I’d like to take a moment to talk about sexism today, particularly this article ————> Gatlin says female athletes should mud wrestle for Olympic spot.
Done reading? Okay let’s continue. Firstly before we I can talk about the above article we must clear the air about the definition of sexism I’ll be using, that is Merriam-Webster’s (MW) version. MW discribes sexism as: “1) prejudice or discrimination based on sex; especially :discrimination against women. 2) behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex.” So to be sexist it must have the qualities of being prejudice, discriminatory, or fosters stereotypes of social roles based on sex. To further simplyfi this; sexism is characterized by preconcived judgments based soley on a persons sex, the act of basing decisions categorically based on an individuals or groups sex, or encouraging the categorization or acceptance of categorization based on sex. Simple? Simple. Onward we go.
Now with this definition in mind, can we say the above article is correct in labeling the statement sexist? No we can not. Yes it is an idea fostered in many sexual fantasys by men and women alike but that does not make it sexist, just sexual. The idea expressed by Gatlin is one of a sexual desire to watch two people he finds attractive wrestle naked in food stuffs. What he is not saying is that this is a legitimate way they can settle the tie breaker, which would be an excidingly sexist by our afformentioned definition. What this article fails to mention is that Gatlin goes on to praise their skills and weighs in on the actual options being considered and puts some shop thought as a runner into his opinion. He says “I think Jeneba is a great young talent and Allyson Felix is a darling of the sport”…”The plight we have here is that not only are they great runners who put a lot of heart out there, they’re coached by the same guy and they’re training partners.”…“They’re both great 200-meter runners as well, so why put them in a situation where they have to run against each other in a real race when they run almost every day against each other? They have to prepare for the 200. They have a whole field that’s ready to go out and make the field in the 200, too, so that’s not fair to them.”(Tie breaker not practical) The above article forgets to mention this part.
Now you might say that his praise doesn’t excuse an sexual remark about to young athletes (or any others he made) which, if they were sexist, would be the case. But an expression of sexual desire is just that, sexual. If we become afraid to express our sexual sides because of fear of being labeled sexist that becomes a form of sexual repression, another explosive social issue we wish to eliminate. Now is there a proper time and place to express such desires? Yes. Preferably not in an interview that will be watched or read by thousands and taken as an actual opinion on the solution to an athletic dilemma. And this issue runs both ways, for men and women. We should all be able to express our sexual desires when ever is publicly acceptable and in a publicly acceptable form. At the moment the standards for judging acceptability for each sex are very skewed of course, but that does not mean we should mistake inappropriate sexual-ism as sexism. Once we get proper identification down, then we can actually start working on solving the problems we face as a society.