So Japan is not so singular in the world. That's good to know. But Australia is about to change that long-time custom without any condition attached like the Japanese Soccer Federation whose head insisted that the team win the gold medal in order to fly home in the business class.
From The Sydney Morning Herald (7/21/2012):
Backflip on Opals travel
BASKETBALL Australia is set to rewrite an inequitable travel policy that saw the male members of the Olympic team fly to London in business class while the female team travelled in premium economy.
Under mounting pressure after the Herald revealed the Opals were given economy tickets to London while the Boomers flew business class, the national sports federation, which has a new chairwoman in the former premier Kristina Keneally, admitted its poor policy. Ms Keneally, who will begin in her new role on August 4, gave a scathing assessment of the travel policy.
''In this day and age, there's just no excuse for men's and women's sporting teams to be treated differently when they both compete at the same world-class level,'' she said.
(H/T John Noah)
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5 comments:
Or they could all fly economy to save money.
All I gotta say is shame on both countries for their shameful treatment of women sports players.
It is -still- a man's world! And there's no excuse for that.
The belief and perception of this being a man's world is based on what we hear and know. How often are men treated worse than women? You wouldn't know, because it doesn't invoke outrage or get media coverage like the above.
Similarly, the use of the word "still" implies that it is and has always been a man's world. This belief too, is also based your understanding which is solely influenced by biased, incorrect and incomplete information. But it doesn't matter if it's true if it's what you want to believe, does it?
I can absolutely truthfully and factually tell you - from many experiences of my own, those around me, and many people around the world that I know of - that this world is very, VERY FAR from being a man's world.
It is beyond ridiculous to even state that the entire world is a man's world over one or two incidents of a very specific nature (eg. sport, airline class). The world is not as simple and black and white as that.
Matters of physical sport may be considered a man's world, but aside from the apparently unacceptable fact that women are generally and naturally physically weaker than men (not that this is important in leading a fulfilling and satisfying life), and that people are not all born with the potential for reaching equal physical ability (hence rendering the concept of equality and of physical competition inherently unfair and pointless), physical sport is not of concern to me.
This is because personally, I feel that matters of every day life and basic human rights are far more important than physically competing against others for fame and fortune.
I am literally surrounded on all sides by men who are tired of their entire lives being destroyed by the women around them, or how anything they do is automatically perceived as inferior or negative in comparison to anything a woman does. Some of them don't want to admit to this openly, because society doesn't allow them to.
I can even tell you the responses I will receive to the above paragraph - "you and all the men you know should grow up, deal with it and stop being pussies." Do you ever see such responses to women experiencing similar hardships? No.
Are you aware that suicide rates in every country except China are 2 to 6 times higher for men than women? Have you ever considered that men die sooner than women because of more stress? The list goes on and on. But you never hear about these things, do you? Because men have to put up and shut up.
I even hear excuses that "men suicide more because they're more violent, so they're just more successful at killing themselves". Rubbish. That too, is also based on the myth that women are not violent. Women can be just as or more violent than men. I also know this first and second hand. Society just doesn't want to believe it. For example, when I was in school, I knew many women who slashed their wrists and other parts, or carved their own flesh with school equipment.
When you've realized that your gender causes everyone to portray and treat you as a mindless, violent and unfeeling convicted criminal rapist pervert, and that everyone perceives everything and anything you do as malicious intention, then feel free to come back and make a legitimate complaint. Because until then, you don't know what a "man's world" is truly like.
Anon above, you may be blowing this thing out of proportion. It's about putting female athletes in economy class, and male athletes in business class. No more, no less.
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