So, what started out as a little bit of banter has ended with two of the best football presenters on TV losing their jobs. The world has, quiet literally, gone mad!
Yes the comments made by Andy Gray and Richard Keys were ill-advised at best but it was a conversation between two colleagues off air and was the same conversation going on in a pubs up and down the country at the time.
I was watching the Wolves v Liverpool match in a pub and the banter about the female assistant was in full flow. Comments like 'It's lunchtime shouldn't she be in the kitchen?' and the inevitable 'What do women know about the offside law?' The very words that led to Gray's dismissal from Sky.
Sexist? Yes, if taken out of context, but it was more mickey-taking of the perceived sexist attitudes in football. It was men taking the mickey out themselves if anything. 'Look how out of date we are!' None of the comments I heard were malicious and I'm fairly certain that Sian Massey would not have been offended had she heard them. Banter in the workplace goes on all the time. I am from Essex but now living and working in the North-East and I am subjected to comments about being a 'cockney' and a 'southern softie' all the time. Do I get offended?? No, I accept it as it is meant, banter among colleagues. And they are all northern monkeys anyway...
But I do not feel that is the real issue. Of course Gray and Keys were stitched up, there is no doubt about that, but the media frenzy surrounding the whole thing is just unbelievable. If you read some of the things being said about them you would think they had committed a murder or raped a minor, and most of the people writing this stuff and commenting on it have said similar things at some point anyway. Hypocites the lot of them...
Gray was a professional footballer in the 1970's and 80's. Does that excuse his comments? No, but maybe it does explain them. The football dressing room is a place for this sort of banter and if you think it does not still go on today you are very much mistaken. Do you not think the millionaire footballers talk about which supermodel they want to 'nail' or indeed which supermodel they have 'nailed'? Of course they do.
But the thing is its not just men who do this. Get a group of women together and they will be talking about men in a derogatory way, making fun of them, calling them a 'nice piece of meat'. For evidence of this just watch Loose Women at lunchtime. In the only episode I actually sat through I heard many comments that could be called sexist but are the presenters vilified in the same way as Gray and Keys? Has the programme been pulled? No is the answer and why? Because apparently only men can be sexist, just like only white people can be racist! What an absolute joke.
So while Muslims burn poppies on the streets of Britain and it gets brushed off as a 'political statement', white people are not allowed to protest outside a mosque as it is considered racist! A black man assaults a white man and it is just an assault, the other way around and it's a racist attack. It is the same with sexism. Woman can say whatever they like about men and get away with it but the odd comment from a man and they get the book thrown at them. Unbelievable.
I was at a supermarket checkout last week and I heard two middle aged women talking about Jamie Oliver's TV show.'What does he know about cooking anyway?' said one. 'Yeah' replied her friend, 'he should be out on his motorbike. I bet his wife is a better cook then him anyway!' I found it quiet funny, as I'm sure Jamie would have done too, but is that not sexism? The fact the women can get away with this merely goes along with the stereotype that women are the weaker sex. Just like the little 5ft guy cannot be a bully because he is too small, even though he goes around terrorising everyone. 'Ah he's ok he's only little...'
Lets get it right, if Gray has been sacked for what he said, or even for the 'mic down the trousers' gag, then the women on Loose Woman must also be fired. If Sky are making a stand against sexism then they should ditch the 'Soccerttes' on Soccer AM and employ older and less attractive woman on Sky Sports News. Either cut out ALL sexism on TV or leave things as they are. You cannot be selective. But none of that will happen.
Gray has been shafted by people who wanted him out and everyone who is jumping on the bandwagon should, quiet honestly, be ashamed of themselves. I have cancelled my Sky subscription and I will not be renewing it again until Gray and Keys are reinstated. I urge you all to do the same...
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