And, importantly, denigrating the preseason doesn’t tie into a long history of misogyny.
Yes; I nearly came back to add that denigrating the preseason isn’t denigrating an entire category of people.
Yeah, I’m with the OP on this.
I’m not a sports guy, but I guess one could make the argument, since women’s sports doesn’t have the same money poured into it therefore they are not ably to attract the same talent which makes it unwatchable.
But that’s an awful strained inference and something I’m not willing to do in this instance.
Agree with the OP.
I completely fail to see how one could interpret this as anything but straight up misogyny.
When the ‘argument’ against a posting consists of labeling it (in this case, labeling it ‘misogyny’), then the argument is lost.
I also think the OP is correct. The poster in question has given up his benefit of doubt, but even if it was another poster the post and sentiment were over the top for Game Room.
Would that be a male or female moderator?
It’s not really meant to be watchable as it’s not a sporting event. It’s a cross-squad practice session. Nothing more. They don’t even try to win the games.
Women’s sporting events are sporting events in every way.
Aside from the history of misogyny I don’t have a problem with the statement. If it came from a poster who was similarly opposed to watching any junior league then there would be no issue with lumping women’s sports with college football and minor league baseball as being unwatchable. I’m uncertain how one could watch D2 men’s basketball and not watch the WNBA which is clearly the superior league.
I don’t think it’s misogynistic to say that women’s sports suck. I think it’s wrong and ignorant, but I don’t think it’s intended to be misogyny. I find most men’s sports to be more interesting the women’s sports. That’s an opinion. And opinions can be wrong, or right, or somewhere in between.
I don’t care if it was on topic, it was a gross threadshit. I am with the OP.
Also, I am aware that it’s being actively discussed in the mod loop and I appreciate that.
Some opinions can also be rooted in misogyny.
I think the “what if it was said about men?” argument misses the mark a little. A more relevant question would be “what if someone said all sports played by Blacks are unwatchable?”
That comparison doesn’t come quite so readily to mind, as we don’t (anymore) segregate sports teams by color. But I think it is apt, since it’s hard to imagine any motivation for finding sports played exclusively by Blacks unwatchable besides racism.
It could be an innocent opinion I guess, but I couldn’t read it without seeing a put-down toward women athletes simply for being both women and athletes at the same time. And that was before I was aware of the poster’s history of misogynistic comments.
When someone says “The NFL preseason is unwatchable,” they mean I don’t want to see some meaningless games that are mostly just tryouts for the prospects. When someone says “Women’s sports are unwatchable,” Including Tennis, Soccer, Gymnastics, and Volleyball, They mean “I hate watching women do things. In fact I just fucking hate women.” Which you do. I don’t get why Chronos can’t get this, especially given your posting history regarding women athletes, especially women athletes of color.
I tried to interject earlier that discussing the quality of competition in women’s sports versus men’s sports is valid to have in that particular thread. Why not? The Olympics chooses to segregate most events into male and female competitions, so clearly they are explicitly stating that there is a difference.
On the other hand…
The way that dalej42 presented his objection to the women’s events was indeed poorly-done. The “unwatchable” bit was a flat insult. Combined with his history on the boards and it’s hard to see that as anything but misogyny, something that this board has had a long history of turning a blind eye to.
I can’t fault Chronos for wanting to shelve the discussion about dalej42’s comment because that is a complete derailment of the thread, and that isn’t the proper forum to discuss it anyway. But saying that there was no problem in expressing that opinion was not the right call. What if the comment was that it’s not enjoyable to watch anyone competing who isn’t white? That might certainly be a “sincerely held opinion”, and since it would be an “opinion on sports” then by the modnote it is perfectly fine, despite being explicitly racist.
Let’s say someone who didn’t have a documented history of this sort of thing had opined that they skipped many of the women’s events because the women had poorer results than the men, that could be a valid discussion and didn’t have to denigrate women in the process. It’s a fact that, for example, the women’s 400m hurdle gold medalist (and world record champion) finished in 51.46 seconds while the men’s 400m hurdle gold medalist (and world record champion) finished in 45.94 seconds. In fact, the slowest man to compete was faster than the fastest woman (in the final events at least). So that might be a productive conversation to have. But there is a way to discuss that sort of thing in a congenial manner, and then there is the straight-up dismissal of all women athletes, and the overall insistence that women in general are inferior. That last bit shouldn’t be acceptable here.
There’s really no other way to interpret the comment except straight up misogyny. Maybe someone without his history of statements like this could scoot by with a mod note, but given this board’s recent attempts to eliminate misogynistic comments, letting an established poster spout something like this consequence-free is taking a few steps back.
Not that this board is in any way a democracy, but count me as another voice emphatically in support of the OP. And with the number of times this poster has been called out for this behavior, the continued insistence on gleefully yanking this chain feels more than a little deliberate.
I do not believe there is.
“I didn’t like watching The Suicide Squad.”
“The Suicide Squad is unwatchable.”
These phrasings are commonly used interchangeably. It is universally understood that if I use the second phrase, I am speaking from my own experience. We have all read these ways of critiguing entertainment being used to describe the same things; it’s so commonplace as to be unnoticeable.
I believe action needs to be taken as per the mod loop but cannot agree with your specific comment here; this is not in any way be taken as my opinion on the issue in the subject thread. I’m just commenting on the distinction in phrasing in general, outside of the context of this incident.