Welcome to the Wide World of Sexism, where we judge Olympic sexist coverage as
a sport.
The field is really looking strong this year.
Let's take a look at some of our best competitors.
Up first, here's Adam Kreek from the CBC,
talking about Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard.
And he describes her as "not being a competitor" because she posts selfies with toothpaste.
She's posting pictures with herself,
she's holding up the toothpaste, and she's trying out different hairstyles,
and
maybe she wants something different than to be a competitor.
It's definitely impressive to claim that a female
athlete who has dedicated her entire life
to her sport may not be interested in "competing.”
But he could have made his sexism more explicit
by ... I don't know, asking her to twirl after she achieved a huge feat like
winning a match at the Australian Open or something.
Can you give us a twirl and tell us about your outfit?
Next, watch this unnamed NBC commentator
talking about the US female gymnastics team.
They might as well be standing in the middle of a mall.
Ah, a classic sexist/ageist combo there.
He's suggesting that these teenage girls belong in malls,
not destroying the competition on an international stage.
But he could've racked up a few more points, maybe making his accusation a little more
explicit with a Forever 21 mention.
While we wait for the next competitor,
I would be remiss if I didn't mention a new, emerging discipline:
Olympic Bro Appropriating
A discipline where a female athlete's success
is repackaged and presented as a male one.
Like Dan Hicks representing NBC
after Hungary's Katinka Hosszú shattered the world record
and won the 400-meter individual medley.
And there's the guy responsible
for turning Katinka Hosszú, his wife, into a whole different swimmer.
Coming up next is the Chicago Tribune, who have entered in tweet form.
Impressive.
This comment makes no mention of this female athlete's name or the sport that
she plays.
That is ace dehumanization.
And here comes John Inverdale representing the BBC.
He's somewhat of a veteran of the sport,
attempted a backhanded body-shaming comment in 2013,
but let's see if he can take his sexist commentary to the next level this time.
You're the first person ever to win two Olympic tennis gold medals.
That's an extraordinary feat, isn't it?
No hesitation!
Well, to defend the singles title.
Um, I think Venus and Serena have won about four each.
Ouch.
Get out the rye bread and mustard, Grandma,
it is grand salami sexism time.
I mean, that play deserves a standing ovation.
Asking a man to take credit for a record that two women have already broken, I mean,
male privilege of steel.
The next contestant looks like a headline describing Katie Ledecky
setting a new world record in the women's 800-meter freestyle,
becoming the first woman to win gold in the 200-, 400-,
and 800-meter freestyle races since 1968.
But his article put that second to a silver by Michael Phelps.
Even when women come in first, the media puts them second.
And here's Mercury News.
They're really the Cinderella story of Olympic sexism.
This tweet refers to gold medal champion Simone Manuel
like Donald Trump refers to his black supporters.
Look at my African American over here.
Look at him.
He just wanted it more.
But the last contestant is really a collaboration between many, many news organizations
having just some flawlessly demeaning debates, like
whether an Olympic athlete got breast implants,
or racially charged debates about an athlete's hair,
and energetic yet slightly Islamophobic segments exoticizing hijabs.
But structural sexism takes collaboration.
I mean, it really takes a village.
A recent study that looked at over 160 million words within the domain of sport
demonstrated “higher levels of infantilising or
traditionalist language for women in sport.”
But then again, what do we expect when 90 percent of sports editors are white
and the same proportion are male.
But things are changing, and newsrooms are becoming more and more diverse,
which would hopefully mean that shows like The Wide World of Sexism
would become completely obsolete.
Until then, join us tomorrow night for our special
edition of
"Is it a burqa or a bikini?"
Let's just definitely not call it what it is —
which is a hijab.
Also, who the f*** cares?