ASHTON Hipgrave is right to confront abusers
PERHAPS the most worrying aspect of Lynsey Hipgrave’s brush with Twitter this week is that the BT Sport presenter should have some regrets about highlighting the sexist abuse polluting her timeline.
Hipgrave’s only crime was to have a view on Lionel Messi’s penalty last Sunday, just one of several hundred thousand tweets after he rolled the ball into the path of Luis Suarez at the Nou Camp.
What followed was an alarming wave of sexist abuse, much of it so improper that Hipgrave decided to retweet some of the messages.
A quick trawl through her Twitter feed will give a better insight into the kind of routine abuse to which women working in sport have become accustomed.
One tasteless individual made an obscene observation before concluding ‘this is why we don’t hire females unless we need our food cooked’.
In an era when Sky Sports, for example, use many women presenters, it is important that the football community really understands the challenging issues they face.
Until Hipgrave highlighted the problem, many were probably unaware of the derogatory comments that female presenters receive every day.
It is a question of respect. There is no justifiable excuse for someone responding to Hipgrave with such inappropriate comments.
Although unaware that it would become one of the week’s major talking points, there is no reason she should regret bringing it to public attention. Instead, it is for Twitter to put appropriate controls in place.
If the organisation can involve the police when it comes to racist abuse, they should just as pro-active with sexist comments.
Hipgrave does not stand alone. Countless female TV presenters have had similar experiences after posting an observation on a public platform. Sadly, Twitter’s 305million active users prefer to ignore these issues rather than confront them.
It has not been an easy week for Hipgrave, with various TV programmes, newspapers (including this one) and magazines asking her to speak on the issue. So far, she has declined them all.
In the past, like most women in an environment dominated by males, she has ignored the regular Twitter abuse telling her to ‘get back into the kitchen’. By working with former professional footballers Hipgrave knows that the laddish culture of the dressing room is soon transferred to the green room when ex- players get together.
Having previously worked with Hipgrave, who was hosting last night’s Europa League coverage on BT Sport, she is not a woman who is easily offended. She grew up in Newcastle in a household dominated by talk of the Kevin Keegan team that nearly won the Premier League in the mid-Nineties.
At weekends she would go with her dad to reserve team games at St James’ Park, or to watch her brother playing for Blaydon Youth.
When it comes to football she is passionate and would certainly prefer to be remembered for her skills as a TV presenter rather than as a glamorous pin-up.
In terms of her professional approach to her broadcasting career, you would be hard pushed to find anyone who works harder on preparation and research.
Unwittingly, Hipgrave has forced attention on to the issue of sexist abuse. It is something for which she should be saluted. Without it, the rogues who ruin the Twitter experience win hands down.