The Newells
by Jess McCabe // 27 November 2008, 11:49
The UK should copy the Australians, and set up an annual 'awards' ceremony to highlight sexism in the public eye, argues Cath Elliot over at Comment is Free today.
The Ernies take place at the New South Wales parliament building, and:
are bestowed on men (and some women) who have demonstrated outrageous sexism, are determined by the level of noise generated by the all-women audience, so booing, jeering, and foot-stamping are heartily encouraged
Why are Cath's proposed awards for the UK are called the Newells?
I'm calling mine the Newell awards, in honour of the former Luton manager Mike Newell, who infamously said of assistant referee Amy Rayner: "She shouldn't be here. I know that sounds sexist but I am sexist. This is not park football, so what are women doing here?" Read it and weep.
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Clare // Posted 27 November 2008 at 14:05
Sounds like a great idea. My only suggestion is that when writing the description for the Newell awards it should say that the awards are for those 'individuals' who have demonstrated outrageous sexism. People of all genders can be guilty of sexist behaviour, while I agree that we should call people on it there shouldn't be an automatic assumption that it's necessarily men who are sexist. If we expect the best of others then they will rise to the challenge. In the meanwhile, we can keep calling out sexist behaviour and challenging people on it.