When is it just too much?
Cam Newton, quarterback for the Carolina Panthers, in a press conference made a comment to a female reporter. It was said with a laugh, it was not said in a hate filled voice. But there it is. “It’s funny to hear a female talk about routes like—it’s funny.” The reporter later said “I don’t think it’s funny, it’s my job.” Now as a woman and a rabid sports fan I find myself watching this story on the news gather more and more steam and I have to ask. Have we really gotten this sensitive?
We are far from the days when the first female reporter made her way into the locker room to interview the team amid laughter and dares. As a woman I really don’t feel that I have to list what I can and can’t do. I can do and can’t do as much as anyone else, some things well some not at all. As I watch the comments on this story, a huge amount of them are from women agreeing with what I think. She, if it was her who blew this up, is being way too sensitive.
Cam Newton: Have We Gotten Too Sensitive?
In fact, there have been many times that men I speak to make a comment similar such as. “Wow, you know what you are talking about don’t you?” When I talk trash and sports with them and they have first met me. Not all women like sports and follow them as much as some of us. Myself, I have a Steelers tattoo on one ankle and a Yankees one on the other. I understand the games and love to talk with my friends, mostly male, about them. When they make such comments I haven’t taken it as an insult. I take it as some guys have mostly been around women who aren’t as into sports as myself. They think it’s cool to talk with me and are not trying to insult me.
If Cam said something like, “Shouldn’t your paper have sent a guy here to ask about that.” That would have been an insult. I really don’t think he was going for insult. He had a thought that popped into his head and he gave voice to it. That is the sad point, we are getting to a point where we cannot say what comes to our minds without offending someone. Even when that is not what we are trying to do. A sponsorship deal has been terminate over it. Honestly, I will not use the product for dropping him over something so petty than not use it because he does commercials for it.
Main Photo: TAMPA, FL – JANUARY 01: Cam Newton #1 of the Carolina Panthers warms up on the sideline during the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on January 1, 2017 in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers defeated the Panthers 17-16. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
As a woman in the industry, I can appreciate the public for standing behind women’s rights, but I was not offended by Newton’s comments. Yes, there was a sheer look of surprise on his face after she made her comment, but I absolutely think the situation was blown way out of proportion. I am the PA announcer at a high school in Charlotte, NC and I had a person tell me straight up that a man should be in the booth, not me. Told me that I didn’t know what I was talking about. I guess as women in the field, we should expect to receive a bit of resistance. But I don’t think this was one of those times.