By Brittany Burke
The sports industry has made strides over the years when it comes to the treatment of women, long gone are the days in which female reporters are banned from locker rooms and looked down upon in the world of sports: or so I thought.
I realize that the media storm regarding female reporter Ines Sainz may be old news, but as a female sports writer and editor of a college newspaper sports section, the more I think about it the more upset I become.
I am greatly disappointed over the fact that a professional female reporter was exposed to such demeaning comments while trying to do her job. Haven’t women proven that they can excel within the realm of sports just as easily as a male could? Haven’t women such as Pam Oliver and Andrea Kramer shown that you can be top in the business and be female?
I do not agree with the way in which Sainz portrayed herself during the Jets practice. The uniform of tight jeans, high heels and a low cut shirt is nowhere near appropriate and sets the female population back 60 years. But comments such as, “You give her a choice of 53 athletes, somebody got to be appealing to her. You know, somebody got to spark her interest, or she’s gonna want somebody. I don’t know what kind of woman won’t, if you get to go and look at 53 men’s packages. And you’re just sitting here saying, ‘Oh, none of this is attractive to me.’ I know you’re doing a job, but at the same time, the same way I’m gonna cut my eye if I see somebody worth talking to, I’m sure they do the same thing,” made by Redskins athlete Clinton Portis are not tolerable.
Personally, I heard his interview and felt disgusted. I work hard to portray professionalism when covering a game and it is wrong for that hard work to be cast aside due to your sex.
Being a female reporter shouldn’t mean you can be looked down upon or typecasted. Thankfully, the NFL takes pride in promoting equality and hasn’t taken the sexist comments as a joke. Portis has since been dealt with, but backtracking and rescinding a comment doesn’t mean the thoughts do not exist. It is obvious that the notion of a woman in a locker room or on the sideline is still not taken as seriously by all as it should be.
The same is true for female athletics. Time and time again the female sports are looked down upon and thought of as a joke because in the fans’ eyes a woman’s sport is only half a sport, second rate to the men. You would never see the same crowd at a women’s soccer or basketball game at CCSU as you would men’s.
Female reporters and athletes are just as important to the industry as their male counterparts. Women work just as hard as men if not harder to prove that they can succeed in the field and I’ll be damned if I have to hear one more time that women in sports is a joke.
I have worked for The Recorder since my sophomore year. During my time I have had the opportunity to cover hockey, football, basketball, baseball, volleyball and soccer. I have covered press conferences, spoken with athletic directors and have most recently been given the chance to interview professional UFL athletes.
In each situation I’ve been the only female reporter and have been treated as an equal to the men around me. The athletes that I have had the opportunity to work with were nowhere near as ignorant as the athletes who made comments toward Sainz and I consider myself lucky.
I’m not blinded by the fact that I may not always find such good fortune. The sad facts are women in a male dominated industry will always have to work harder to show that that they can hold their own, but the men around them shouldn’t make that effort more difficult.
A woman should not have to endure such disrespect while trying to do their job or play the game they love. Everyone should remember that a woman is more than an ornament in the locker room and a pair of spandex shorts on the court.