“Tiger Woods, Nike spokesman and unmarried father of none…”
Ooh, this is such a good rant. The author takes on sportswriters who always include a woman’s marital or family status when writing about female competitors, as if they can hardly believe that a mother could also be a first-class athlete. In a roundabout way, it also reminds me of something that happened in London a year or two ago, where a woman was killed outside a train station. Every headline blared “MOTHER OF THREE GUNNED DOWN” or something similar. As if crimes are somehow more senseless when perpetuated against a breeder. Why should the fact that she had children have anything to do with it? Somebody died, that’s horrible. Somebody won a race, that’s great. This need to single out women (whether for additional pity or congratulations) on the basis of their “domestic achievements” is patronising and unnecessary.