Chris Gayle Fined

[Peter Grummit]

Extraxt from Marina Hyde's piece today. It puts to lie the idea that this is all "modern day PC gone mad".

"As for Gayle, he has been relieved of $10,000 by his Melbourne Renegades chairman, who somewhat excruciatingly reckoned it was just “cultural differences” (well done, mate!). He has issued a non-apology apology on his way out of the airport – a detail that reminded me he is certainly not the greatest entertainer to have had unfortunate dealings with women reporters in Australia. That honour belongs to Frank Sinatra, who in 1974 took it upon himself to discourse on the country’s female journalists live on stage in Melbourne’s festival hall. “As for the broads who work for the press,” he opined, “they’re the hookers of the press. I might offer them a buck-and-a-half, I’m not sure.”

They used to say “it’s Frank’s world; we just live in it” – but at that moment in time Australia declined to be part of Frank’s world. The reaction was swift and comically stunning. The Australian press demanded he apologise; Sinatra refused. By noon the next day, the unions were involved, and airport refuellers flatly refused to fill his Gulfstream, while terminal staff announced none of their number would serve him. For the next few days, Sinatra ended up marooned and under siege on the 23rd floor of a Sydney hotel. It took the arbitration and conciliation services of Bob Hawke – then the ragingly popular leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions – to get Sinatra to sign a grudging apology, which finally permitted him to escape the country.

Happily, that was all a long time ago. There’s every chance Australia’s pubs echoed to the sound of Frank-loving guys raging against the female journalists back in 1974 but the wonderful thing about 2016 is that you can hear it all online. The ladies should lighten up, it’s only a joke, they’re obviously lying because they’re waaaay too ugly for Chris Gayle to hit on them … and so on."

PG

 

[spring hall convert]

These sports channels need to start hiring ugly birds , that will soon stamp this sort of lark out.

I know this is in jest but actually there is a serious point here. I suspect it isn't a coincidence that on commercial television stations most female sports reporters/ anchors/ presenters etc... all just happen to be attractive. There's inherent sexism at play at to some small extent Gayle is only playing up to it.

One thing I'll credit the BBC for is across all their sports coverage, they in the main plump for a woman's ability and knowledge over her looks. Now, the BBC is less worried about making money and more worried the quality of what they present than commercial TV, I assume from this that attractive women presenting sports programs sells, ergo in sports programming there is actually a demand for sexism! There seems less of a pressure on male sports leads to look the part (though I'm not denying that there is some pressure.)

 

[Phat Baz 68]

unbelievable Sometimes the PC brigade go well OTT. If it was the other way round I doubt it would have had any airtime etc...

HA HA HA Only sometimes ? They are the cretins on this Earth along with Paedos & Terrorists that i wish would all just die very very quickly.
They cause more trouble for society everywhere than any other group of people.

 

[Bladders]

I know this is in jest but actually there is a serious point here. I suspect it isn't a coincidence that on commercial television stations most female sports reporters/ anchors/ presenters etc... all just happen to be attractive. There's inherent sexism at play at to some small extent Gayle is only playing up to it.

One thing I'll credit the BBC for is across all their sports coverage, they in the main plump for a woman's ability and knowledge over her looks. Now, the BBC is less worried about making money and more worried the quality of what they present than commercial TV, I assume from this that attractive women presenting sports programs sells, ergo in sports programming there is actually a demand for sexism! There seems less of a pressure on male sports leads to look the part (though I'm not denying that there is some pressure.)

Try getting on SSN if you're a talented female but a bit of an ugger.

If you look worse than a young Clare Tomlinson you've got NO CHANCE.

 

[spring hall convert]

Try getting on SSN if you're a talented female but a bit of an ugger.

If you look worse than a young Clare Tomlinson you've got NO CHANCE.

The business I used to Account Manage for had Sky as a client (and a ****ing horrible one they were to.) It meant that I had to visit their office in Isleworth fairly frequently. Their policy on female TV presenters appeared to extend to the office as a whole. I couldn't believe my eyes the first time I went up there, I thought someone was playing an elaborate hoax on me.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Try getting on SSN if you're a talented female but a bit of an ugger.

If you look worse than a young Clare Tomlinson you've got NO CHANCE.

Unfortunate but true. Claire Balding would never get a job on SkySports. Fortunately for her, the BBC appear to have looked beyond her appearance and focused on her ability as a presenter.

This whole Gayle business: it's not just the asking for a date thing, is it? After she doesn't reply in the affirmative to his offer, he responds with "Don't blush, baby". If nothing else, that's really patronising to someone he's dealing with in a professional role. It's about knowing your audience, isn't it? He's not at a party. He's being interviewed on live TV. Would anybody here say "Don't blush, baby" to a woman you've just met for the first time in a work capacity?

I can't say I'm personally offended by all this, but I do think he's made an utter tit of himself by acting like he has.