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AIBU?

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Original poster

to be absolutely furious about football chief and emails referring to women as 'gash'??

357 replies

BeanAboutTown · 12/05/2014 09:46

Sorry if there are other threads about this, couldn't find any.

Richard Scudamore, head of the Premier League, has been merrily sending emails referring to women as 'gash' and 'skinny big-titted broads', 'irrational' and lots of other incendiary misogynist shite.

Oh but he's apologised. That's nice eh, nothing to see here

Apparently he reports to the Premier League Board, which is two people, one of whom is errrrrr Richard Scudamore

AIBU to think an apology is nowhere near enough and he should bloody well resign?

It's been reported that the Premier League's women's officer has been told not to make any comment. Wouldn't want the shiny-suited money-making boys' club to be unnecessarily disturbed by any harpies would we

Anyone for a Premier League boycott next season? (Congrats to Man City by the way) How about we all give our money to the women's game instead

OP posts:
CommunistLegoBloc · 12/05/2014 18:52

Eddie has it for me.

I can't believe so many people on here simply couldn't accept the race comparison. I guess it just goes to show how ingrained and accepted sexism is within our culture. I suppose if anything, the reaction here supports the overarching point that women are so constantly discriminated it's just become normal, whereas racism is clearly seen as deviant.

Nomama · 12/05/2014 18:57

Communist, no-one has said that the race comparison is unacceptable. That was one poster who interpreted something I, and another, had said. Putting words into my mouth.

My point was slightly different, and still remains unacknowledged by that poster.

So you are right not to believe that so many people on here simply couldn't accept the race comparison - they haven't. Everyone has accepted the similarities.

waterlego6064 · 12/05/2014 19:01

I see what you're saying gotnotime.

Some of the objectors are objecting only to the context, while others are objecting to the word itself, AND the context in which it's been used.

I'm offended by the context. Although, the more I think about it, I am also offended by the word itself because of its connotations. It's not a word I've ever used.

Twat and cunt just aren't as metaphorical, I guess.

I don't even think 'metaphorical' is the right word, but hopefully you'll understand what I'm trying to say.

CommunistLegoBloc · 12/05/2014 19:02

Yes, they have. Godwin's Law has been mentioned FFS! This whole thing spiralled when I posted 'what if he'd said racist things about a black person, would you all still think he shouldn't be sacked?'

Apparently bringing race into it was irrelevant. Several separate posters stated this.

Nomama · 12/05/2014 19:07

I was the Godwin poster, I was very specific as to why. Didn't think it was to you, though it was so long ago I can't remember!

I think my original point got lost in the accusations of racism/sexism and general stupidity.

Reading around the defensive posts, we all agree the man is a pillock and needs to be pilloried, at the very least.

CommunistLegoBloc · 12/05/2014 19:09

Agreed. The man is a sexist pillock who needs to lose his job in order for sexism to be publicly identified as an act of major discrimination that affects 51% of the population.

gotnotimeforthat · 12/05/2014 19:14

water

Yeah I understand Smile

just wanted to join in With the devils advocate

Nomama · 12/05/2014 19:14

Sadly football isn't really 'real' - see the Andy Gray debacle. Sacked from one job and walked straight into another. Punditry, indeed Smile

It has taken 40 years for football to get to grips with racism, sort of. Getting to see the point of us little women may take a few centuries longer!

AnyFucker · 12/05/2014 19:20

It will be interesting to see if Ched Evans walks straight back into a premiership striker position (as an aside)

Nomama · 12/05/2014 19:24

Ooh, don't. That was one weird set up. All horrible men and stupid women... and as for the website protesting his innocence! Words fail me.

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 12/05/2014 19:56

"Just how does a man who is so utterly stupid get through an interview process for that particular job? Who interviewed him??"

LineRunner, I give you Paul Flowers and the Coop Bank.

OutsSelf · 12/05/2014 19:59

Nomama I have responded to your point that you think the comparison of sexism with racism undermines the cause of sexism. I have extensively disagreed with this assertion and explained why. I think they are discriminatory practices based on innate bodily qualities, and to try to sequester one from the other implies that there is something innate to either sexual or racial identity than means that we should view discrimination based on those factors as fundamentally different. True, the assumptions made about non white ethnicities are not the same assumptions made about women and in this sense as you say, sexism isn't just the same as racism. But in the sense that sexism is a form of discrimination based on innate bodily identity, it is just the same as racism and shouldtreated as such.

By treating one expression of discriminatory thought as fundamentally different from another you imply that the social classes they pertain to are fundamentally different; that assumption is itself discriminatory.

AnyFucker · 12/05/2014 20:02

Old Boys Club, innit. These people never get their jobs on merit Heaven Fucking Forbid

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 12/05/2014 20:07

. Which is why I can't stand the "ooh, if we had quotas we might get not-the-best-person-for-the-jobbery." Yep, cause there are never any fuck ups currently...

AnyFucker · 12/05/2014 20:10

Indeed. Such hypocrisy is rank bollocks.

Nomama · 12/05/2014 20:10

Outself I have responded to your point that you think the comparison of sexism with racism undermines the cause of sexism

But that is NOT the point I was making. That has been the sole reason I have continued to post back to you. You have misunderstood what I did post.

It is not the comparison that is the sticking point for me. It is the constant linking of the two. As though sexism itself is not a strong enough concept to stand alone, but needs a bigger, stronger, more obviously wrong behaviour to show people the error of their ways.

Caitlin17 · 12/05/2014 20:11

I wonder which Law firm is involved. If this were mine there would be crisis meetings of the board. It violates our equality and diversity policy and our core values policy. Even if you are cynical enough to think we just pay lip-service to them (and even if that were true the chairman and managing partner don't) the damage to reputation is potentially awful. I can think of several of our clients who would want an explanation of how the firm would intend dealing with this behaviour. And my firm is not in the least bit a lefty/legal aid/championing causes sort of place.

AnyFucker · 12/05/2014 20:11

Such rank hypocrisy is bollocks ?

You get my drift...

Nomama · 12/05/2014 20:14

I got the impression it was a friend who happened to be a solicitor (Scudamore did a law degree) rather than a solicitor acting for him.

But, as I understood it from friends trying for the bar, your private actions are deemed public - like public drunkeness/lewdness - and are actionable by the Law Society. So I would expect that his Firm would be in full on panic mode.

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 12/05/2014 20:15

Nope, I think very stinky bollocks is quite a good analogy!

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 12/05/2014 20:17

Nomama, it isn't the people drawing analogies between sexism and racism who are undermining sexism as a serious concept - it's an effective way to get the point home to those who see sexism as a bit of banter but racism as beyond acceptable (not saying that's the view on this thread but it's pretty common in society). I've used it myself to good effect.

OutsSelf · 12/05/2014 20:19

Right, well I think they are linked. I do not think that people linking them in any way imply that sexism is not as bad as racism and we have to link them. I think that people link them because they are comparable examples of discrimination yet people respond as if sexism were not as important or as racism, and they think it valid to point to the discrepancy.

Roshbegosh · 12/05/2014 20:20

To respond to the original question, yes I am furious, upset and offended. He is a hateful man and not fit to be around women. Disgusting horrible person.

OutsSelf · 12/05/2014 20:27

Sorry, that was hopelessly garbled. I mean, people are not saying that racism is more wrong, so let's compare. They are saying, why do we not respond to this equivalent behaviour in equivalent ways. Racism is only 'more wrong' if you think some aspects of sexism are acceptable. Which is sexist.

Nomama · 12/05/2014 20:32

Doctrine, I get that, it a useful analogy. But Outself's take on what I said is what I am talking about.

Outself, again, I am not suggesting that sexism is not as bad as racism. I am suggesting that there is a section of society that thinks so, that thinks, as Doctrine says, it is just banter. So you see we do have common ground.

And, again, I do not think they are linked. I think you may not have intended to say that exactly as I read it... as discussed earlier, one does not cause or imply the other. They are similar, not linked (though that could be the science pedant in me).

And who has pointed to a discrepancy on this thread? I am not sure if you mean me or 'people in general'. Either way that is the point I am trying to make. By always using racism to explain sexism you make racism the yardstick and sexism takes the minor role, it has to 'measure up'.

If we always talked about sexism alone, as an important concept in its own right, it might gain more ground with such idiots as Scudamore. People/men like him need to be educated, severely. Single concept arguments, don't confuse them by conflating 2 ideas.

It is just my opinion, as yours is yours. But I do like to be understood for what I have said. Happy to argue a point, but only if the point is clarified.