Christine Brennan on Erin Andrews

I'm not sure how the latter generation is relevant to Andrews.

It's not like she's some Jenn Sterger character who landed a job solely by exploiting her sexuality, and it's not like she's appearing in low cut bare midriff outfits just to tantalize the frat boys. She rose through normal channels and does her job in the same way other sideline reporters do. Her appearance has obviously helped her along the way and explains her crazy popularity. But that's just how that business works. Good looking male TV guys get unfair advantages too.

Brennan's comment seems entirely out of line to me and just oozes bitterness. It ain't her fault that the frat boys worship her.

 

She's not comparing Andrews to the GGW girls. She's saying you can't pave the way for women to have career choices, and then tell them what to do with those choices.

 

Maybe you women can work this out among yourselves and get back to us?

 

You probably want them to have a bakeoff or something.

 

Hey, thanks everyone for your very nice comments. IJAG -- you're the best!

I've known Christine for many years and no one has worked harder to promote women in sports journalism. I'm a big fan and would tend to give her the benefit of the doubt regarding her intent on this.

 

You're probably right. Her intent, I'm sure, was in the right place. She just picked a terrible way to express it.

 

True Ryan, but she apologized and clarified it, and I'm sure like every other woman is appalled that something like that happens to anyone.

I actually disagree with lugs that women are generally "brutally critical and judgemental of each other" a a whole, and think women are different and some may be more jealous than others, but don't believe we should all be lumped in to the same category.

I'm actually proud when I see other women succeed in a field normally held by men. That doesn't mean I don't ever have a problem with the way some people do things or that any criticism I have of other women in the field stems from jealousy.

 

Dude. Women are BRUTAL toward each other. Way moreso than men. At least I think so. But whatever.

Brennan said something incredibly stupid. Was apparently misunderstood. Tried to clarify her statement. Fine. I still lost a great deal of respect for her.

 

But I don't think this is a situation in which a benefit of the doubt is up for the giving. Christine made a mistake, and she needs to admit it, apologize and move on.

Let's say this happened to Christine Brennan. And you blogged that while it was a terrible thing, her figure skating columns have really stunk the past few years.

My question for Christine is, why now?

Why couldn't she have twitted her feelings about the frat stuff a couple of months ago when EA said she wanted to do Dancing with the Stars, or during any of the other EA controversies directly relating to her job. It's not as if Erin Andrews is never in the news.

It just seems like some feelings were bottled up inside Christine that she wanted to get out, and she used this opportunity-- in which Erin is clearly a victim-- to twit them.

Then we get the Charles Barkley-esque excuse that Christine mis-twitted her own tweet.

She must be exhausted from 24 hours of tap dancing and rationalizing in her own head.

Look, nobody's perfect. As I said, many of us try to fight the good fight against the 'judgement demons' within us. And I know sometimes I lose that battle. Sometimes I say or think something really nasty about another woman that she doesn't deserve. But then I apologize and own up. And I've been apologized to for the very same reason!

I think Christine should pour herself a nice drink, figure out why she wrote something inappropriate, sit down at the computer and write an apology column, then call or e-mail Erin and apologize.

For those of you who have never seen it, The Accused is the Oscar-winning movie about the true story of a woman who was gang-raped. The woman, portrayed by Jody Foster, was scantily clad and fairly provocative. Part of the rapists' defense was that she deserved it because of the way she acted.

 

That was a great post on every fucking level. Well done.

 

I believe that dude is a chick.

 

I think "Dude" was used there in the Bill and Ted sense, not in the "you have a penis" sense.