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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Chris Evans on 'Girls' Olympic Football

97 replies

HipHopSkipJumpomous · 30/07/2012 10:59

I listen to his show briefly on my drive to work. This morning he was interviewing a member of the GB Women's football team who are progressing in the Olympics.

He started to talk about 'girls' football.
"Women's football" the player corrected him.
To paraphrase his reply to his clumsy error 'ladies, girls, women's, female whatever, it doesn't really matter'
"It's women's football" she reiterated.

I cheered the player and was thankfully spared from listening to the rest of it (oh cringe) by arriving at work.

FFS Chris get with it - when have you EVER spoken of 'boys' football!!!!

He's a major broadcaster on the BBC and he should know better. I hope he learnt something this morning.

OP posts:
namechangeguy · 02/08/2012 22:49

Okay then, not worse. Exactly the same?

What I do find worse is that people will turn a blind eye. That would make me sigh too. But I don't want to bully or harangue. We know what is going on. And I would be genuinely interested to know why you are not sure you agree.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 02/08/2012 22:43

I cross posted, love, just like normal people do. Just like SGM isn't immediately here the moment you choose to invoke her name.

I think it is a double standard to make out that a woman saying something you think is sexist (I'm not sure I agree) is somehow worse than a man saying it.

namechangeguy · 02/08/2012 22:37

That's fine LRD, and in that last post I think we are in broad agreement.

I see you have chosen to completely ignore my two questions at 22:22 though.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 02/08/2012 22:30

Well, she's had all of half an hour and she's not at your beck and call, so I suspect she will be along at some point to talk to you.

I don't have any experience of Chris Evans, so I'm not in a position to judge either way.

In general, I think it is unlikely that men treat women exactly as they treat men, or vice versa. Of course, there will be exceptions. But we do live in a sexist society - sex is one of the basic categories, if not the basic category, we use to discriminate. So it's not particularly shocking to observe that, yes, people do tend to treat men and women differently.

For me to be clear: I don't get the impression that Evans is a horrible person, a terribly misogynist. I'm quite prepared to believe he simply made a mistake, floundered, and thought no more about it.

But that's the thing, isn't it? He may not have thought much about it ... but the woman who corrected him obviously did. Some of us obviously do. Because we don't have that privilege of being in a position to shrug off treatment of women that is different from the way men are treated.

LineRunnerSpartanNaked · 02/08/2012 22:26
namechangeguy · 02/08/2012 22:25

'...because a woman saying something you think is sexist must be worse than a man saying it, of course!'

Nope. But what I don't like are double-standards.

namechangeguy · 02/08/2012 22:22

Let me be clear. CE was wrong not to graciously correct himself, he may just be a sexist twat of the highest order. I really don't know.

Now over to you. Do you think SGM was wrong to say what she did? Was she sexist? Because I would rather she answered herself, but she isn't here, it seems.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 02/08/2012 22:16

I can pick on you and the sexism at the same time, too. But I won't, because it'd be rude.

I will say, it is tedious that you're jumping on SGM's comment in order to find something, anything, 'worse' than Evans' comment. Before, you weren't even admitting it was comparable to sexism. Now, it seems it is. But only because you can point the finger at something someone else said ... because a woman saying something you think is sexist must be worse than a man saying it, of course!

namechangeguy · 02/08/2012 22:11

Well, you can pick on me, or pick on the sexism. I think I know which way you will go.....

LRDtheFeministDragon · 02/08/2012 22:09

Bingo.

namechangeguy · 02/08/2012 21:53

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LRDtheFeministDragon · 02/08/2012 21:17

I think wider context also determines whether something is sexist.

Even if CE calls all men 'boys' and all women 'girls', even if he would have responded exactly the same to a man - there's still a different context for women being called 'girls' than there is for men being called 'boys'. It's not CE's personal fault, but it's true.

StewieGriffinsMom · 02/08/2012 21:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

namechangeguy · 02/08/2012 20:31

'If a male player had corrected him, he wouldn't have been so dismissive of him.'

At what point in your thought process does conjecture become an absolute, positive, unequivocal fact ?

StewieGriffinsMom · 02/08/2012 20:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheSkiingGardener · 02/08/2012 20:11

It's not sexist if he would have said the same to the boys team. Sexism is about treating the sexes DIFFERENTLY.

rosabud · 02/08/2012 20:08

No, I'm not. I've acknowledged that, although the original comment was sexist, it was obviously unintentional as it ws part of his style which includes interchanging these terms. My point is, the sexism comes with his refusal to acknowledge the female captain's correction. As the reason for her request was clearly linked to a desire to have her sport taken as seriously as men's football, his refusal to grant this request and, worse, his belittlement of it, is clearly sexist.

c4rnsi1lke · 02/08/2012 10:55

'But it's not about what he sees.'

totally agree

TheSkiingGardener · 02/08/2012 10:52

rosabud, maybe, just maybe, he uses all the terms interchangeably and would have said the same to the men's gymnastic team after he referred to them as boys. You are seeing sexism here because you really, really, really want to.

rosabud · 02/08/2012 09:36

Yes it was sexist to use the term girls football, it implies a less important game than mens football which is not referred to as boys or junior football although this seems to be the presenter's style and the sexism was unintentional. However, what was then extremely sexist was to go on a "whatever" rant after being corrected - he was then clearly saying, women's opinions on what this game should be called are of no interest to me and, furthermore, I think the female captain of this team is not entitled to make her point. I am the man here, and I will not allow any feminist nonsense about terminology to knock me off my stride. He belittled the whole subject of the importance of the women's game compared to that of the men's and that is what makes the comments extremely sexist.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 31/07/2012 10:03

Oi! Stop discriminating against Jesus, tethers! Don't you know he prefers Christ?!

All his own fault, really ...

HipHopSkipJumpomous · 31/07/2012 10:01

"If you don't believe yourself that you're equal, and go looking to be discriminated against, of course you will feel like society doesn't treat you equally."

Sigh!

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tethersphotofinish · 31/07/2012 09:56

"If you don't believe yourself that you're equal, and go looking to be discriminated against, of course you will feel like society doesn't treat you equally."

Jesus, breadrollgorilla, stop being such a girl.

HipHopSkipJumpomous · 31/07/2012 09:52

I am a regular listener to Chris Evans and I really like his show in general. I used to watch "Don't Forget Your Toothbrush", "TFIF" etc so I would say I 'get' Chris Evans. Still doesn't mean I don't think what he said yesterday was sexist rather than "Chris being Chris".

What I was commenting on in the OP, isn't the use of the word 'girls' being offensive, but the fact that the person sat in front of him, that he has invited into his show, his GUEST, corrected him when he started blabbing on about girls football (which did get my attention right from the start as he sounded ridiculous - not funny ridiculous, but stupid ridiculous). She said very clearly "It's called Women's football".

He then went into the ladies/girls/women/females/whatever rant instead of (at the very least) being gracious and respectful to his guest, who lets not forget is an Olympic athlete representing GB.

OP posts:
NoComet · 31/07/2012 09:48

Normally I would let girls for Woman pass over me, but in this case CE was an arse not to take the correction instantly.

I saw the first match and, although I know nothing about football, it looked jolly skill full and grown up to me.

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