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Friday, February 23, 2007

Surprising Sexism


The funny thing about being white, male and straight is that I don’t tend to see bigotry much because it isn’t often directed at me, and because it isn’t directed towards me, I tend to be blind to it, unless of course someone is getting some type of special treatment because they are brown, then Talkback can’t shout wolf racism loud enough.

So when my I do open my eyes and look around, I’m always dumbstruck by some of the things I see because the discrimination is just so inanely blatant, which was my reaction at the news today that Tennis is only now starting to offer the same amount of prize money for Women as they do for Men. That was just so bloody surprising to me, in the age of media endorsements Women’s Tennis surely holds it’s own as an income generator, so why would they get less? (That is of course if your suggested defence would be ‘because Men’s Tennis generates more money’, and you were to ignore the entire equality argument).

It’s only when such a blatant example is exposed does it make you pause and wonder at the many millions of other women paid less for no other reason than being a woman, who aren’t as lucky as female tennis players in terms of media exposure and suffer the indignity quietly, told simply that they are lucky to have a job.

Pay for play
Wimbledon agrees to equal prize money for women
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Genteel, old-fashioned Wimbledon is steeped in tradition. There's one custom, however, that has finally been discarded. Women, at last, will be paid as much as the men. After years of holding out against equal pay, the All England Club yielded to 21st century realities Thursday and agreed to offer the same prize money to both sexes at the world's most prestigious tennis tournament. "I knew it was just a matter of time," defending Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo said. "They resisted the longest they could. They have made the right decision and they really had no choice."

5 Comments:

At 23/2/07 11:27 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You know, I used to think that we had gotten over this gender inequality bullshit. I thought, its 2007, and people are paid based on how good they are, not their sex.

However, I was wrong.

Just last week, my wife discovered that somebody with substaintially less experiance than her, doing the exact same job, is paid quite a bit more than she is.

Needless to say, she is going to be resigning today.

 
At 23/2/07 1:02 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

More pictures of hot chicks please! After all, most pictures on this site are of men. We must have equality!!

 
At 23/2/07 2:47 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Men play more sets than women and their games go longer. More work involved - hence they are paid more. Simple really.

 
At 23/2/07 5:02 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

where have you been living?? you are obviously too concerned with being a socialist that you don't have a broad knowledge outside of bagging the usa/police/anyone who works and makes an honest living. as said above men play 5 sets, men also command greater crowds and therefore sponsorship and therefore money. its not sexism, its natural economics.

 
At 23/2/07 6:20 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, but tennis is one of the only sports where the women's version is as/almost as popular as the mens' version. Surely the market drives professional sport, not some notion of 'equality'.

Personally I have little interest in mens' tennis and much prefer womens'. That's because I am unashamedly a horndog. These chicks are what all women should look like- fit, in tight clothes.

 

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