Lewis Chaitov
Contributor
It’s been a quiet week in sports lately, largely because a lot of attention has been directed to female sports reporter Ines Sainz, who was allegedly sexually harassed by several athletes from a major league football team.
Sainz, a reporter for Mexico’s TV Azteca, was at a National Football League (NFL) practice for the New York Jets working on a story about quarterback Mark Sanchez.
After practice, Sainz visited the men’s locker room to continue her report. However, the atheletes’ behaviour left her feeling uncomfortable, and a complaint was filed against the Jets on Sainz’s behalf by the Association for Women in Sports Media. The NFL has now stepped in and is making sure all teams treat media personnel with respect and professionalism.
The incident has inspired many to ask “do women belong in the men’s locker room when it comes to reporting?”
But Sainz has also felt some backlash for the way she dressed during the practice.
Fox News NFL analyst Brian Baldinger surprised many when he said of Sainz: “If you come to the NFL dressed the way that she is dressed, you are just asking for it.”
His comment has, in turn, inspired an even bigger uproar. Cindy Boren of the Washington Post, for example, dismissed the notion that a female reporter should be subjected to inappropriate behaviour for any reason.
“I wish we had more information on what happened in the locker room but, that said, no matter what Ines Sainz was wearing, she in no way deserved to be harassed for it,” said Boren.
The sports media industry has seen many successful female sports reporters in the past, some of whom were pioneers in what was once a male-dominated field of sports journalism. Reporter Nanci Donnellan, often referred to as “The Fabulous Sports Babe,” is one of the more well known female sports reporters in history, having worked with ESPN radio from 1994 to 2002.
When asked about the incident, several York students could not see what the fuss was about.
“[The way she was dressed was] normal, and it’s professional if [she, like other women] are there on a professional level,” said Nancy Augustine, a second-year fine arts cultural studies major. “It is not like they are coming to hit on the men and take their clothes off.”
