Seeking to feminize
Matt Walsh claimed on Tuesday that female sports reporters were seeking to “feminize” football, which he said is a “mostly male space,” and said at least one woman journalist was failing to “assimilate.”
Walsh made the remarks on The Matt Walsh Show, while discussing Lindsey Gough, sports director with southeast Georgia’s WOTC 11 TV station. Gough had tweeted on September 5 about the behavior of fans after Georgia defeated Clemson.
Gough posted a video of football fans apparently engaging in harassing behavior and even some men touching her without her consent as they passed her broadcast.
But that’s male behavior, and it’s awesome, and it must not be challenged, much less altered or done away with. Harassing and groping women is a sacred right of masculinityfull masculine manly people.
“I must say, this situation only demonstrates why I, personally, prefer for sports broadcasts, especially football broadcasts, to be handled mostly by men,” Walsh said.
“Lindsey, though worse than the average—even as far as female sports reporters go—is definitely not the only female to enter into this mostly male space and seek to feminize it.”
“She wants the football stadium to be quiet and gentle, considerate, respectful of personal space. She wants it to be a more feminine environment. She’s not trying to assimilate herself into the culture of football fans, she is rather hoping that they assimilate themselves to her,” he said.
So objecting to men harassing and groping her equals wanting the football stadium to be quiet and gentle? I’m not seeing it. I think people can be loud and rowdy and enthusiastic without bullying and assaulting women. In fact I think this is a distinction kids are taught to make in…what, first grade? Second grade? “Use your words” – isn’t that the lesson? Don’t shove or punch or bite or kick; use your words. Does Matt Walsh really consider sexual abuse of women inherent to men, men in general, all men? I think I have a better opinion of men than he does.
Being respectful of personal space is not something desired only by women. Most men I know are uncomfortable if their personal space is invaded, too. It just happens a lot less often for them, and is often more benign. They aren’t as much at risk if someone of the opposite sex invades their personal space (though they can be if it is someone of their own sex).
And in spite of what standard “boys will be boys” tropes say, I do not believe most men would be happy having their private parts groped by strangers at random without permission.
But we don’t know much about it because it just isn’t something women do.
The old ‘boys will be boys’ argument, recently trotted out as Trump’s defense after gloating over his sexual assaults. Attempts to justify abusive behavior are untenable to begin with, and sexism compounds the ignorance. Maybe people like Matt don’t know many respectable men, or what it means to be one. Men are stupid brutes, everyone knows that. :P
Or what ikn said @1 while I was editing down my irritation… ;)
Right. Even if women wanted to (and it doesn’t seem to be a big urge among women I know, including myself), we wouldn’t because of the differential in size and aggression…as well as entitlement. A man who gets away with grabbing a woman’s ass would probably be respected and listened to if some woman grabbed his penis without permission.
Groping women without their consent is the primary reason for football? Who knew. I suppose men relieving themselves in the yards neighboring the stadium is also a primary reason, as is someone taking your reserved seat and refusing to move till a hot dog gets thrown & it turns into a matter for security. Good times.
If Walsh wants to complain about rule changes, have at it. But I thought he believed that justifying escalating criminal behavior as an expression of a group’s “identity” was something only the Woke did.
And he’s right, of course. Because ‘man’ isn’t an identity, it’s a person. In fact, it is “the” person, the default person.
That’s one of the things that irks me. Asking that women, people of color, gays or lesbians, get the same rights as white males is “identity politics”. Insisting that we remain in the state of dominant white males lording it over everyone is not “identity politics”. In reality, it is only the second that actually is identity politics. The other is just equality or democracy, or whatever the hell other word you want to call it.
And, of course, trans dogma is also “identity politics” in the broadest sense of the word, because it is all about identity. And it isn’t about equal rights but special rights, much like the patriarchs of the past.
That. I see that all the time. I find it quite irritating.
Perhaps I missed a discussion here about Walsh’s documentary, which is getting favorable reviews, but it is these kinds of misogynistic comments that give me pause. Walsh is no friend to women, he perhaps supports women’s issues when he can attack or embarrass liberals at the same time.
The links in the Newsweek article don’t actually show the video. It’s embedded in this video with commentary. Her video starts around 1:48:
https://youtu.be/5N79AhwnRU4
Here’s the trailer for the documentary Sackbut mentions:
https://youtu.be/42ivIRd9N8E
So Matt Walsh hosts (and Jordan Peterson is in it). Still looks kind of interesting, or at least amusing. I’d probably watch it if it were free. Completely ridiculous that we’ve come to the point where a dolt conservative pundit is talking to doctors and professors and the dolt pundit is the smarter one.
I’m not a Meghan Murphy backer on Patreon, so I couldn’t read her detailed opinion piece, but the gist appears to be that Walsh framed his documentary as “pro woman” but somehow neglected to interview any prominent feminists who would have been glad to speak on the topic. If that’s accurate, I agree that’s a huge omission, and dishonest advertising.
Right after posting that comment, I saw Helen Joyce’s tweet praising this article, which seems to cover the pros and cons of the documentary very well. This one is not behind a paywall.
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/06/03/matt-walshs-what-is-a-woman-film-is-both-valuable-and-incomplete/