Premier League Sexism

What is a sexist? It is such a complex issue. Are you a sexist if you don’t like certain women? Are you a sexist if you think of all women as second class citizens or mere sexual objects? Are you a sexist if you think power belongs only to men? Are you a sexist if you just say these things and don’t act on them (speech isn’t an action)?

Such a complicated issue, if of course you are a partially retarded dinosaur. I think it is becoming increasingly easy to spot people who are sexists these days, the sort of crusty old men who send emails about “female irrationality” and female colleagues being on/off “your shaft” as if it is actually about humour and less about their own sexual inadequacies and latent Oedipal complexes, the sort of wealthy men that hand around in tired old institutions like the Premier League and the FA, somehow walking away with huge pay packets whilst retaining the illusion of doing pretty much nothing (except sending lewd emails).

Unfortunately the rest of the Premier League and FA boards are similarly retarded dinosaurs, and seem to think that if you are a private sexist then that is all well and good, just as long as he isn’t expressing these views in a poster campaign he can keep his huge pay packet which comes from fans who apparently have to simply accept that at least one sexist dinosaur runs the Premier League. Would he be allowed to say he ‘would like to touch young boys’ in a private email, sending cartoons about this to his diplodocus friends? 

Rani Abraham is now being threatened with legal action by the Premier League, who are apparently powerless to sanction their employee, Richard Scudamore. Even in a clear case of wrongdoing, punishment is enacted on the temporary female worker, not the wealthy male executive – such action is more indicative of how acceptable sexism is than the emails themselves. It is also a problem of class, a colleague of mine was fired 6 months ago for making disparaging comments about a senior staff member in a private email, there is one set of rules for the executives, and one for workers. Executives have become more powerful than the bodies they work for, through football to the financial sector, whilst the Premier League have misjudged how out of kilter they are with public opinion, the sexist triceratops will keep his job and the message to people like Rani Abraham is to put up and shut up. Fortunately, most people have more integrity than executives.