A Critique of the post “Is It Sexist That Women Twirl?” by Matt Reagan
Someone on my Twitter feed linked to this post by Matt Regan at the Desiring God site a few weeks ago. Apparently, the original title was “Is It Sexist That Women Twirl,” and was later changed to, “Do Little Girls Outgrow the Twirl?”
Original post,
(Link): Is It Sexist that Women Twirl (via Way Back Machine / Internet Archive, January 23, 2015)
The URL to that:
Newer(?) post,
(Link): Do Little Girls Outgrow the Twirl? by Matt Reagan, January 23, 2015
A woman, Eugenie Bouchard, won an international tennis match. A journalist asked her after her win to twirl for him and/or for the audience.
Several media outlets characterized this as being sexist.
Here is some of what MR, Reagan, has to say about the incident; I will quote him, then offer my observations below each quote:
Therein lies the problem. When Roger Federer was a little boy, he didn’t run into the living room, call for his parents’ attention, and twirl his outfit in front of them (he wasn’t wearing something twirlable to begin with).
But Serena did. Eugenie did. They were little girls, who were made to display the beauty they were given and to have that beauty honored. My daughters are perpetual twirlers, even to the extent that they are searching out the most twirlable skirts and dresses.
—- end excerpts—-
My response:
First of all, if a woman or girl of her own accord chooses to “twirl” around in a dress for her daddy in the privacy of their home, that is HER choice.
For a grown man, a so-called professional, to ask a grown woman to “twirl” around in her tennis outfit before a stadium of people after she wins a match, is not treating that woman as another professional. It is not the man’s place to ask a woman in public to “twirl.”
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