes that I’ll have children and also that I won’t launch an online and real world Guerrilla war to rid the planet of all filth peddling publications that make their money from generating controversy by spouting hatred. They’re two fairly big assumptions because the idea of devoting my life to appeasing something that does nothing but shit and scream for 2 years haunts me, and also because, wouldn’t the world be better off without a paper that runs a story like this?

If you can’t be bothered clicking on the link, then to summarise: a woman was in a house fire that left her under sedation for smoke inhalation. All 4 of her children died in the fire. She doesn’t know this at the time of writing as she’s still unconscious. Thanks to the Daily Mail though, we all know and she’ll be able to find out from a newspaper. How considerate.

Should I have children and decide not to embark on a crusade against middle class tabloids, then my fear will be a very real one. It seems some people simply love to hate. Just as we make strides towards finally accepting that racism is wrong (reforms in the police, BNP being refused a platform during the election) another hatred or two comes up to replace it.

This week it’s been sexism. Andy Gray and Richard Keys have been sacked and resigned Sky Sports for asking a female colleague to tuck a mike into pants (Gray), referring to a female colleague thus ‘you’d smash it, you’d hang out of the back of it’ (Keys) and for suggesting a fully trained female official would need the offside rule explaining to her, simply because she is a she.

They’ve both since left, but it’s the reaction that’s worrying. I have a friend who’s certain it’s all just a ‘big joke’ and we should just ‘move on.’ Just as I wonder if he’ll ever understand that his attitudes are offensive and outdated at best, I also wonder what Andy Gray’s wife will have said to him?

“You’re right love, just a joke love. In no way is it a sack able offense to judge an official’s ability on her gender alone and treat a female colleague as a sex object by asking her to put her hands down your pants in front of a full work room. Cup of tea?”

My friend’s attitude is that it happened off mike so it shouldn’t matter. He’s a smart lad, degree educated with a good job. Yet to him sexism is completely acceptable as long as no one finds out. As if beating a wife would be fine as long as bruises aren’t left. That refusing to give a job to a black man on grounds of his race would be fine and dandy as long as you tell him it’s due to his pants being too short.  

It shouldn’t matter than Andy Gray has been in broadcasting long enough that he should know if in broadcast journalism, you’re near a mike, treat it as if it’s recording; only that these are his views. My friend also claimed “these views are expressed in the stands every game.” That’s no defence of Gray, but a damning indictment of what we deem to be acceptable in this country.

But what do I do about my friend? I tried showing him the error of his ways through logical debate, but he thinks sexual harassment is just a bit of a jolly, so I fear the logic might have gone over his head.

I could hit him with a spanner and stand over his leaky head whilst saying to a colleague “somebody better get down there and explain the sexism in the work place laws, if his manager finds out about the mess on the carpet she’s going to go potty.”

Or I could do what most people will do in this very same situation, clear my conscience by expressing that sexism is unacceptable, but when he shows no signs of assessing whether his views are right or wrong, just carry on as normal, sharing a beer, watching the football.  

This is the worrying part. For every office discussion about how abhorrent the actions of Gray and Keys were, there’s somebody lurking about sneering ‘it’s just a laugh, come here sugar tits and put your head down my pants, just a laugh, ha ha!’

Hopefully, in the future we’ll look at sexism in the way we now look at racism; fuelled not just by racists, but by otherwise decent people who have no idea of the damage that their ignorance does. Failing that we could just hit them all with spanners.