VILLAINS OF PIECE ARE THE CRITICS

DAVID Moyes isn’t a misogynist. It is those spinning the story and writing the headlines who are. The Sunderland boss was caught on camera warning BBC reporter Vicki Sparks that her questions were “naughty” and she “might get a slap, even though (you’re) a woman”. Moyes’ reaction was ugly and unprofessional, but was it sexist? No way. It’s a classic case of grasping to inject words with an ‘ism’ to generate outrage. Where exactly was the discrimination? If a man is expected to threaten violence to both sexes without caveat or conscience, that is a Pyrrhic victory for equality. The story here is pretty simple: underpressure manager threatens innocent journalist with violence. Yet almost every report of the incident mentioned prominently that Sparks was a woman. Was that necessary? Was it relevant? I’d argue that it wasn’t. And that means those doing the writing saw Sparks – deliberately or otherwise – as a woman first and a reporter second. That kind of insidious sexism is far more damaging than anything Moyes said and a dispiriting reminder of how far away genuine equality remains.