Essentially, this old goat with tons of money (billions!) paid for the series between the England cricket team and various counterparts in the West Indies. He was spotted on the big screen at the match with one player's pregnant girlfriend on his lap, and was generally cuddling up to and flirting with the female players.
He's personally apologized for "the incident" - by calling the player with the pregnant girlfriend and the captain of the team. Is this not a tad... well... like treating the players as if he'd got on their horse, or sat behind the wheel of their cars? What about the women - what about apologizing to them? Or, indeed, not apologizing to them, because from the photos, none looks offended; they all look to be having rather a jolly time. Which, I suspect, is what really bothered the players in question.
There's something weirdly proprietary about the need to apologize to these women's men, as if they were the women's owners. And why Pietersen - because as head of his men he's head of his men's women, too?Apologize to the women for offending them; or for causing trouble, maybe, but apologizing to the men...
It is just not sitting right with me.
1 comment:
Yes, well. Women are still, even in countries where they are given more respect, thought of as the property of men. That's why I hate phrases like "my girl," "my woman," and viceversa (my man, my guy). We're still too immersed in the discourse of women as property to participate in this kind of language use without thinking twice. I've had to go to Mexico quite a few times over the past months to deal with some family business involving going to banks and talking to business men. When I go, I'm usually with my brother. 9 out of 10 times, he receives the business card and is the primary focus of said business man/woman. I, alas, remain as a kind of shadow or ghost, even. I have to ask for a card too, please. To be fair, in Mexico things are MUCH worse in this respect; pathetic, in fact. But I think that they still are in the US and Britain as well. We just don't generally see it because of the social circles we live and work in. But if you go to the sports section of life, for example, sexism is alive and kicking. That's my two-cents, at least.
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