Date: 19 July 2013
Country: UK
The BBC presenter John Inverdale made the sexist comments during the women’s final at this year’s tennis contest in Wimbeldon. Inverdale’s sexist remarks provoked over 700 complaints and an immediate fury on Twitter with the hash tag #EveryDaySexism.
After the sexist comments by one of the leading BBC sport commentators about the Wimbeldon champion Marion Bertoli, the Culture Secretary Maria Miller demanded the further action from the BBC.
But, asThe Guardian reports, the Corporation has dismissed the call saying that “it considers the matter closed”.
Culture secretary, Maria Miller, stated that these comments undermined her efforts to promote women in sports and wrote a letter to Tony Hall, the director general of the BBC, demanding further actions to be taken because the Inverdale on-air apology and the letter to Bertoli were not enough.
She requested the BBC to take positive steps in the future “to ensure that the perception of and commentary on female athletes, and women’s sport generally, are as positive and inclusive as possible.”
However, the corporation stated that the case is closed after the BBC director of sport Barbara Slater as well as Jonathan Wall, the controller of Radio 5 Live spoke with Inverdale and made clear that “his comments were unacceptable and that an incident of this nature must never happen again.”
Writing in the Guardian’s section Comment is Free, freelance writer Sarah Ditum has stated that “it is a good thing when Tories stand up against sexism”.
“What a difference from Margaret Thatcher saying ‘I owe nothing to women’s lib.’ Miller has tacitly acknowledged that how women are presented in public life – where our presence is deemed to be acceptable, and what kinds of scrutiny may be applied to us as a tax on our existence – matters to all our prospects, rather than casting herself as the golden daughter of exceptionalism”, wrote Ditum in Comments is Free.