Not all men

Excellent piece.

Should I mention now that the top prize in women's snooker is £400 vs £300,000 in men's snooker?

What's very interesting about that Telegraph article is that no one has said they intend Jonathan Leiu harm, or that he needs a bit of cock to show him a lesson, or that they're now onto him and they are going to kill him, that they've looked up his address and are going to post it online, or that he better watch out for his children or any of the other vile threats that are routinely lobbed at women writing such articles.

They haven't even achieved NAMALT, it's mainly, what about the men? I heard Ulrika Johnson make a sexist joke in the 1990's, the gender equality brigade never want to defend men from their ubiquitous privilege it's not fair, women are allowed women doctors... blah blah blah. Any lurking man who really isn't sure how to demonstrate his support for feminism could start by signing up and calling out the stupidity and entitlement of the comments.

And the comments on the article exemplify exactly how men (sorry, some men) get their knickers in a twist when the injustice is pointed out. And no, it made no difference that is was a man that was pointing it out to them. Not so much NAMALT as "what about this ad I once saw taking the piss out of male incompetence" etc.

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/10844084/Sexism-and-the-lies-of-the-level-playing-field.html

I was going to start a thread about this, but this seems an appropriate place to post it.

The Torygraph' s sports writer Jonathan Lieu hasn't a sexist bone in his body, is totally supportive of women in sport and his comments are spot on, not just about Scudamore but about sexism in sport and why male sport is the default.

I know the thread has moved on but the premier league is 18 clubs out over 100 professional clubs and many more semi pro clubs.
Football fans pushed for the sacking of keys and gray. It's up to the premier league to do the correct thing.

Wasn't it Everydaysexism who got the magazine issue sorted? I remember taking various pictures in Sainsburys and Tweeting them at the time.

"just as much as those other men when have achieved so much for feminism like...."

Jackson Katz?

I think a natural solution if you love football is to watch the woman's game. I've been planning to take my little boy when he's old enough, but I'm afraid that was the plan before the current controversy. I think the money is over the top, and I do not want him growing up with message that it's ok to be a terrible human being right up to committing rape, but all will be forgiven if you're good at football. Being that this is our national sport and role models to our nations youth I think they need to be held to better standards of behavior. Besides if you have a love the game it should make no difference wether it's men or women playing it.

I think it's unfair to label a sport or all football fans in that way

It would really be quite easy to bring Scudamore down if football fans wanted to. If there was a campaign with a decent amount of support and press coverage to boycott just one match, the PL would roll over and sack him. Just one match. Nobody would want to see the stands empty on the first match of the season. It would be very easy. Fans could just do it - if they wanted to. But they don't want to.

Fans won't boycott their teams because they see them as part of their community. Something passed down by their ancestors. Something akin to a religion.

And all you've done here is confirm that football fans see their afternoon out as more important than whether women are treated with respect by the organisers of the game.

OK, they're prepared to boo him. That's easy - but ineffective. But when it comes to doing something that would involve a bit of sacrifice on their part? Not so much.

And the one that got Tesco etc to stop sticking New Scientist and the Economist into a "Men's Interest" section - forget who that was. But another individual or small group.

PinkStinks similar too. And Hollaback.

Man if you were to actually organise some kind of men's revolt again Scudamore, just think, you might be lauded just as much as those other men when have achieved so much for feminism like....

Let Toys be Toys is awesome.

The reason I gave you those two specific examples, ManWith, is because they are both campaigns that just started with one person, coming on MN, getting support, using social media and a little bit of hard graft, and within a short space of time becoming hugely successful on a national level. Pretty much every major UK toy retailer has stopped gendered labelling of toys since Let Toys be Toys started campaigning a year or so ago. Is has been an absolute revolution.

Let toys be toys started on here - try advanced search

Everyday Sexism is Laura bates. She's written a book recently of the same title.

Let toys be toys started on here - try advanced search

Everyday Sexism is Laura bates. She's written a book recently of the same title.

Of course there are real people behind them! What a bizarre idea that they are autonomous. Laura Bates runs Everydaysexism, and she now also has a column in the Guardian. I don't know specifically the name of the person who runs Let Toys Be Toys. Why do you ask, are you planning to get tips from them? I'm sure a PM on their FB page would get you the details you want.

But again, I'm baffled that you, as a person working in a high-profile city job, can't work this out for yourself.

"If we could get football fans to agree there is no place for sexism, racism, and every other 'ism' in football then these second order issues like violence"

Was it Liverpool FC who took a stand on "playing like a girl" type phrases? That was good.

"and with a "not in my name" slant is a great idea, ManWith. But here's the burning question: Are you expecting women to organise this?"

Yy to this.

Annie - who are the people behind Everydaysexism and Let Toys Be Toys?

They seem to be websites with no real people behind them?

And again you're asking women to do the heavy lifting for you. Instead of asking us, you could Google it or look at how other successful campaigns have worked. Everydaysexism started with a simple blog format, but hit their stride with Twitter. Let Toys be Toys is based purely on Facebook and Twitter and has had huge success. These are just two campaigns I have been involved with from small beginnings to huge and measurable success. I suggest you study them.

Annie - no it would have to be men who organised a 'Not in my Name' campaign. It wouldn't work if women did it. It would have to be owned by men.

I haven't got a clue how to start a national campaign? Any ideas?

And back to football.... I seem to remember hearing that back 100 years or so ago, there were women's teams which competed equally with men's teams, and often won. But this was terribly damaging to men's fragile egos and so the football association of the time banned women from playing.

Women's football continues now of course, as a poor relative to men's. Millions upon millions of pounds spent scouting, training, buying, selling, developing male players. A tiny fraction of that spent on women. Can you imagine how amazing women footballers would be if they had the same amount of time/money invested in training them? And you can't convince me that every single male player in the men's Premier League is better than every single female player in the whole world. There has to be some level of overlap.

This doesn't just apply to football - it's the same of all sports. I resolutely refuse to believe that there are no women in any sport who are capable of competing on the same level as men, even if they're in the minority.

The single and only reason they're excluded: because they're women. Sport is such a sexist institution it makes me utterly sick. WTF should football care about one man making a few sexist comments when the entire institution is built on deep misogyny?