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There's been no shortage of sex scandals in the sports world of late. Some have flown under the radar, while others have dominated world news... and water-cooler conversation... for days.
The latest... now commonly known as
the Favre Sext Case... has many of the elements seen in other recent scandals: a
sexy sidelines reporter, a male athlete misbehaving and copious use of technology for intimate communication purposes. And as different as the details may be in the individual cases, they all seem to lend themselves to the question of sexism in sports; in the reporting and presentation of sports by the media and in the behavior of athletes and officials... but also in the way sports are enjoyed by fans of both sexes.
Writing about this latest scandal, Fox Sports columnist
Jason Whitlock declares that
"The entire sports media industry is polluted by sexism" in defense of the latest "victim" Jenn Sterger, who's been painted as a ruthlessly ambitious gold digger/fame whore by some, he decries the boys-will-be-boys-and-girls-will-be-eye-candy culture of the NFL, but acknowledges that it'll be difficult to change.
Bloomberg writer
Scott Soshnick, actually sees this as a moment the to further engage what Commissioner
Roger Goodell called the most encouraging new revenue stream for the NFL: no, not wireless... women. Mr. Soshnick feels that not only do they need to continue stressing that men behaving badly won’t be tolerated but they also need to make the sport more "female-friendly" in a
fan-engagement rather than a
shrink & pink sort of way. He's got some interesting suggestions.
It's a marketing strategy that's being looked at seriously... way beyond football. Yesterday I attended a
Playboy Golf event that was fun, sexy and... completely "female-friendly". It can be done, but how many organizations are ready to do it. Do you feel these recent scandals have made sports organizations more aware of the issues the issues they have with some female fans? Do they see the value in female fans and are they willing to risk the status quo to make changes? That'll be our topic tonight on
Only Two Things. You can join the conversation too... on-air... by using our call-in number, which is:
917-889-9592. Or... weigh in at
the chat room or on Twitter... or just have a listen at
Blog Talk Radio. We'll be live from 9:30 - 10:30 ET.
