Women: separate but equal?

by

Kenneth Matinale

March 1, 2008

As far as I can tell the only two bastions of segregation remaining in American society are women's sports and the entertainment awards. The Academy Awards were recently given for best actor and best actress. Whenever I hear women refer to their craft they use the word actor, not actress. They make a point of indicating that they are equal to men. However, they continue to accept the old gender segregation when awards are distributed. Oddly this is only for acting, not directing, writing, etc. Why? Maybe because that doubles the number of awards for acting. Is gender relevant in evaluating acting skills and performances? Why not demand it for directing? Writing?

Sports is the other remaining oddity. There are school teams, meaning any gender may join. There also are women's teams, which are restricted by gender. In professional tennis and golf there are separate brackets for each gender.

The rationale given is that women would not be able to qualify and compete with men and therefor would be denied participation. Most people would not be able to compete with good athletes. Why are women singled out? And why is pool (pocket billiards) segregated? Pool is hardly athletic competition. The Supreme Court Cases Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, KS in 1954-1955 declared "separate but equal" to be intrinsically unequal and thus unconstitutional overturning Plessy v. Furguson 1896, which upheld racial segregation under the doctrine of "separate but equal". Yet to mention this to a woman is to risk ridicule and scorn. There is no risk of rational response. Women want their cake (Brown) and eat it too (Plessy).

If you substituted any other arbitrary description of people for the word woman/women it would be obviously offensive and unacceptable: the Jewish U.S. tennis champion, the University of Tennessee black basketball team, the homosexual New York marathon winner. The New York marathon officials go so far as to set up a "separate but equal" finishing tape for women to break when the first woman crosses the finish line and God help any man runner who is near that event; he will be tackled and removed from view to preserve the pristine moment of female triumph.

What the heck is the WNBA (Woman's National Basketball Association)? Are young girls to aspire to one day play for a WNBA team? Should my niece want to play for the New York Liberty or the New York Knicks? She should want to play on a team in the best league, not in some concocted and segregated organization. What is the lesson to be learned by young girls? That they can only succeed if they are provided a separate environment? When they look for a job should they look in these companies: WIBM, WAT&T, WCoca-Cola? Such companies do not exist, nor should they, any more than the WNBA and segregated tennis and golf should exist.

Pro tennis is further differentiated by gender: men must win three of five sets, women two of three. Are women too weak to play five sets? They do not complain about this but do complain about not receiving equal pay for less work in a segregated field. Perhaps the real victim is our ability to think rationally. I do not know any woman who shares my view. That could mean that I am incorrect. It could also be that women are locked into a frame of mind similar to that of the "separate but equal" people who may have been well meaning back in 1896. The segregation of women in sports and entertainment is maintained by a mind that is set and unwilling to reason.