Women and the Masters, here we go again

[Rhody31]

Fair point, so whoever is in charge of making sure the Masters is in compliance with the law should educate the security guards at the locker room point of entry.

What law did they violate exactly?
Was it unfair? heck yes. But the club has every right to deny her access anywhere they want. It's a private club and they have their rules that guests have to follow.
This whole thing is being blown out of proportion. Had Sullivan simply found a superior to help her gain the access the needed, everything would have been handled.
And before you say it, I know she shouldn't have to. But sometimes you have to make up for other people's mistakes. She chose to complain about it instead of finding a solution and forgetting it.

 

[Ace]

Fair point, so whoever is in charge of making sure the Masters is in compliance with the law should educate the security guards at the locker room point of entry.

What law did they violate exactly?
Was it unfair? heck yes. But the club has every right to deny her access anywhere they want. It's a private club and they have their rules that guests have to follow.
This whole thing is being blown out of proportion. Had Sullivan simply found a superior to help her gain the access the needed, everything would have been handled.
And before you say it, I know she shouldn't have to. But sometimes you have to make up for other people's mistakes. She chose to complain about it instead of finding a solution and forgetting it.

Find a superior? Good luck with that.

Someone with a badge and an attitude holds all the cards in a situation like that.

 

[tapintoamerica]

She chose to complain about it instead of finding a solution and forgetting it.
[/quote]

So you were there and you know she didn't attempt to find a solution? Please.

 

[jr/shotglass]

And before you say it, I know she shouldn't have to. But sometimes you have to make up for other people's mistakes. She chose to complain about it instead of finding a solution and forgetting it.

Right there is my biggest remaining argument.

Well-stated.

And tapin, she might have looked for a solution, but it was in between Tweets about it and becoming an AP wire story.

At the risk of being dickish.

 

[MrHavercamp]

The idea that Tara "wasn't harmed" because she was provided info by others, as someone else mentioned, is laughable. For one thing, Tara is one of the best interviewers in the business - it's a treat to hear her ask questions. I'll never forget her pointed grilling of Roger Clemens pregame at one ALCS. It was beautiful.

This spring, a security guard at the Cubs' visitors locker room in Mesa thought it was hilarious to tell me I wasn't allowed in every single time I went to get A's players. "No women allowed!" ha ha ha, chortle chortle. I glowered at him each time, and after about time seven, when he wasn't getting that I hadn't found it funny once, I snapped at him, and I also informed the A's PR man, Bob Rose, who let the guy have it.

Seriously, I've covered baseball for 18-some years and some dillweed thinks it's just a hoot to point out how my gender is different? Also: there is another woman on the A's beat, too. So that just must be double hysterical. In 2011. Would he think it was equally funny to say "no blacks!" to La Velle Neal? But somehow it's OK with me, a 45-year-old woman with 23 years in the business.

Maybe people are just hiring idiot guards, but it's amazing to me this is even an issue at all anymore.

I like that Susan and some of her fellow female journalists have come on here to let people know that everything isn't always so simple for them. Men tend to take their access for granted, but unfortunately, women still are viewed by too many in the sports world as having to prove themselves, even after so many of them have done it well for so long. Entrenched ideas -- like women shouldn't be in locker rooms -- will continue until journalists like Tara speak up (loudly) when wronged. It's the only way to let everyone knows this still exists. This crap about her "looking for a solution" is a joke. She shouldn't have to look for anything. I wish she had kept marching right in behind Rory and the men and dared the security guards to stop her.

 

[hondo]

Rufino,

First you dismiss all criticism by Liz Mullen with that napalm comment meant to discredit her as some radical. Then you dismiss the entire incident as a mere inconvenience. Think it would be a mere inconvenience if it happened to you?

It matters, because:
1. A female sports reporter wasn't allowed to do her job because of her gender.
2. It happened at a major sporting event.
3. That event was at Augusta National, which has a history of treating women as second-class citizens. As Barry Svrluga commented on twitter, "Augusta National says exclusion of female reporter from locker room interview was "mistake." Think culture of club had anything to do w/ it?"

You have something in common with that security guard (whose gender is irrelevant, by the way). Neither of you get it.

1. The Augusta National locker room has been open to women since 1985.
2. Could have happened anywhere.
3. See No. 1. The security guards (there was a man and a woman) could have been working their first Masters. They are Pinkertons contracted out to the club. I don't think this has much to do with the culture of the club or the fact that they haven't invited a female member. Female reporters such as Christine Brennan, Melanie Hauser, Helen Ross, etc. have been covering the tournament for years since '85, with no issues.

Conclusion: Dumb move by dumb rent-a-cop. They do it all the time.

 

[hondo]

I don't think the fact the guard was a woman makes any difference. I'm glad the masters is hiring women as security guards, but the point is that a guard, regardless of gender, should allow in a reporter, regardless of gender.

It's cool just because it's a lady-person keeping out another lady-person? Either way violates federal law. It's the Masters/PGA Tour's job to inform all security guards. Even the chicks.

Actually, there is no federal law that applies here. If the Augusta still wanted to close the locker to women, the club could do. It's their candy store. But they don't close it to women, and haven't for 26 years.

 

[MartinonMTV2]

I wonder what Christine Brennan will write about this week.

And yes, Ace, this is a "dickish" comment. If I admit it up front, will you cry less?

 

[bigbadeagle]

Given the talent pool most security companies draw from - and the fact we're talking Podunk, Georgia here, it doesn't surprise me this guy didn't know the law. We're talking shallow end of the pool here.

Augusta is not Podunk.
That's about 45 minutes away, outside of Wrens.

 

[Rhody31]

This spring, a security guard at the Cubs' visitors locker room in Mesa thought it was hilarious to tell me I wasn't allowed in every single time I went to get A's players. "No women allowed!" ha ha ha, chortle chortle. I glowered at him each time, and after about time seven, when he wasn't getting that I hadn't found it funny once, I snapped at him, and I also informed the A's PR man, Bob Rose, who let the guy have it.

Susan, I am totally behind you on a women's right to be in the locker room to do her job.
However, if your above story is accurate, that's no one's fault but your own. The guy thought he was being funny. He wasn't, but he had no idea. A glare doesn't say stop. A glare says that gets under my skin but it's not that big of a deal.
Someone does something you don't want them to do, you tell them right away and it's over.
I had a guy calling me by the wrong name for a while and didn't feel like correcting him to prevent his own embarassment; after a while, I got pissed about it. Then i realized I let it continue. Now when he calls me the wrong name, he gets corrected and feels like an ass.

 

[Susan Slusser]

I did do something about it. My point was really more that he'd never have said, "No blacks!" as if it were funny. But it's never funny, or right, to joke about past or present discrimination against any group, especially in a job setting.

We fought that battle ages and ages ago. So more than anything, I find it bizarre this sort of thing still happens at all.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

I did do something about it. My point was really more that he'd never have said, "No blacks!" as if it were funny. But it's never funny, or right, to joke about past or present discrimination against any group, especially in a job setting.

We fought that battle ages and ages ago. So more than anything, I find it bizarre this sort of thing still happens at all.

As much as you and others keep trying to equate the two, race and gender are not equivalent, as the Supreme Court has confirmed repeatedly, granting the two different standards of review. If they were the same, we couldn't have separate bathrooms. Can you imagine the Oscars having Best White Actor and Best Black Actor? Sometimes, when it comes to gender, separate but equal is in fact equal and appropriate. Sometimes it's not, and that needs to be addressed, but it's not the same as race.