On Donaldson and sexism

Let’s start off by saying I’m an old white guy and it’s not really my place to correct someone’s sexism.

But....

Guys guys guys, when talking about a women’s issue DON’T MAKE IT ABOUT YOU AND YOUR BROS.

Earlier today, Josh Donaldson put up a couple of unfortunate tweets. One was deleted. The deleted one was something about how next year’s International Woman’s Day was going to be on a Saturday and Saturdays are for the boys.

Now, I’ve always believed that, no matter what they say, guys know when they are being sexist. They may claim they don’t, but I think they are just trying to down play things. Or they think that claiming stupid is better than acknowledging malice.

When called on it Josh tweeted:

Let’s ignore the slip ‘sexiest’.

The term intentionally obtuse keeps leaping to my fingers.

Also, I think Josh knew that most of his followers are guys and that he’s playing to his audience, which is unfortunate. He really could use his place to inform his audience, not play to it.

Honestly, I don’t think the first tweet was a terrible crime. Perhaps it was something he thought was a joke that didn’t come across as a joke. But, when called on it, maybe instead of doubling down, why not say ‘I’m sorry, I obviously missed on that joke. I believe in women’s issues. We still have a long way to go in that area.’ Or, more simply, just ‘I’m sorry.’ I mean, if you truly don’t believe you said something wrong, why delete it?

To me, it’s always the doubling down that’s the problem. If you are told you said something sexist, instead of saying ‘no you are wrong, I understand sexism better than you do’ try saying I’m sorry.

I get that Josh lives in a different world than I do. He’s surrounded by guys all the time, in an atmosphere that is hypermasculine. I’m sure that he’s rarely in a place where, if he said something sexist, someone would call him on it.

My mom was very very quick to correct me, usually with a slipper or whatever was close to hit me with, if I said anything that came close to being sexist. And my wife wouldn’t let me get away with anything like that either, even though she has worked in a very male dominated industry and has heard and seen it all.

I still love you Josh, but you have to do better. Yeah, we all have to do better, but you can influence a lot of people. I’m not big on the ‘athlete as role model’ thing, but it isn’t too much to ask that you try to do better.

I’m going to shut off the comments again. I think we are getting to the point where it could go downhill. I think we’ll heard the opinions and there isn’t likely to be anything really new come along.