The next time someone tries to tell me that the world is not a hostile place for women I’m going to point them to this story.
Via the New York Times: At halftime of the Jets’ home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, several hundred men lined one of Giants Stadium’s two pedestrian ramps at Gate D. Three deep in some areas, they whistled and jumped up and down. Then they began an obscenity-laced chant, demanding that the few women in the gathering expose their breasts.
According to the article, this “Gate D” (Get it? So mature.) practice has been going on for a while now, and there are numerous videos on You Tube of this hateful behaviour that border on hostile. There’s one that “shows a woman being groped by a man standing next to her.”
Now, I would think that hundreds of men yelling sexist obscenities at women at a sports arena would qualify as something objectionable? Punishable? You know, something you could do something about? No such luck:
…a guard later said they were not permitted to do anything about the chants at Gate D because of free speech laws.
Having said that, a woman who did expose her breasts as a result of the chanting was warned about “obscenity laws.”
Okay, so let me get this straight - 400 to 500 people chanting sexist, hateful obscenities that belittle and objectify female fans, making the arena a hostile and uncomfortable environment for them, that’s okay? But boobs? Boobs are bad.
Some days, I just shake my head.
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Wow. I can hear the idiotic, sexist comebacks now, though, trying to explain how this is somehow "acceptable" as Tom Leykis-ian "tradition."
"Everyone that goes to a game there knows about it. She should have left it she didn't want to. It's a Jets thing, duh."
Ugh.
I'm realizing more and more that Russell Crowe was on the right track. Americans and particularly big-time American sports are completely crazy with the "anything goes" sports culture which makes the environment completely hostile to anyone other than segment of young, heterosexual men.
Posted by Luke
November 21, 2007, 2:10 AM
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