If you are into news or football, or both, you won’t have escaped noticing the furor, and public debate that followed, surrounding two of Sky’s (former) faces of the beautiful game.
That Richard Keys and Andy Gray have left the channel following remarks about the professional capability of a woman linesman, and the sexist banter that came out afterwards, has revealed that this nation has a split personality. The country fairly and squarely falls into two camps.
On one hand, some would hold what they said was deeply offensive to many – especially to the minority of women involved in the game. Furthermore, their opinions, however much said in jest, were voiced in their workplace.
On the other hand, some would say that their comments are no more unusual than you would hear in any pub throughout the land, on any evening, as well as commonplace in any crowd, or in any stadium, or on any touchline. As such, they are stereotypical views, but not widespread typical ones.
At first, I held this opinion, maintaining that we really ought to keep a sense of perspective. I thought that even if Keys and Gray genuinely held these old-fashioned views, they were just that – dinosaurs in a modern forward-looking age, who ought to be ignored.
But, during a heated debate on the subject, someone asked me how I would feel if that “linesman” had been a disabled person. How would I have felt, as someone with disabilities, if my ability to perform a task were thrown into question. I have to admit that, even if it was said in a light-hearted blokey way, I would probably not have been happy.
Sexism and racism have come some way – so that now none of these are tolerated by the mainstream. However, the Keys/Gray episode is a salutary lesson in how it is really necessary to jump on negative stereotypes, if we want to eradicate negative imagery for good.
