“As long as it’s legal, and in good taste, we’re going to do it,” proclaimed Shawn Hunter, co-owner of the not yet named minor league Rosemont baseball team.
Another minor league baseball team, the Ogden Raptors went the opposite route. They came up with something called “Hourglass Appreciation Night,” which was as sexist, objectifying and socially regressive as a sports promotion can get.
Yet, it’s actually not all that much worse than what the supposed leaders of the sports industry have been doing for many years.
The sports television networks, who hold the game broadcast rights, are the most powerful players in the sports world, and they set the tone. If you don’t believe me, then think about all the stupid excuses for “questions” you hear in press conferences.
Those “talk about……”, “walk us through………,” “how did it feel to you…” and “how big was that…..” discourse that you hear from almost everybody, even the hard core journalists- that’s all due to the pointless end of half/end of game sideline interviews in television.
As go the massive tv networks so goes the rest of the sports industry.
The networks have literally been hiring bikini models, pageant system products and cheerleaders as commentators and “reporters” for well over a decade now. While many of these hires do possess more than enough acumen to perform the job (a gig that requires very little actual acumen), the pattern conveys a terribly and socially regressive message.
That message is, if you’re a woman getting into sports media, your physical appearance matters much much more than your journalistic skills. With this FOX News Channel style culture of gender relations existing at the highest levels of the business, what would you expect from a lowly Rookie Ball team affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers?
We’ve seen numerous female reporters date and marry athletes, and then move UP in the world, not down. Yes, what should end a woman’s journalistic career, has resulted mostly in just instances of “failing upwards.” There was a time when sleeping with your sources gets you fired, today, at least in this realm, it gets you promoted.
So while the Ogden Raptors have been called out for their horrifyingly socially regressive promotional idea, they are a mere symptom, not the disease.
The networks will spotlight how many of the women they place in these roles are former athletes, but they’re completely missing the point.
Women in sports media are, for the most part, still limited to these ancillary and superficial roles. The sports industry is still a backwards place regarding gender roles, but then again so is the executive branch of the Federal government.
The Ogden Raptors are a ball club in a Trump stronghold, sporting plenty of Trumpian propaganda.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/872537561981472770
The Ogden Raptors play their home games in a county that Donald Trump won by 20% points, and a state he took by 18 points. Look at the Raptors Twitter account and you’ll actually see “America First” painted on their home field.
Again, just like with the television networks, backwards perceptions of gender roles start at the top.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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