Giancarlo Navas/ Staff Writer
Sports might be the patriarchy’s crowning achievement. An ecosystem where women are perpetually discouraged, abused and undermined. In such a male dominated business what is embedded in its culture is machismo and a sexist Darwinism.
Last week the tournament director for the Indian Wells tennis tournament, Raymond Moore, went on a sexist rant talking about how women in the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tour were riding the coattails of the male players.
“In my next life, when I come back, I want to be someone in the WTA because they ride on the coattails of the men. They don’t make any decisions, and they are lucky. They are very, very lucky,” Moore said. “If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport.”
The verbiage Moore chose was interesting; saying how the women should get on their knees conjures imagery of a sexual act. A lot of sexism, like how Moore demonstrated, is often rooted in our language, calling athletes who are allegedly soft the name of a female gentile or the b word, both stereotypical traits of womanhood. As if that is an insult to call someone a woman.
This is not exclusively a sports problem but rather one of western society; feminists such as Julia Kristeva have deconstructed language and made connections to how a mistreatment of women is rooted in the way we speak.
While Kristeva went into detail on the construction of romance languages and language as a tool for psychoanalysis I want to focus on how an ecosystem of competitive male Darwinism breeds a culture that demeans women in the way they speak.
Imagines of LeBron James comes to mind in the 2014 NBA finals versus the San Antonio Spurs, in game one LeBron had cramps in his legs due to poor hydration and a faulty air conditioning unit in the Spurs building. What followed LeBron were memes of him with makeup and a name calling too grotesque to publish in a newspaper. Almost all exclusively using the base of womanhood for their insults.
“Be a man,” is something thrown around a lot in youth sports, as if there is a sports nobility in whatever their concept of manhood is. From a young age we reward young male athletes to “be a man,” and it correlates with sports success. Ideas like that are cultivated and enforced throughout their lives until they reach the apex of their profession. By then it’s already ingrained in who they are.
Calling other players vulgar names for the female genital becomes common practice and you could hear it on any pickup basketball court in America. When this is the reality can we really be surprised at Moore’s comments? When it’s intertwined with the identity of male athletics.
How surprised can we be when Chicago sports anchor Julie DiCaro receives threats on Twitter, while reporting on the Patrick Kane rape case, which includes “One of the Blackhawks players should bear you to death with their hockey stick like the WHORE you are. CUNT.”
It’s where we are as a sports culture. America likes to do a lot of back padding for how far they have come in a lot of social issues, and this isn’t to diminish how far modern western society has come. However, to say we live in an equal sports society isn’t true. And some of it’s roots are in the way we speak.
About Post Author
