Harassment in the Locker Room, or Something More?

With the recent incident involving reporter Ines Sainz and the NY Jets, the media and the general public has been asking whether women sports journalists should be allowed in the locker room among a slew of other questions.  Is this a bad case of sexual harassment or something blown out of proportion?
 
Ines Sainz, the center of the whole controversy, apparently thinks it’s the latter. In a column written to her readers, she stated that it wasn’t a big deal to her and was even upset at the Women’s Association for Sports Media for filing a complaint on her behalf.
 
Whatever lack of comfort for Sainz has been recorded on her own Twitter, but according to her, merely as a general lack of comfort while being in the locker room. In other words, no specific incidents or deeds were done to her.  In the meantime, Sainz has either been cast as a victim, or someone who wanted attention given the way she reportedly dresses. A mere search in the image section of a search engine will bring up pictures of Sainz in low cut shirts and tight jeans on the field. Sexual harassment is a curious thing. I had one female friend point out to me that often times, it really is completely dependent on how and what the person is made to feel. Does it still count if the person in question doesn't think it is but a good number of people do?
 
As Bob Raissman of NYDailyNews.com pointed out, Mexican news coverage has a propensity for hiring eye-catching models that double as journalists; Ines Sainz is not exactly out of the ordinary. Still, if Sainz was in fact harassed, does that mean she was asking for it? No. That kind of logic, if we were on the topic of sexual assault, would not fly at all. But the fingers are pointing and the media is now doing the googling on Sainz.
 
What this episode reveals is that while America may take its women journalists seriously, Mexico may not depending on how you define “serious.”  While we’re questioning whether or not women journalists should be allowed in the locker room, some sources have pointed out that male reporters are allowed in the Women’s NBA locker room. We haven’t heard any incidents involving those arrangements.
 
In the way that the media has reacted, Sainz is either seen as a woman who was “asking for it,” as one Fox NFL analyst stated, or she was victimized in some way as the Women’s Association for Sports Media seemed to have believed.  It would appear that for America, we’d take a woman sports journalist seriously if she would fit into our idea of what a serious sports reporter is. Until then, we’re more likely to chew on the sensation of a story involving an attractive reporter being harassed by a bunch of testosterone charged football players.
 
There’s something about the way the articles ran off with the story, despite Sainz herself not pressing charges or filing complaints that shows us that we’re still in a delicate stage of whether or not women are accepted in a primarily male field.  It's not necessarily in the story of a sort-of-but-not-really harassment, but in how it's publicized in the media.