The Staggers

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Why the all male Sports Personality of the Year shortlist is a good thing

In-built sexist thinking -- or not-thinking -- needs to be highlighted whenever it happens.

By Richard Morris Published 30 November 2011 17:33

It's just possible, you know, that the announcement of an all male shortlist for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year is an entirely good thing.

Before the hate mail starts, I should add that ever since I heard this news, I've been spitting feathers about it. It's a clearly ridiculous state of affairs -- you could easily put together a list of 10 British women who could make up the list all on their own. In fact, somebody already has.

But on reflection there is a silver lining. Because it exposes the institutionalised sexism of the whole process.

It's not just that it seems, as Clare Balding tweeted yesterday, that every single person asked to nominate people for the shortlist was male.

It's the fact that in a conference room in the bowels of the BBC, a group of executives decided that they should invite the editors of Nuts and Zoo magazines to weigh in with their opinions.

Just picture the misguided thought process by which this decision was arrived at. Lads mags are read by men. Being men, they must like sport. Therefore we shall ask the editors of those august journals to contribute their thoughts. Conversely, the readers of Cosmo and Marie Claire are women -- their heads are full of shopping and knitting, so we shan't trouble them on sporting matters.

Gobsmacking.

This in-built sexist thinking -- or rather, not-thinking -- needs to be highlighted whenever it happens. Helen Lewis-Hasteley picked up Michael White on it the other day in the Guardian (!!!) when he referred to #womanontheleft in the Leveson inquiry as a "woman lawyer". No she isn't. She's a lawyer. Just like all the male ones.

And presumably this bias has been in the nominations system ever since the BBC started asking "experts" to throw in their opinions. It's just that the odd inclusion of the Queen's granddaughter on the list has rather masked it. Not any more.

I'd like to bet that the BBC will make sure that next year there's a wide range of women consulted on the SPOTY shortlist, with equal representation for male and female contributors.

And if it wasn't for this year's debacle, that would never happen.

Richard Morris blogs at A View From Ham Common which was named Best New Blog at the 2011 Lib Dem Conference

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Tags: Sport feminism

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11 comments

Wed, 2011-11-30 18:10 — Arturo Bandini (not verified)

Of course, this assumes anyone gives a multicoloured fuck about the BBC Sports Personality of thye... jeez, I even got bored typing it.

Wed, 2011-11-30 18:17 — Katy (not verified)

It would (hopefully) happen next year because during the Olympics women and men's sport is given equal coverage - one gold medal from Rebecca Adlington gets as much attention as one from Sir Chris Hoy. It's what happens on non-Olympic years that highlights the difference in coverage.

Wed, 2011-11-30 18:37 — Ian5

Not even bothered looking until now, is it possible that the list is correct..

Who would you replace with a woman? Can't actually see which ones you would drop from the list.. so looked at the all female alternative linked to above....No, nothing there to replace any of the list... Team wise, 2 mentioned that could get the nod. But the BBC SPOTY list has merit, it can also be argued as can any top 10 list.

Wed, 2011-11-30 19:48 — Fergus Pickering (not verified)

I take it all ten are members of the England Cricket Team. They are the only ones who have won anything, aren't they? Though the women aren't bad.

Wed, 2011-11-30 23:24 — ross mantle (not verified)

I've just seen the shortlist and it actually seems fair enough to me.

3x Golfers, World number 1 and 2 major winners
1x Tennis player whose just had his best season
1x Boxer, one of the best in his weight class
2x world champion athletes
2x Cricketers, best batsman and captain.
1x World champion cyclist.

I'm not sexist, but let's be honest, the girls haven't had the best of years this year.

Thu, 2011-12-01 03:44 — ellieban (not verified)

Did any of the "the top 10 men are just better than the women in the other list" even read the Guardian article linked to? Because the very first woman on the list (Sarah Stevenson) deserves to be there straight out of the box after winning her third Taekwondo world title after losing both parents to cancer in the same year. Explain to me exactly why a world title in cycling is more deserving that one in Taekwondo won under such difficult circumstances?

And why do the 2 world champion athletes deserve to be there more than the Olympic AND world champion swimmer Rebecca Addlington?

No. I'm sorry. Your apologetics are weak and transparent and you need to come up with something better than that to mask your innate sexism from those reading your comments, even if it's enough to hide it from yourselves.

Thu, 2011-12-01 10:24 — swatantra nandanwar

And just to make the point, this year they should run an All Women Shortlist Sports Personality Event, prize awarded prior to the BBC Event.
I'm against giving Knighthoods to Sports Peronalities even if they've won the Olymics, and honours to TV personalities. In fact scrap the whole honours system altogether. We are all equal; it may be that some are talented in a particular field, but could they do differential equations and calculus? No. I think I've made my point.

Thu, 2011-12-01 10:32 — Flashbuck (not verified)

Yawn... another trendy bloke desperate to show how right on he is with the feminists and all that: "spitting feathers" at the news the list was all male? Yeah sure ha ha ha ha ha. What a chump.

Thu, 2011-12-01 10:38 — Flashbuck (not verified)

I love it when the fascist left start sniffing out heresies such as so-called sexism and stuff. They really get self-righteous when they do so and it's a larf to watch them wag their fingers and tut tu tut. HaHaHa.

Thu, 2011-12-01 11:13 — Smiler (not verified)

This award is for "personality" and not for "best sportsman or woman".

I wasn't aware that the two hugely successful swimmers had won their world medals this year so no way i would have voted for either of them. Surely that is the error here, not the nomination process for a stupid vanity based award.