There's been a fuss here in North America about a female sports journalist who feels she got a hard time when she visited a male team changing room after a game. I just wonder if female journalists should be wandering around male changing rooms at all. I know if I, a guy, demanded to be allowed into the Canadian women's volleyball team dressing room after a game, I'd probably get short shrift. I might even be branded as some kind of a pervert. Why is it anyway that female sports journalists can demand to be allowed into males sports locker rooms? They argue that they can't do their job properly unless they have the same access as male reporters.
I have a theory. It's that you can't actually do a good job of reporting a sport if you've never played it. That's kind of why I'm not too bothered about not covering female volleyball. I know women and men play the same sports differently. To be honest, I think women's ice hockey is a far more entertaining and skilful game than the men's version. But I've never played women's ice hockey and I don't think I'm qualified to write about it and demand access to their dressing rooms after a game.
Oh, I could know who the players are, who the top scorer is and who everyone played for before they joined the team I'm reporting on: but without ever playing, would I really understand the game? Now, I could win myself a lot of publicity and fame if I did become a women's hockey writer, particularly if I could get some of them to harass me while I was visiting their changing room after the game. But I'd feel that I'd got the job as a gimmick.