Ah, Ines Sainz. What are we to do about you and your clothes and your pose of enticement?
First of all let me say that I don't have to take a back seat to anyone when it comes to championing women's rights. I've got a wife, two daughters and a granddaughter. I helped the woman who formed the women's rights organization Nine to Five get it off the ground. I am in favor of equal rights and I am against harassment in all its forms.
Now some background.
Sainz is a gorgeous sports television reporter for TV Azteca, the second largest network in Mexico. She was in New York last week to interview Mark Sanchez. When I say gorgeous, I'm talking off the charts hot. She showed up wearing jeans so tight they should be illegal and a frilly white blouse that highlighted her, um, highlights.
During practice and in the locker room afterward there was some flirting and a few catcalls from the players. Sainz, to her credit, didn't seem that bothered until some American reporters said she ought to be upset.
After all, Sainz has called herself the "sexiest sports reporter around." Her network uses her obvious assets in promotional efforts designed to corner the market on 24-55-year-old men. Sex sells.
What we had here was an absolute knockout who flaunts her assets to advance her career in a room full of 60 or so naked or semi-naked men. Hmmmmmmmmm. What do we think might happen.
I'm not going to side with or criticize either Sainz or the Jets players and coaches. But I do want to take some issue with the reaction to what happened.
I want to take a shot at The Association for Women in Sports Media, the NFL, the Jets, big time columnist Christine Brennan from USA Today who is on some kind of jihad over this whole thing and Meredith Vieira who took Sainz to task for her clothes.
The incident was met with lots of reaction. The overwhelming reaction was that the behavior of the players was terrible. It even reawakened remnants of a long-dead battle, whether women sports reporters should be in a locker room.
What happened here is that the reactions were so politically correct that they almost make me cringe.
Both the NFL and the Jets said they were going to "investigate." The Association for Women in Sports Media called for an investigation. Okay, have your investigation, but what in the world do you think all these investigations are going to find?
Here's what they find.
Guys, girls, flirting (both ways), people who work on their bodies, some whistles, some smiles.
But because someone complained a little bit -- a reminder that it was not anyone involved in the playing around -- we are all supposed to take this seriously as some kind of major social event that turned out to be great fodder for all the tabloid television talk shows and all the self-righteous reporters, both men and women, who respond like Pavlov's dogs every time they hear about some guy wolf-whistling at a lady with nice legs.
First of all, if no tattle-tale had complained about what was going on, there would be no issue. And secondly, the appropriate reaction to all of this is "so what." I mean, let's grow up in this country and realize that there is sexual interaction out there in this world of ours. Sexual harassment is a very serious thing. It ought to be dealt with seriously.
Treating this thing as sexual harassment does nothing but confuse the issue when it really happens. Sexual harassment has a malicious and hostile element to it. It is the kind of insidious thing that debases and frightens women.
When we start investigating and thinking that this episode between Sainz and the Jets is sexual harassment, we are in danger of never being able to truly recognize it when it happens.
With a history in Milwaukee stretching back decades, Dave tries to bring a unique perspective to his writing, whether it's sports, politics, theater or any other issue.
He's seen Milwaukee grow, suffer pangs of growth, strive for success and has been involved in many efforts to both shape and re-shape the city. He's a happy man, now that he's quit playing golf, and enjoys music, his children and grandchildren and the myriad of sports in this state. He loves great food and hates bullies and people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
This whole Internet thing continues to baffle him, but he's willing to play the game as long as OnMilwaukee.com keeps lending him a helping hand. He is constantly amazed that just a few dedicated people can provide so much news and information to a hungry public.
Despite some opinions to the contrary, Dave likes most stuff. But he is a skeptic who constantly wonders about the world around him. So many questions, so few answers.
