Buyouts claim a huge name: Jackie MacMullan out

I have never, ever seen a female journalist not act professionally in a locker room setting. But I have seen more than a few athletes and coaches act in ways that a medical patient never, ever would act.

 

Point taken. Athletes can be brutes. That said, my journo girlfriend can take care of herself. I have nothing to worry about, and I think it's only insecurity that would make a man think so.

 

But Joe never claimed otherwise. He simply admitted he might have a problem with it.

Whether rational or irrational, his insecurities would be as real as, say, someone who won't fly on a plane.

Telling them how ridiculous their feelings are isn't going to make them feel any better.

 

Leave me out of this.

 

In some ways, and I could wrong, but Jackie Mac probably saved some jobs at the Globe. If she hadn't taken the buyout, her salary would probably gobble up two reporters' gigs and they would get canned/laid off/not filled to keep her around.
By leaving and she already has a well-paying side gig with ESPN, she may have kept some people afloat.
So for that, hoozahs and kudos should be extended her way.

As far as women and minorities, Gannett is a better shop for them to rise up in the ranks. And that's by design.
I don't think anyone would actually deny that.
I know from hiring people before that if you are going after a recent grad and they are a woman or a minority and that person has cast a wide-net, I can safely guess that they will land with Gannett because they can make either a better offer or a better future.
Of course, they also get to work for Gannett, so that's the punishment they get for taking the job, but most know that going in.
Or at least they seem to know better now.

 

Y'all call it insecurities. I dunno, I call it preferences.

Same would hold if I were a fashion photographer around gals all day. I just like it better that my wife spends more time around me than she does around other guys, and I think she prefers that I'm not immersed in a female-saturated environment all day, every day.

Don't know any couples more true than us (many might be tied). Just preferences is all.

 

No, it won't. But it doesn't make it any less insecure, either.

Flying on a plane isn't an insult to the pilot. Feeling nervous because your wife works in an environment dominated by men ... that's a little different. If you trust her, be a big boy and get over it. Sorry if that's a little harsh. But yeah.

 

First, congrats to Jackie if this is what she wants, and it's a huge blow for the Globe.

Now to take a shot at this:

I know I have, and I have yet to meet a female SJ who can't tell at least one story of the same kind. I have what I call the Third Date Speech, which includes some variation of the following:

"I work in sports. Sports don't happen at noon on a Tuesday. They happen nights. They happen weekends. This means I work nights, weekends and most holidays. When other people recreate, that means I'm working. This means we aren't going to see each other on many nights, weekends or holidays. Working in sports means I work with men. Male journalists, male athletes, male administrators. I'm often the only female in the room. You can't get jealous over this, because I don't want to be with them. I want to be with you. But you need to be secure enough to handle that."

I once dated a guy who was fine with that at first, but then thought that when we made things more serious that I would just quit my job to focus more on him, to have the same hours as his 9-to-5 schedule. Ha.

But it's all so clinical in a locker room or a press room, too. To imply otherwise means that women can't be professional in the presence of penises, which is about as antiquated a notion as women getting the vapors. Seriously, have you ever been in a locker room? Not a place I like to hang out any longer than absolutely necessary. Especially hockey. Dear lord, the stench.

And what if you had a WNBA or women's tennis beat? If your wife made a fuss about you spending time around sweaty female athletes, would you think she's overreacting? Would you tell her that's just part of your job? Do you think male writers can't be professional when covering women's athletics?

 

Women's locker rooms are not open. Never have been. Never will be.

So obviously a lot of people do think there is a huge difference.

And frankly, I think a lot of people would be unprofessional if they were allowed into Maria Sharapova's locker. Sorry, seeing 400,000 "I'd hit it" posts on here has jaded my views.

And on a side note, there really is no WNBA or women's tennis "beat." Does any paper cover the WNBA on the road? Does any newspaper regularly cover women's tennis other than the majors or when the tour comes to their town? Will the NYT be in Amelia Island next week or Charleston, S.C., the week after that?

 

Glad to see that all the PC trip-wires still have their hair-triggers.

At the risk of chewing my cabbage twice:

Preferences. Like some people prefer Toyotas to Hondas. Or CNN to Fox News. "Insecurities" was a big armchair-psychologist leap, of the sort many journalists are quick to make after a 10-minute sitdown. I happen to like the fact that my wife has a job that actually helps sick people, too, rather than the silly comfort-the-comfortable stuff we do. That is a preference, too. Would it strain our marriage if she changed careers tomorrow? Nope.

But do I like that she doesn't have to represent her gender in some frequent unspoken evaluation of a player or a coach or a competing journalist to prove she's the equal of guys doing the same work? Yeah. Or that she works in an environment where the language isn't blue? Yeah. Those are my preferences.

 

I actually appreciate Joe's honesty about this. I know too many situations where the guy says, 'I have no problem with this at all,' and then it comes out in other weird ways.

There's a difference between being insecure and being protective. One says 'I'm afraid of what you're going to do,' the other says 'I don't want anything bad to happen to you.' Joe strikes me as the latter.

 

FWIW, Joe presents a question I've often asked myself. And Cadet has a great answer. I don't think that's gender-specific, though. I know I used to make a version of that speech to women I dated (the hours part, of course ... not being the only female in the room).