Not every pro golfer is a supermodel, Anna Rawson. But just because you are doesn’t mean you can go around calling other female golfers “ugly dykes.”
That’s what the 27-year-old Australian golfer/runway model did last week in a radio interview promoting this week’s ANZ Ladies Masters at Royal Pines on NOVA 5AA in Adelaide:
The tour has got so much better with so many young stars and great players. But the mentality unfortunately amongst the media and the industry hasn’t changed. They still think we’re at 25 years ago when the tour was full of, you know, a lot of dykes and unattractive females nobody wanted to watch.
Ouch. Way to equate lesbians with unattractiveness. Of course, this comment has gotten Rawson, one of Sports Illustrated‘s top 10 hottest athletes of 2008, plenty of flack, so now she “regrets” it, telling Australia’s Fox Sports:
I wasn’t talking about my opinion because 25 years ago I was two years old. I was making a reference to how I feel society sees women’s golf as a whole. I don’t believe that. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that was my opinion and I am sorry I said that, definitely. I was making a reference to how women make seven times less than men on the course and 20 to 25 times less on the sponsorship front. It’s amazing how women’s golf has grown and we have many great young players out here, yet society and the media haven’t really caught onto that. That’s what I was talking about, I wasn’t talking about my opinion at all … Perhaps I should not have said that. I was talking about what I’d heard and what people have told me.
OK, so she wasn’t trying to offend anyone with her own opinions, she was merely perpetuating the stereotypes held by society as a whole. Yes, Rawson, perhaps you shouldn’t have said that. But more importantly, you shouldn’t buy into what “society and the media” think. Besides, they all seem to find you attractive and straight, so it really can’t be as bad as you say.
What do you think of Rawson’s initial comment and subsequent apology?
The tour has got so much better with so many young stars and great players. But the mentality unfortunately amongst the media and the industry hasn’t changed. They still think we’re at 25 years ago when the tour was full of, you know, a lot of dykes and unattractive females nobody wanted to watch.
Ouch. Way to equate lesbians with unattractiveness. Of course, this comment has gotten Rawson, one of Sports Illustrated‘s top 10 hottest athletes of 2008, plenty of flack, so now she “regrets” it, telling Australia’s Fox Sports:
I wasn’t talking about my opinion because 25 years ago I was two years old. I was making a reference to how I feel society sees women’s golf as a whole. I don’t believe that. I wouldn’t want anyone to think that was my opinion and I am sorry I said that, definitely. I was making a reference to how women make seven times less than men on the course and 20 to 25 times less on the sponsorship front. It’s amazing how women’s golf has grown and we have many great young players out here, yet society and the media haven’t really caught onto that. That’s what I was talking about, I wasn’t talking about my opinion at all … Perhaps I should not have said that. I was talking about what I’d heard and what people have told me.
OK, so she wasn’t trying to offend anyone with her own opinions, she was merely perpetuating the stereotypes held by society as a whole. Yes, Rawson, perhaps you shouldn’t have said that. But more importantly, you shouldn’t buy into what “society and the media” think. Besides, they all seem to find you attractive and straight, so it really can’t be as bad as you say.
What do you think of Rawson’s initial comment and subsequent apology?
