Ines Sainz: A Rant

Ines Sainz in her idea of what passes for appropriate sideline attire.

I’ve really tried to stay away from ranting on this blog, partly because I don’t want to come across as angry and partly because I’m at a point where I’m trying to focus on the positive in life.  However, there is a situation that has come up recently that has really gotten my ire up and that I feel, as both a woman and a feminist, that I have to address.  I will try to do so without undue use of profanity, but this woman has me SERIOUSLY pissed off.

Ines Sainz, a reporter for TV Azteca, has claimed sexual harassment after an incident after a Jets practice session.  Her allegation is that the players threw footballs near her at practice and that someone made an off color comment while she was in the locker room waiting to interview Mark Sanchez.  Let’s take a look at this piece by piece.

First, throwing a football near someone is not sexual harassment.  I mean, really.  Basically the thing that brought me and my Big Bro is that he threw a football that hit me in the face.  Granted, he didn’t do it intentionally, but even if he had, it hardly would have qualified as sexual harassment. Mean spirited? Maybe.  But it wasn’t.  It was an accident and we’ve been inseparable ever since.  But I digress.  Lesson for Ms. Sainz?  What was done to Erin Andrews was sexual harassment, at the very least.  A football thrown

Erin Andrews reporting at a Penn State game.

in your direction is nothing more than a football thrown in your direction.

Second, reporters wouldn’t be in a locker room without a PR rep for the team there, and if there was a PR rep there, as I know for a fact there was, they would have stopped anything inappropriate from being said. That’s their job.

Third, you’re a woman in a locker room full of men in towels who have a boatload of testosterone and adrenaline running through their veins after practice.  If you’re uncomfortable, leave. Period, end stop, end of discussion.  No one was forcing you to be in the room.  You could have excused yourself and gotten your interview later.  It’s not unheard of.

Another example of what she thinks is appropriate.

Fourth, and this is perhaps my biggest problem, she was not in any way dressed professionally.  It’s important for anyone in any profession to dress professionally, but I would say, again as a woman and a feminist, that it is even more crucial to dress professionally in a field that is largely male dominated.  In a workplace full of women, women understand the variations in fashion that can be made while still being professional.  A workplace full of men is

Erin Andrews in work attire.

different.  If you want to be one of the boys, be one of the boys.  Take your cues from them.  I’m not saying wear a tie, but a suit is always nice.  If not a suit, take your cues from Erin Andrews and Pam Oliver.  Let’s take a look at the picture of Erin Andrews on the right.  Is she dressed frumpy? No.  Is she hiding her shape? No.  She’s wearing a crossfront purple sleeveless top with either shell underneath or a white modesty piece.  She looks nice and she looks feminine, but she still looks professional. That’s the key.  You can be feminine and be professional.  Check out the picture on the left above the one of Sainz in the white pants.  You can still see her shape and she looks pretty, but it’s still professional.  Are we starting to see a trend here people?  Same thing goes for Pam Oliver.  She dresses stylishly and with respect to her shape while on the sidelines, but she’s still aware of where she is and what she does.

Pam Oliver demonstrating professional yet attractive sideline attire.

Fifth, and this is a pretty big problem for me, false allegations like the one Sainz made are damaging for several reasons.  For one, they make the rest of us who share her gender look bad.  People assume that we think the same way because we’re women, too, and the fact is that most of us don’t.  I will acknowledge that Erin and Ines are reasonably attractive women.  I won’t argue that.  I don’t think they should hide that fact either.  However, this woman, especially as a former beauty queen, knows exactly what kind of reaction her attire will elicit and then pretending that she didn’t is just stupid.  It makes the rest of us look bad and that makes me angry.  What makes me even angrier, however, is that every false allegation that was made makes people less and less likely to believe a woman who comes forward with a legitimate sexual harassment issue.  It’s like the boy who cried wolf.  By the time there really was a wolf, no one cared.  If allegations like this keep getting made, by the time there’s a real one, it will be written off as another fake.  Neither the Jets n0r the NFL should be apologizing for anything.  This fool woman probably just got hit on a by a guy who was a little below her

Pam Oliver reporting at a basketball game.

standard and instead of ignoring it decided to cry sexual harassment.  I’ve read quite a few stories involving this woman, including several that detail advances made towards her by both players and other reporters in the past, yet she’s never complained.  And let’s not forget that nice little picture of her sitting on two football players’ shoulders.  That’s ok and a football getting thrown in your direction isn’t?  Get real.  The fact that she’s doing so now makes me think that it’s bull, plain and simple.  She got hit on by a guy she didn’t want to boff in the showers and decided to cry wolf.  The same way that white people have been made to feel like we have to apologize every time someone even says the word racism, men have been made to feel like they have to apologize any time a woman says the word harassment.  Ines Sainz is a cavalier, unprofessional halfwit who is making a bad name for women in sports and women in general and I am not going to stand for it.  It’s time someone calls her out for what she really is and I will be happy to be the one that does.

P.S. If you leave a comment that mentions how “hot” she is or something in that vein, don’t expect me to approve it.  I will delete it and ban or report you if necessary.  I’m not playing around here people.