Thursday, May 18, 2017

A Delicate Flower After All...

The sports media world is aghast at the horribly sexist way Lavar Ball treated a female reporter. Have you no shame, sir! Too bad this is a false narrative.

Some background. Lavar Ball is an asshole. That is beyond dispute. The guy is a neverwas athlete who is exploiting the abilities of his son Lonzo Ball to try to make a buck and satiate his ego. Some of his more outrageous idiocy has included saying that his son would only work out for the Lakers and telling Boston not to draft him, telling Nike/Adidas/UnderAmore that his son wants a billion dollars for a shoe deal, saying he could have beaten Micheal Jordan in his prime, and excusing his son's failure to get too far in the NCAA tournament by blaming it on him being surrounded by "slow white guys." He's a racist, a fool, a jerk and probably an abusive father. I am not a fan.

Anyways, to exploit his son's 15 minutes of fame, he created his own shoe line for his family: The Big Baller Brand. This is a take off on their last name being Ball as well as the current popularity of the term "Baller" and the phrase "Balling." It might also be a penis joke, but not primarily. The problem is, he has priced the shoes way out of the market and has barely sold any.

So the other day, he appeared on a talk show where reportette/assistant eye candy Kristine Leahy tried to ask him about the sales of his shoes. He refused to answer, telling her to "stay in her lane" in a testy exchange. The butt-hurt network immediately sprang into action, declaring this "sexism!!" Soon, every single leftist sports journalist echoed this, with some even going so far as to call for him to be banned from television -- because leftists love to ban people. Must destroy those we don't like!

Here's the thing though. This is not sexism, not even close.

Indeed, let's test it. Is the phrase in any way gender specific? Nope. It can be said to either gender with the exact same meaning. It has no secret special meaning for women either. So how is it sexist? What's more, how is it even inappropriate? If he had said this to the male host instead of his eye candy, no one would have batted an eye. So how is this sexism?

Basically, the left has taken a statement with no gender content or applicability or intent and turned it into "sexism" because of the simple fact it was negative and it was said to a woman. Translation: it is sexist to be rude to a female journalist. That's mighty puritanical.

It gets better too. See, his statement was not unprovoked. Leahy has previously attacked Ball for his parenting skills and his relationship with his son. I wouldn't talk to her either after that. Further, she also said prior to the interview that "as a woman, [she] would never wear" his brand. So when she starts trying to ask him pointed questions about his sales, I would think "stay in your lane" is pretty valid response. She didn't stop either. She demanded to know why he wouldn't talk to her at which point she called the brand name sexist -- even though it is a common term used by men and women in pop culture -- and saying basically that women should not buy his clothing line. She then went on to complain that she "has a right to say what shirt I would or wouldn't wear," yet somehow thinks it's disrespectful for him to exercise his right not to talk to her. The butt-hurt network seems to have missed that he does have that right in their zeal to save this poor blameless damsel in distress from imagined sexism.

This really highlights the problem of the modern left. They have no principles. They squeal about sexism if you don't treat women just like men and then squeal about sexism if you do. You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's the same thing with their views on every other one of their butt-hurt causes. No matter what you do when it comes to women, blacks, gays, Muslims, criminals, welfare types, single moms, illegals, etc., you are damned if you do and damned if you don't and they want to destroy you as a person either way. Basically, they are using any excuse to express hate.

This wasn't sexism. This wasn't even a controversial statement. She was biased and attacked him. He had a right to refuse to talk to her. The end. There is no story here. The fact the left wants this to be a story tells you all you need to know about how fair their complaints really are.

If you want to be seen as equal, stop demanding that we coddle you.

13 comments:

LL said...

Kristine Leahy is hot - I wonder if she'd consider putting out for Lavar Ball? Or is that a sexist statement?

AndrewPrice said...

LL, I can't see how that would be sexist at all. LOL!

Anthony said...

Stupid and false, but bipartisan nowadays.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/kellyanne-conway-accuses-anderson-cooper-sexism-eyeroll-article-1.3155989

Anderson Cooper’s eyeroll while Kellyanne Conway spun was plain “sexism,” the counselor to the President charged Thursday.
Conway painted a parallel between herself and Hillary Clinton two days after the CNN anchor spawned a viral GIF while grilling her on now-former FBI Director James Comey.
“Let me tell you something: Hillary Clinton is in search of sexism as a lame excuse for why her disastrous candidacy and campaign lost six months ago,” Conway told “Fox and Friends.” “I face sexism a lot of times when I show up for interviews like that.
“Could you imagine rolling your eyes, having a male anchor on a network roll eyes at Hillary Clinton ... a female representative/spokesperson for President Obama or President Bill Clinton?”
------------
If/when Spicer gets fired and gets replaced with Huckabee's daughter, I expect that baseless charges of sexism will become a standard defense of Trump's followers ('Nobody ever made fun of Spicer!').

AndrewPrice said...

Anthony, I don't see it as sexism, but you hear that a lot from women that it is... which makes me wonder why women do it to men?

Anyways, I don't see the Conway thing as sexism but I do see it as intentionally disrespectful. The MSM has been openly, intentionally disrespectful to Trump people from the get go and I think that's part anger at their girl losing and part the attempt by the left to delegitimize anyone in authority on the right. I guarantee you that if a conservative journalist did it to Clinton or Obama is would be a sexist/racist outrage.

Anthony said...

I agree completely.

tryanmax said...

I tease my wife that I can hear it when she rolls her eyes. But, yeah, I know better than to roll my eyes at her.

RussJay9000 said...

Anthony,
I don't think you should over generalize Trump supporters (such as myself). We're not overly sensitive, we just enjoy seeing the left sputter when their own methods are used on them. Per "Rules for Radicals." "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."

Anonymous said...

RussJay9000
Well put.
GypsyTyger

Anthony said...

RussJay9000,

Sounds reasonable. My working assumption is most expressions of outrage in politics rarely reflect true outrage :).

AndrewPrice said...

So this is kind of interesting...

Leftist television personality Bob Beckel has been fired by Fox for saying something racist to a staffer. YET, the media reaction on the left (e.g. Huffington Post) has been to down play this to the point of oblivion.

They are calling it "an alleged racially insensitive remark." Notice that they are throwing doubt on whether or he said anything. Notice they aren't calling it racist remark, they have downgraded it a racially insensitive remark. Racist = intent. Racially insensitive = thoughtless comment.

This is fascinating given that these same people take any allegation made against a conservative as fully true and spin it as bad as possible. And they've just spent a month mindlessly damning Fox News for any allegation made or imagined by anyone. Suddenly, they discover an abundance of caution.

Hypocrites.

Koshcat said...

Too bad. I kind of liked Bob.

Anthony said...

My dad just learned an old friend of his, a wheelchair bound vet, was murdered by home invaders who also shot his wife in the neck when she tried to stop them (she is still alive). He had recently won the lotto. This happened in Virginia so hopefully they find and execute the scum.

AndrewPrice said...

Hi Anthony, I'm sorry to hear that. That's despicable. It's sad what humans do to each other. I hope they execute him too. Condolences to the family and best wishes to his wife.

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