Andy Murray having to remind sports journalists (again) that women exist

[SueMacartney]

https://mobile.twitter.com/jamiemacc_/status/885189154128224257

From his post-match interview after losing to Querrey today.

He's called out journalists before and no doubt will have to again. (Side note - does any other high profile male do this? In any field?) Relieved to hear it wasn't John Inverdale this time.

It's just struck me though, these journalists have sat and followed the women's matches because that's their job and they know who's won what, who's in which match, the stats etc and yet STILL they completely disregard them.

How can we increase the prominence of women's sport to the wider public if the journalists themselves, who are one of the links between the public and the sport, write female athletes off as irrevelant? Just reinforces the message that they're not important.

I like him for not fawing to and performing for the media in general but that clip was bloody brilliant. It's a shame it needed to be said at all in this day and age.

Totally agree with last 3 posters. Hasn't contorted himself for the media/PR at all and these days that's very rare.

"he gets just as much grief for his feminism as women do."

I think not.

I was referring to the comments below the articles I was reading! Unless you've read exactly the same articles as I have, how the hell do you know?

he gets just as much grief for his feminism as women do

He definitely doesn't. Whilst it's not universal praise, the vast majority of the reactions on social media are praising him. Also - and I'm guilty of this as well - many women praise men such as him far more for challenging sexism than if a woman did it, with them attaining heroic status simply for doing so (which they'd not be able to if other men weren't sexist). As I said I understand why this happens as unfortunately men challenging sexism is vital and I think I do the same not only with stories like this but boys I know too.

Women challenging sexism are met with all the responses Popchyck outlined and more, with some general abuse thrown in as well. The reaction is completely different.

I wish we could give him some award. Do Mumsnet do annual awards for people that we could vote on, if not they should MNHQ?

I love the way he did it, hilarious!
Just I. A way that wasn't rude but had undertones of 'you ignorant twat!'

My original comment said: if you read the comments beneath some of the articles reporting on this, he gets just as much grief for his feminism as women do.

So, NoLove, how do you know that you have read exactly the same online articles as I have to be able to assert so sweepingly that He definitely doesn't?

I agree Karlos. Not many going about anymore.

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross, have any of the articles that you have read had people threatening to rape and/or kill him?

Well it's slightly odd you were using only comments under specific articles you've read to counter those saying the reaction in general is completely different. It's pretty clear it was the wider reaction being referred to but alright, he gets exactly the same grief and abuse in the comments under the articles you read as women do

Andy is great, deserves more praise for being a Great British champion than he gets. Has class.

I also wondered about intersectionality of the journos comments. It's not just that other Americans have been in the semis but Serena William's has dominated the women's game and won numerous slams in that time. I do wonder whether she would have been so easily forgotten whether she was a white female or black male tennis player. We will never know but I have my suspicions it's no for both.

On one of the Independent articles on facebook today about this, there is such upset being expressed by some posters that the Indy have described the journalist who made the comment Andy corrected as sexist. Apparently, making a sexist comment does not make you sexist. And saying someone is sexist is a terrible thing. Funny how they're more upset about that than they are about actual sexism, eh?

Indeed alltouchedout. It seems it's worse for men to be correctly described as sexist than for women to actually experience sexism, with the former prompting more outrage from many.

Absolutely.

Women need to toughen up and not take sexist statements too personally. We can't expect kid gloves. It's just words!

Men are terribly, terribly hurt by being accused of saying sexist things. We really ought to be nicer. Words hurt!

He's such a great role model.

We need more Andy Murrays!

He's just gone up 10 fold in my estimation. Thanks for that.

chicken - maybe when Glamour are doing their Women of the Year awards they could bear him in mind

Love Andy Murray, love his 'not amused' face.

Absolutely cheered me up no end when I saw the clip yesterday. Love him. Thanks too to the poster who posted the things he's said previously. He is tops.

Also I love his manners on court. Always removes his cap before shaking his opponents hand, win or lose. Always signs autographs after a match, a lot of autographs.

So nice to see Andy smile and laugh!

Since Martina is now an American he could also have said, "first straight player". It's a smorgasbord of ignoring everyone 'other'.

Actually Martina was pre-2009 so ignore me

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2015/jun/09/good-on-andy-murray-and-his-feminism-listen-to-women-and-be-outraged

I'm not sure why people are so quick to defend this journalist on a racism charge. Racism (conscious or otherwise) has certainly dogged the Williams sisters. This is yet another another example of the erasure of black women. Whether his primary reason for omitting them was because they were women or because they were black doesn't really matter. This is far far more likely to happen to black women. Those two sisters have been at the top of their sport for so long and have done so much trailblazing and they were still forgotten. I'm not sure I care very much whether his intentions were racist or not. The result was racist.