‘You still might get a slap even though you’re a woman… Be careful next time you come in’.
So said Sunderland football manager David Moyes to Vicki Sparks, a BBC reporter who’d asked if he’d felt any ‘extra pressure’ knowing the club’s owner, Ellis Short, had been watching the game from the stands.
Outrageous, right? What an aggressive and threatening thing to say. He should, as football agent Rachel Anderson told the BBC, ‘certainly think about his position as manager’. What an example of ‘low level sexism’, sports writer Martha Kelner coined it on Radio 4…
I’m going to make myself very unpopular here by saying I do not agree with that view. In fact, I think this incident has been largely blown out of proportion.
Looking at what happened...
Moyes made the comments in a light-hearted aside after an official interview following what had been a difficult match for him and his team. You only have to hear the tone of his voice to know it was a throw-away ‘banter-ous’ remark. Now, I know my feminist credentials should mean I am staunchly anti all kinds of banter – it’s how men have gotten away with casual sexism since time began, DON’T I KNOW? – but actually, some of the funnest and funniest conversations I’ve had have been ‘bantering’ away with my male friends (and beating them at it too).
But back to the point, Moyes’ version of banter went like this: ‘Just getting a wee bit naughty at the end there, just watch yourself there,’ [both he and Sparks laugh]. ‘You still might get a slap even though you’re a woman. Be careful next time you come in’.
Written down, yep, awful. Seen and heard on TV? Really not that bad. The only part I actually take umbrage to is his use of the word ‘naughty’, because undoubtedly it pitches Sparks as a scolded school child. I’m making excuses for him here, but a football manager’s role is basically like that of a teacher – educating boys and young men how to play ball – so I suppose it’s conceivable some schoolmaster-like terms might infiltrate his everyday vocabulary once in a while.
As I said, that’s the part I don’t like. But the ‘watch yourself or you’ll get a slap even though you’re a woman’ bit? Was it a ‘sexist’ joke? Not in my view. Effectively, he was telling Sparks that she should expect the same treatment as a man. I think that’s the opposite of sexism, don’t you? He was acknowledging she had asked a difficult question, and if I were her, I’d have been proud to know I’d had the power to ruffle his feathers. (Is that a sexist comment – I DON’T KNOW?!)
Should he really have been joking about ‘slapping’ in a professional environment, though? My politically correct hat tells me, NO. But, my goodness, aren’t there more important things to lose sleep over at the moment?
Indeed, if I was to lose sleep over any part of this ‘debate’ it’s the very debate itself: where a person makes a mistake and suddenly their entire career is in jeopardy.
Moyes apologised quickly after the incident was reported by The Daily Star – both to Sparks and publically. By many accounts, he is not ‘a sexist’. He supported Everton’s female team during his time as the club’s manager, and encouraged his own daughter to be on the Preston junior team. He travelled to Jordan last year to advise coaches and promote women’s football in the region.
Indeed, in her piece arguing this instance shows there is still contempt for women in football, The Guardian journalist, Louise Taylor, could not fault his character. ‘As the only female national newspaper writer covering Sunderland,’ she wrote, ‘I have always found Moyes polite, helpful and fair...’
The FA are writing to him to let him know whether disciplinary action will be taken. Should they make an example of him, the media ask? I don’t deny for one second that sexism in football exists, that it needs addressing and should be taken seriously. But is this the right incident to do it over? For a rare moment of poor judgement to signal the end of someone’s entire career?
Match of the Day presenter Gary Linekar commented on Twitter: ‘Moyes incident highlights a tendency for some managers to treat interviewers with utter disdain. Pressured job. Well rewarded. Inexcusable’.
If this is actually a conversation about how journalists get treated by people they interview, then by all means let’s have that conversation. Just replace the word ‘manager’ with ‘celebrity’, ‘politician’ or ‘CEO’ and I’m sure every journalist under the sun will have something to contribute.
But that is not what this ‘debate’ is about – a manager undermining a journalist. It’s about a man joking too close to the bone with a woman (who has accepted his apology, by the way, and said nothing more about it since).
Does that warrant the uproar?
I think the issue is best summed up in the words of Matthew Syed, talking on BBC Radio 4 this morning. ‘If we had to police every time that we strode into territory that was quite funny, quite sharp, because we’re worried that that one phrase can lead to the loss of our jobs… if that dead hand of political correctness was to overtake our lives, normal and natural human discourse would die’.
What a sad day that would be. Let’s defend our right to occasionally, unwittingly, foolishly fXXk up.
READ MORE: Are We Too Vulnerable, Or Not Vulnerable Enough Then?