I have no interest in sports and perhaps, even more specifically, no interest in hurdling. However, after reading New York Times writer Jere Longman’s scathing indictment of US Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones, I became Jones’ fan—nay, dare I say, champion.

Few things bother me more than seeing a woman of achievement maligned by a man who doesn’t like her outfit. However, it is possible that Longman thought his attack on Jones was in someway feminist—as if what he was really saying was that women should be respected for their achievements, not their appearance. If this was what he meant to say, his words surely failed him.

Not to worry, because a few days later, another man, this time from Fox News, came to Jones’ rescue. Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist and member of the Fox News Medical A-Team, wrote:

Longman’s column, however, may say more about him—and those hostile to all trappings of true gender identity…”

The good doctor would know about things like hostility to “true gender identity,” will we next read his case study on hysteria?

Ablow didn’t stop his ill-conceived defense of Jones there, he continued:

Mr. Longman objecting to a beautiful athlete posing in sensual photographs, while remaining silent about female boxers who look androgenous, beating up one another in a boxing ring, until they fall down, is worth noting.”

Someone thought the above section was particularly good, as it was used for a pull quote. Ablow seems to be saying that the real problem (as usual) is women who do not conform to gender roles, not pretty girls like Jones who show a bit of well-toned flesh.

Ablow ends his article with a particularly astute observation, his emphasis, not mine:

Mr. Longman has gone long on trying to turn Lolo Jones into a man.  I’m not his psychiatrist, but to me, that sounds like it merits a few sessions.”

I will now give you a few moments to digest this ridiculousness.

Done?

I will now ascend to my soapbox.

It’s been said once, and I will say it again. If you are an older white man, nine times out of 10, you aren’t helping a woman when you come to her defense.

I am not trying to racial profile here, but if it works for New York City cops in high-crime areas, maybe we should try it on journalists?*

Not only do these public debates about the place of a woman and the role of a woman’s identity smack of sexism, but to hear this kind of trash from fellow writers drives the smite of these malformed arguments even deeper.

I am reminded that women must be as good (if not better) than men, while remaining “feminine,” but not too feminine so as to seem weak, but not too strong so as to avoid being seen as bitchy or “androgynous.” We must do all this for a fraction of the salary and sometimes twice the work. We are not allowed in the NFL, we do not play Major League Baseball and we have never been President or Vice President of the country.

If we are young, we are inexperienced and if we are old, we are used up. We are the ones with the delightful task of childbirth and the associated costs of femininity–just think of all the toilet paper we use in a lifetime.

Women’s haircuts cost more and so does health insurance, dry cleaning– you name it. On top of all this, men are apparently still paid to opine on our status and behavior in widely read publications that even the most talented among us (ahem, me) can’t get a job at.

This would all be too much to bear if we didn’t run the world, like Beyonce says.

Jere Longman, of NYT and Dr. Keith Ablow of Fox News; Lolo Jones Courtesy KD Sanders

*we do not support racial profiling.

… was based not on achievement but on her exotic beauty and on a sad and cynical marketing campaign. Essentially, Jones has decided she will be whatever anyone wants her to be — vixen, virgin, victim — to draw attention to herself and the many products she endorses.

Funny, because in most of the coverage of Jones that we have seen, commentators aren’t focusing on her virginity or vixen-ness, but rather remarking upon the fact that Jones was in the lead in the 2008 Bejing Olympics, but tripped, causing her to finish in seventh place. I don’t follow hurdling regularly, but even I know this.

Longman goes on to write that he personally disapproved of a bathing suit Jones wore on the cover of “Outside Magazine, ” calling it ”nothing but strategically placed ribbon.” Jones’ red bathing suit seems to tell Longman that her claims to be a “virgin” and a “Christian” were obviously false. Again, why do we care who she sleeps with or worships? Is Longman secretly Jones’ father? Now THAT could be a story.

How dare this man attack a US Olympian for her bathing suit– which by the way, is about as much as many competing Olympians wear these days.

Has Mr. Longman watched beach volleyball? He might have a stroke from the exposed flesh of Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, who just won a gold medal for the USA.

Part of the reason we watch the Olympics is to marvel at the bodies of superhuman sportsmen and women, and as a sportswriter, surely Longman knows that Olympic contests were initially held in the buff. But apparently none of this matters, since he is determined to hate a US Olympian for being sexy.

Longman goes on to admit that male athletes, like swimmer Ryan Lochte, have often been praised for good looks. But in Lochte’s case, Longman seems to argue that it’s totally cool, because he’s a medalist. So if Jones won a medal, would it be ok for her to be sexy?

In his infinite journalistic wisdom, the sportswriter decides he needs to have quotes from other people (rather than just his own opinions) to substantiate his attacks on Jones. He taps Janice Forsyth, director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at the University of Western Ontario who laments female athletes who feel they must sell themselves as sex objects, but then goes on to say:

“I don’t know if this is Lolo being Lolo or part of a marketing scheme to remain relevant in an Olympic industry where if you are not the Olympic champion, you are nothing.”

Hmm…very interesting. So a) this could just be the way Lolo is and b) she is in an industry where if you are not a champion you are nothing. It’s so awesome that Longman decided to challenge that notion in his article and encourage women to try sports by affording female athletes fair and unbiased news coverage. Oh wait, HE DIDN’T. Longman writes that Jones struggles with doubts, but rather than try to assuage them, he gives Jones something to really be worried about: not the race, but her image.

As if he hadn’t maligned Jones enough, Longman gets her teammate Dawn Harper for her take, pitting one female athlete against another in the court of public opinion, not the track.

Harper conceded that like Jones, she only became a hurdler so that she could pose scantily clad on the covers of niche magazines and get free shoes and earn money from endorsements. Nope. She didn’t say that, because no one becomes a hurdler for that reason!

Since Jones is such a lame athlete, we challenge Longman to a race against her. We challenge Longman to jump as high and run as fast as this woman who has been jumping and running as the bar is raised not just by fellow athletes, but by people like Longman: a person who clearly does a terrible job at what he is allegedly good at, yet continues to be read in the preeminent English-language paper of our time. Does he only have his job because of his sex appeal?

Jere Longman, Image Source: St. Vincent’s College;

Lolo Jones by KD Sanders

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On The Today Show, Jones cried about her treatment in the New York Times.

The Times’ Ombudsman also criticized the viciousness of  Longman’s article, writing that he had received many letters from readers who were upset by it. Longman’s editor apparently defended the article. Many other writers have since weighed in, and we will be continuing to cover new developments as they occur.

Here, she reaches out with diamond-clad fingers to hug teammate Deedee Trotter, who claimed a Bronze medal with her American pride displayed…in face paint.

Destinee Hooker of USA Women’s Volleyball fame isn’t shy about decorations, while Kerri Walsh of women’s beach volleyball wore a thumb ring when she pummeled the Italian team.

Venus Williams’ attempt at patriotism isn’t too shabby.

But everyone is pretty tame compared with Olympic running champion Flo Jo. Don’t mess with those nails.

Still, when male swimmers like Michael Phelps are shaving their bodies to be more competitive, one wonders if female athletes may (at times) be hampered by the trappings of femininity. What do you think? On your mark, set, GO!