Referee girls - the Sian Massey incident

One of the reasons I decided to write this blog was the Sian Massey incident. Off-air remarks by Sky Sports presenters about the female soccer referee led to sexism controversy which resulted in the commentator being sacked, the presenter resigning and a reporter being suspended. Believing the microphones were switched off the Sky Team had made remarks about Sian or other female referees not knowing the offside rule.

Image of Sian Massey from Daily Mail online on http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1354656/Sian-Masseys-return-draws-line-Sky-Sports-sexism-scandal.html  (article 8th February 2011):

When the news broke I was surprised by the public reactions. People partly criticised the Sky Sports presenter's behaviour as sexist, others criticised the sacking and suspension for remarks labelled as sexism rather than an opinion or a joke. The topic has been discussed in many different forums with diverse comments and Sian has been dragged into the spotlight with pictures of her summer holidays.

To listen to the comments have a look at following Youtube video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2r_-yfpf0c :

My personal experience showed that the decisions of Sky Sports to sack and suspend was often seen as ridiculous as the comments were made off-air. Nevertheless most people seem to think the comments were unsuitable. This raises diverse questions for me:

1. Does this reflect a majority of public opinion ? We might not say certain things out loud even if we believe them. And how many ladies do actually know the offside rule ?
2. Were the remarks unsuitable because the Sky Sports presenters were thought to be able to influence public opinion. If so, does the current media boom not make it worse ?
3. Would we label it as sexism if a men was criticised in a similar way in a female-dominated area ?
4. Have female referees not been exposed to more criticism and less sympathy through the comments going on-air when they had originally been off-air ?
5. What percentage of the female audience felt offended by the remarks made ?

For all those who did or still do feel offended have a look at following Youtube video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuUytXZrM3o that is taking a much more neutral take on the incident:

But if you don't want to see a neutral video but one that shows even more how unfamiliar we are with the female touch in football have a look at this one (I apologize for descriptive language and quality of the video):

All in all I believe we can look at the Sian Massey incident from different angles and considering diverse elements such as on-air vs off-air activity, representation of women in football, media coverage, strongly male-oriented football tradition and the suggested complexity of the offside rule. - Which reminds me: I do not know the offside rule. So I should cover that topic quite soon on Ladysoccer :)