Why The Missing Sportswomen Don’t Matter

A recent talking point in the media, which no doubt took up your full attention and had you exercising your critical faculties to their creaking limits throughout last week, was the line-up for the BBC’s annual Sports Personality of the Year Award. Of course, I don’t mean so much that you were wondering why there were three golfers among the ten nominees (is golf even a sport?) or what Andy Murray was doing in any contest with the word “personality” in the title (I’m Scottish, so this joke is ok). No, I’m imagining that you were all puzzling hard over where all the women nominees were. Yes, that’s what the talking point was – among the ten nominees that the all-male panel of British sports writers chose to put to a public vote for the prize, there wasn’t a single woman.

Now, I’m not going to pretend to know which sportswomen should have been included in the list, or even to know anything about the men that were included. But what I am going to say is: Who cares? I know it’s pretty shabby to ignore women’s achievements in anything, and I’m not going to pretend that sexism is ok, but really – who gives a toss about this truly dismal event anyway, whoever is on or off the shortlist?

This is a totally stupid award. For a start, what has “personality” to do with sporting achievement? Nothing. If anything, success in sport tends to be accompanied by a psychopathic single-mindedness that makes the Terminator look like a rural Health Visitor. And looking back, has the award ever shown any form for being awarded to sportsmen or sportswomen with anything special in the way of personality? Certainly not judging by the cavalcade of tediousness that is the winners’ list. Sebastian Coe, Nigel Mansell, Steve Davis, Nick Faldo, Damon Hill, Jonathan Edwards (now there’s a dinner party seating plan from Purgatory). My favourite in recent memory was 1997, when those two giants of badinage and tennis, Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman, slogged it out for the nation’s postal votes (Greg won, presumably because he could actually smile without looking as if he was hearing a dentist’s drill). It’s not exactly an evening with Peter Ustinov, is it?

Of course, the reason there’s only ever been a light scattering of women among this motley collection of pot plants is the same reason why this whole sorry event exists in the first place. There’s only one type of person duller than a professional sportsman, and that’s a professional sports writer. And they’re the people who draw up these lists – and they’re all men. So there we are – no women on the list because it’s picked by a group of terminally dull, definitely-on-the-spectrum lads who would sooner hang out by the laundry basket in a sweaty changing room than even talk to a member of the opposite sex, never mind watch them play sport.

Yes, there is a massive male bias in sports coverage, and yes, it’s shameful when sports writers effectively disregard the achievements of women, but the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award is much better ignored than protested about. In fact, maybe if we all just pretend it isn’t there, then the BBC might just give up and cancel it. Wouldn’t that be something to cheer for?

Contact the author here: thewhy@morningquickie.com