The reference to men in describing Djokovic’s attempt at his
fourth straight major victory is important because it pays respect to the fact
that women players have accomplished that feat. Often accomplishments of male
athletes are never restricted to their own sex. For example, Landon Donovan is
called the leading goal scorer in the history of U.S. soccer. However women’s national
team players Michelle Akers, Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach have all scored more
goals competing for the United States than Donovan. This is written not to
disparage Donovan but to call attention to the fact that the achievements of
women athletes should not be given short shrift.
This brings us back to Nadal’s record seventh French Open
title. The Associated Press and many other news outlets did not mention that
Chris Evert won seven French Open titles. (The Los Angeles Times did mention
Evert as a seven-time winner.) Nadal’s accomplishment could be written as a “men’s
record seventh title” or even “record-tying” with a nod given to Evert.
With this in mind, it is time for journalism stylebooks to be
updated. The change proposed is that for sports where both men and women play
that the sex of the sport is mentioned for both (i.e., men’s lacrosse and women’s
basketball) and that the accomplishments for athletes of each sport are placed
in more nuanced context (i.e., calling Landon Donovan the leading scorer in U.S.
men’s soccer history).
-- Steve Bien-Aime
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