Arsene Wenger's treatment of Jacqui Oatley wasn't sexist, but The Guardian's was

On Saturday, Jacqui Oatley did well to persuade Arsène Wenger to answer a few tough questions, despite the fact that Arsenal had very nearly lost to Hull City, and the manager clearly wasn't in the mood to be pressed on his team's failings. Shortly after the BBC interview was released, it caused a stir, with many suggesting Wenger had been rude to Oatley simply because she was a woman.

Into this mess waded Richard Williams, a former chief sports writer for The Guardian. Williams wrote a piece in which he seemingly praised Oatley for her work in the interview, but in fact was condescending to both her and women as a whole. And for that, he gets the Fire Joe Morgan treatment.

Let's start from the top, shall we? And I mean the very top:

jacqui-oatley-arsene-wenger-arsenal-female-reporter

Well. Thank goodness The Guardian slipped "female reporter" into the hyperlink, should anyone who cares be confused about Oatley's gender.

Jacqui Oatley's persistence challenges Arsène Wenger and men with mics

Nothing wrong with the headline. If only the author had gone on to demonstrate that Oatley does, in fact, challenge men's supremacy in football reporting.

By turning fans' gripes about Arsenal into questions and refusing to accept evasions, a female football reporter did more than just belie the common criticisms of women in the sporting media.

So Oatley bears the responsibility of contradicting criticisms directed at those of her gender who also work in sporting media. What, precisely, are those criticisms? That women won't be persistent? It's tough to say because there are so few women who are being given the chance to step into football's public eye.

Caught by the television cameras in the tunnel at the Emirates, [Arsène Wenger] responded to Jacqui Oatley's questions in a tone so patronising and belittling that you could not believe he would have directed it at an interviewer of his own gender.

When listening to Wenger respond to Oatley, you have to wonder if people were simply looking for this fight. This is a man whose team is once again fighting to even be in the Champions League places, much less looking on pace to add another trophy to their cabinet. They'd just limped to a draw against Hull. Wenger's very relevance is being hotly debated. What the Arsenal manager sounds like is a man confronted with questions he either does not want to answer -- or cannot. The gender of the reporter asking these questions was irrelevant until others made it so.

Every regular touchline radio or TV reporter, knowing that they are likely to be encountering that same manager again in the near future, is aware of the need to nurture a relationship of some sort. That's why straight questions are seldom asked. When they are, an evasive response is usually accepted.

Beginning to wonder if Williams knows the meaning of "patronising." Here, he's passing judgment on Oatley's approach to the interview. Careful, little girl, or next time Wenger won't respond when you ask him the time.

Her football credentials and love of the game are not in doubt.

Nope. Just her ability to further her career by fostering good relationships with managers. Oh wait...

And, like all female sports reporters, she has had to put up with a lot. She once had to put up with me, for a start, joining the chorus of those telling her that she wasn't good enough to be a Match of the Day commentator when she became the first woman in that role back in 2007.

Sounds like doubt to me!

I'd stand by that harsh judgment, not least because it also applies to all but a very small number of the men currently heard doing commentary on MOTD. It's a difficult job that few people are equipped to do well.

Williams has a point -- it's quite difficult to commentate well. Just ask Twitter. But let's just see what his reasons are beyond "not least"...

And many male football fans simply find it hard, after decades of watching the game, to accustom themselves to the higher pitch of a female voice shouting to make itself heard over the crowd.

Say what now? Sorry, my delicate female ears weren't able to register your growling baritone. And if this were truly the case, wouldn't sports fans of either gender be unable to accustom themselves to that higher pitch? Or is it because we women are familiar with the shrieks and giggles that carry over the hordes during a sample sale?

When a woman takes the microphone, it seems easy for a male audience to seize on every hesitation, slip and stumble as evidence in support of the belief that females are inherently unsuited to such roles.

I'm going to assume Williams is speaking from personal experience here. After all, in 2008 he had this to say about Oatley on Match of the Day:

It is time, as you may agree after watching the televised highlights of Saturday's game at St Andrew's, for Match of the Day, to end the experiment in political correctness represented by Jacqui Oatley's commentaries.

The problem with Williams' beliefs is that they create a self-perpetuating cycle. Men are unaccustomed to the sound of such high voices calling a football match, so women are not given chances. Then when women are finally able to break into such a role, they will be torn down by men. Eventually the "experiment in political correctness" will end, and a reason will be given as to why women are not visible in all levels of football media.

It would be interesting to give Oatley another chance at commentating, to see if the general reaction has changed over the years...

Um, no. It would be interesting to hear how Oatley's clear talents transfer to the process of calling a football match. It would be exciting for women hoping to one day play a role in football broadcasting to have a role model to point to. But the "general reaction" -- general meaning male, of course -- matters little.

Because the point Williams is missing here is that women must be given such roles in order to break out of that cycle. How else would these fragile men become used to the sound of a woman's voice? In seriousness, though, the only way an individual woman will continue to be singled out for the perceived collective faillings of her gender is to have her continue to be the only woman. With a plethora of women involved in football media, you'll still find criticism -- but it will be on their merits, not on whether women as a whole are unsuited to the task.

... influenced by exposure to the increasing number of excellent female contributors to sports coverage on television and radio, where the balance has certainly been changing.

Oh, excuse me. Apparently there's already enough exposure to our high pitched voices. Williams then goes on to compile a list of ten women that are apparently easily recognizable to any British audience. Of these, two work primarily in football: Gabby Logan, who was part of the ITV team during the World Cup and has anchored Match of the Day, and Bianca Westwood, who the internet tells me was spotlighted when reporting in hurricane-like conditions, but is in fact a regular on Sky's Soccer Saturday.

From a Reithian perspective, any of them is worth a hundred Robbie Savages.

Hey, here's a way to demonstrate you believe women are good enough to hang with the best in sports reporting: compare them to a buffoon who is regularly singled out for his poor punditry. A man who is kept in work due to his overbearing personality and overblown opinions rather than the skill with which he can do the job.

One day, perhaps, we will also be able to set aside a couple of nagging suspicions: first that breakfast TV producers tend to choose female reporters to read sports bulletins because they know that their presence means watching women are less likely to switch channels, and second that the female presenters on Sky Sports News are chosen for their approximate resemblance to Penelope Cruz or Scarlett Johansson as much as for their autocue-reading skills.

Not as long as people like Williams keep assuming that sports are intended for a all-male audience. The entirety of this piece is directed toward the male football fan -- from the idea that he won't be able to adjust his ears to a female commentator's voice to the notion that the same woman would be torn down by a "general reaction". It's time to stop believing women will change the channel rather than listen to sports scores. But it's far, far past time to continue hiring women based on their looks rather than their sport knowledge. There are thousands of intelligent female fans out there, eager to make their voices heard. But until it's been made clear that women are also a viable part of the football audience, they'll be continued to be used as eye candy, mere objects in this lads' club.

Oatley's interrogation of Wenger not only made a big point about a woman's ability to do the job: it raised the bar for post-match encounters in general.

Finally, a point upon which we can agree. Oatley's questioning was quality work, full stop. Her gender is irrelevant. If only Williams hadn't spent the majority of this article pondering what would happen if women were allowed to do more.