feminism

I know that this blog is to deal with stories currently in the news but there is one that happened at the beginning of the year that did not get as much as play as the story now about Don Imus and his awful remarks about the Rutgers girls basketball players.

http://wbztv.com/local/local_story_059081604.html
A Boston Celtics radio analyst, Cedric Maxwell made some very rude and sexist comments about one of the few female referees in the NBA when he disagreed with one of her calls. It is said that he was doing an impression of Tommy Heinsohn (who is a commentator on the Celtics' television broadcasts on Fox Sports New England) who used to yell out inappropriate things. Some feel that since he was only doing an impersonation he should not be so harshly punished, let me see how you feel…. He said, “Go back to the kitchen” and then if that wasn’t enough he followed that remark with, “Go in there and make me some bacon and eggs, would you?” I guess he thought that was a funny impersonation. Strange how he decided to impersonate him when a female referee made a bad call. If a male referee were to make a call he disagreed with he would not insult his manhood but simply state that he disagreed and it was an awful call in his opinion.
He later issued an apology, if that’s what you can call it, where he said, “If I said anything that might have been insensitive or sexist in any way, then I apologize because she worked extremely hard to get where she is now […].” First of all he starts off by saying IF I said anything insensitive or sexist…please…IF…obviously it was. He then goes on to say how she has worked so hard to get where she is which in my opinion is just saying that to get her job as a women is something that is not an everyday thing, it is primarily a male job even though women are obviously capable of it. He did not make his initial comments any better by apologizing. In my opinion he made them worse by making her out to be some poor female who he should not have said anything about because it upset her. This comment fits right into feminism and how they tried to pull women out of the housewife role and Cedric Maxwell is putting her right back. As we read in Barry, feminists pointed out that in nineteenth century fiction, very few women worked unless they absolutely had to (Barry 122). Eventually as the years went on feminism expanded its issues to more then just literature but this was a huge problem they saw. Even today women are still sometimes viewed to put a husband and kids before a career. Cedric Maxwell’s comments proved that some people are still stuck in this mindset today.
Going back to the comments that Don Imus made on his morning show, I think that he should be punished. He called COLLEGE ATHLETES nappy headed hoes. He also said that these girls looked roughed because they had tattoos on them. Has he ever seen any male basketball games? They all have tattoos as well does that make them rough looking pimps? ....I didn’t think so. The problem I have here is what I have with the story I wrote about before. Both these men claimed to apologize for what they said but neither apology was actually an apology. They say they are sorry but follow it with another more subtle sexist remark about how females have worked so hard to get where they are and how their remarks were insensitive to them. Please! They are totally saying that women either shouldn’t be where they are, in so-called male roles, and they are calling us the typical female by saying they were insensitive to our feelings.
I think all these men need a refresher in apologies and also need to learn what a woman really is. Their view of feminine is the typical socially constructed one that limits what we actually are.