THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

I find this article offensive, as well. The writer advocates the commodification of sexuality, while simultaneously blaming the victim of sexual harassment for her “unprofessional” commodification of her sexuality.

The obvious problem here is that the commodification of sexuality, in any form, reduces a person to an object, which makes disrespect toward that person easier and more natural. If you’re going to accept (and even endorse) the commodification of sexuality, you need to simultaneously demand respect for the commodity/person as well. You can’t go around blaming the people you think are selling themselves too overtly, as if sexual harassment is a bigger deal if it happens to Erin Andrews instead of Ines Sainz, or rape is less of a crime if it happens to a woman who is wearing tight jeans.

Of course, really, we shouldn’t be advocating sexual commodification at all. The real story here should be that the patriarchal culture demands that women sell themselves in order to enable the predatory male gaze (in exchange for money/advancement in the patriarchal culture), then the patriarchy blames that gaze on the women who are “encouraging” it.

This is a tough one, I think, although at the same time, it is a no-brainer.

Regardless of how a person acts or dresses, that does not give another person the right to be offensive (as in harassment, or worse yet, sexual assault).  That should go without saying.

That being said, it is sometimes not so clear that someone is being offensive.  If I make some “rude” comments to a single woman at a bar, she might deem them to be especially offensive.  If I make the same comments to a woman at a bar who appears to be soliciting attention from men, then my comments or actions might not be offensive to her - in fact, she might want and enjoy them.

It is not a given that I should know the difference.

However, as I said, if it is clear (to me or to a reasonable person) that my actions are offensive, then whether that person in some subtle or not so subtle manner instigated my actions is completely irrelevant.  If I am offensive, and it is obvious (as opposed to me doing something that could be innocuous but is preceived as being offensive, unbeknownst to me), then I am to blame - period. 

Not that the other person is not necessarily complicit - but that is a separate issue - it does not exonerate or excuse me.

That being said, we all make mistakes continually throughout our lives, and there are various levels of culpability…

I wonder if there might not also be a cultural component in this. I’ve all along since I first heard about this I’ve reacted to the fact that this is a reporter from a Mexican (or perhaps “Mexican-American") network.

While I know next to nothing about the “cultural codes” (for lack of a better expresion) for what female reporters can get away with in Mexico compared to the (mainstream anglo-saxon) US cultural standards, if I translate it to europe I know that these standards can be drasticly different between even neighbouring countries that are quite similiar.

I recently visitid Italy and what this reporter is wearing (at least in the pictures in the linked article) would be completly standard there. In comparison it would defintly be pushing the envelope in France and would be completly out of line in my native Sweden or the UK.

In everything I’ve seen on the Sainz case, I still don’t know exactly what the ‘abuse’ consisted of. I recall that a couple footballs were thrown in her vicinity for some reason, and that there was a bit of whistling (or some such) in the locker room.  Nobody fondled her, nobody said “ Woo I like your phat ass, baby”, nobody came up to her naked and said “Look at this package, honey.  Want some?”. Unless I missed it…

If players are truly naked when there are female reporters in the locker room, that seems worse to me than what (apparently) happened to Ines. An obviously invasion of the players’ privacy, IMO. They wouldn’t think of letting males into the female locker room when they are undressed.