Sexism

[Moiraine]

 

 

I couldn't decide whether to put this in Other Sports or here. I figure we could bring up other random things here at some point.

 

Anyhow, in the above video an NFL player lets his girlfriend and the mother of his child fight each other. Now he's apologizing and:

 

When contacted for comment, the NFL's Vice President of Communications Brian McCarthy told us, "These are disturbing images and we will review the matter."

 

I find the coverage and response by the NFL to be sexist. If Fowler did anything at all wrong here it was that maybe he found it entertaining and that it boosted his ego to watch 2 girls fight over him. If his girlfriend wants to fight his ex and they're both okay with it, then that's their choice. They're adults. He didn't touch either of them. He didn't assault anyone. If he'd tried to break it up he probably would've been arrested.

 

The reason I find this sexist is that they're lowering women to a group of people that needs to be protected whenever there's a man around. That if there's a man around he's automatically to be held responsible for breaking up a fight between these hysterical "children" who can't make decisions for themselves. That women need a man around so they don't resort to their animalistic brawling nature and for him to watch it without protecting them from each other makes him terrible. That he's failed his duty as a man by not telling these women what they can and can't do.

 

IMO he did the right thing. If I want to fight another woman for my man that's up to me. Maybe there'll be repercussions (like the police getting involved) but it's up to me to face that. It's not up to the guy I'm fighting for. It's up to him whether or not to dump me after acting like an idiot, but the fight itself is up to me.

 

If it were a woman watching two men fighting over her, would the woman get in trouble? Somehow this manages to be sexist against men and women. So maybe in the end it's just really stupid.

[JJ Husker]

Sorry, I'm having trouble caring one way or the other. This falls into my Jerry Springer/Maury Povich classification of lowlife trash behavior that doesn't affect me one iota. Real ladies wouldn't fight and a gentleman would've stopped them. If that's sexist, so be it.

[Moiraine]

Sorry, I'm having trouble caring one way or the other. This falls into my Jerry Springer/Maury Povich classification of lowlife trash behavior that doesn't affect me one iota. Real ladies wouldn't fight and a gentleman would've stopped them. If that's sexist, so be it.

 

Real men don't fight either. (Unless it's for a sport).

 

If the gentleman would stop a couple guys fighting, then sure.

[zoogs]

Mmm, I don't know. It's not like they were strangers. I think a gender-neutral expectation is for the observing party to respond actively rather than indifferently, and for the brawling parties not to make fools of themselves for coming to blows. The focus is on Fowler here because he's a public figure and they are not.

 

Maybe the coverage is uniformly sexist, but I'm not sure you've made the case for that. I'm trying to see how there's any suggestion here that women have an 'animalistic brawling nature' that requires a man around to mitigate, but I'm not seeing it. Though I agree that those kinds of attitudes would be sexist. And I agree that sexism is prevalent, and an important discussion. I mean, "If it were a woman who _____" ...yes.

 

I'm not sure the case is that strong that Fowler acted callously, though. At least if a short, silent TMZ clip is all that we have. For all we know, he was saying "Stop, stop, stop" for all of five seconds before helping separate them gently. I don't know, maybe he was hanging back and watching with twisted pleasure. All I've seen is a clip that *is* disturbing, accompanied by statements from Fowler and the team that both seem to demonstrate maturity and compassion.

 

Perhaps there's nothing more to this than TMZ and Deadspin being their respective selves.