The news last year that Harvard’s soccer and cross country teams produced sexually explicit “scout reports” that assessed the appearance and sex appeal of the respective women’s teams shows us that we have a long way to go in education surrounding sexism.
The news went national in America late last year after the Harvard Crimson reported that members of Harvard’s 2012 men’s soccer team created lewd and degrading “scouting reports” of the women’s team. The reports judged the appearance of all the new freshers on the women’s soccer team that year, giving each a nickname often based on a perceived flaw in their appearance while also suggesting hypothetical sex positions for each of the women.
The men’s soccer season was resultingly cancelled when it was revealed, again by the Harvard Crimson, that the reports had continued since 2012 and included one by the 2016 team.
Further reports then revealed the men’s cross country team had too produced similarly-styled “spreadsheets” that assessed the appearance of their women’s teams’ new recruits, also over a number of years.
It says a lot that this was not one isolated incident of one team in one sport. This involved two separate sports teams over several years, with both teams experiencing a yearly turnover of personnel. Despite new people in the teams each year, their degrading and sexist traditions endured.
Sexism appears to be one of the most tolerated forms of prejudice in our society. We go through school educated on bullying and racism from a very early age, but when are we ever properly educated on sexism?
Surely not every member of the two teams over the last few years was an active sexist. Some definitely knew what they were doing was wrong. However, the pressure to conform is powerful. People would rather fit in than stand out, especially in a team environment.
Most men probably know this feeling of conforming to what they think is wrong. Many have been in a team dressing room or in a group chat and experienced things said about women that they wouldn’t like said about their sister or mother. Few – if any – ever put a stop to it.
For that reason, a part of me believes the men’s soccer team’s apology when they say: “We want to affirm that the scouting report did not and does not reflect our view of the members of Harvard Women’s Soccer or of women in general.” This is probably true. It is unlikely that the majority of the team are inherently sexist. But, they all must face the fact that they conformed to the sexist environment of their team regardless of whether they themselves view women that way or not.
Sexism appears to be one of the most tolerated forms of prejudice in our society. We go through school educated on bullying and racism from a very early age, but when are we ever properly educated on sexism?
A statement released by the 2012 women’s freshers says that at first they “brushed off” the news of the men’s “scout reports”.
“As if we weren’t surprised men had spoken of us inappropriately”, the statement reads. “As if this kind of thing was just, ‘normal.’ The sad reality is that we have come to expect this kind of behavior from so many men, that it is so “normal” to us we often decide it is not worth our time or effort to dwell on.”
The Harvard Crimson then published a piece detailing the reaction of students to the reports. The headline read: “Students Disturbed But Unsurprised By Explicit Soccer Scouting Report.”
If the men’s team had instead produced a nine-page report demeaning different races, rather than women, would people have been more shocked?
The lack of surprise in both instances is alarming, but arguably understandable in a nation that has experienced the normalisation of sexism after 18 months of a bitter and hate-filled presidential election.
If the men’s team had instead produced a nine-page report demeaning different races, rather than women, would people have been more shocked? I think so, because we have gone through our education system being told that racism is wrong, but not enough is being done to educate against sexism. We should live in a society where we are genuinely surprised at this sort of behaviour, just as we would be if it were racism or any other form of prejudice.
The introduction of consent workshops by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) this year was a welcome addition, and education remains the key in making our society a better place for all. But more needs to be done. We need to do more to educate students of all ages on sexism, because the conformity that goes on now – not just at Harvard – isn’t good enough in 2016.
