Women: Why do they get no respect?

A few days ago, a Mexican reporter named Inez Sainz went to the NFL's New York Jets locker room. She was wearing very tight pants!!! This was apparenty an excuse for some of the Jets members to catcall and whistle at her. Then Clinton Portis chimed in and said, basically - what did she expect? You let a woman into a room with 53 naked men, obviously she's going to check out their "packages", just as they're checking out her.

Which is probably true, by the way. As an aside, no reporters of either sex belong in a team's locker room. That's just ridiculous.

In any event, I've been reading the comments on this, made by people who read the articles whereever they appear (Yahoo News and CBS Sportsline, for me) and they are filled with sexist rants against women.

But really, don't women share some of the blame? Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting women dress in burkhas and wear clothing that covers them from wrist to ankle, that's ridiculous. But when you wear shorts cut so short that your buttcheeks are revealed, and shirts that are little more than bra tops, what is the message you are sending to every guy you pass (who in his turn is dressed in a baggy t-shirt and baggy shorts, although if you're lucky once in a while you'll come across one who has his shorts belted underneath his buttocks, so you get a fine view of his buttock-clad underwear - but that's a rant for another time.)

Anyway, if women want respect, and I hope they do, time for them to stop pandering to the marketing folks who run their sports (I'm thinking track and field) and start wearing "power suits" not "yes, I'm just eye candy for you and deserve no respect because all I'm trading on are my assets" suits.

Now, following one article, I came across blacksportsonline.com, a site that is supposed to celebrate black athletes in sports. Check out their header.



There are plenty of black female athletes. Admittedly only a couple in tennis - Venus and Serena Williams, but plenty of WNBA players - Candace Parker, etc., and plenty of track and field stars. And yet they deliberately choose these two women, none of whom I recognize, both of whom are clearly there strictly for the salacious aspect.