08:45 AM
04/20/24
04/20/24
July 17, 2013
R&A will look at gender issue after British Open: TL;DR: Ain't no big thang, chums.
posted by billsaysthis to culture at 04:06 PM - 3 comments
If they don't like being on the defensive, they could always head in the other direction and forbid the use of alcohol and tobacco at the club. They could then wait for new membership applications from places like Saudi Arabia to roll in, ensuring a renewed pursuit of gender segregation.
Muirfield without alcohol - does seem a bit unnatural I suppose, doesn't it?
posted by beaverboard at 11:07 PM on July 17, 2013
I just find it hard to believe someone in Dawson's position can say that $%*!@ with a straight face in 2013. What a great actor!
posted by billsaysthis at 11:47 AM on July 18, 2013
Hardly believed my eyes when I read the quotes from R&A chief executive Peter Dawson:
"Obviously the whole issue of gender and single-sex clubs has been pretty much beaten to death recently," Dawson said. "And we do, I assure you, understand that this is divisive. It's a subject that we're finding increasingly difficult, to be honest."
One reporter, touching on the racial discrimination that once pervaded the game, asked Dawson what was the difference between a male-only club and one that allowed only whites to join.
"Oh, goodness me, I think that's a ridiculous question, if I may say so," he replied. "There's a massive difference between racial discrimination, anti-Semitism, where sectors of society are downtrodden and treated very, very badly indeed. And to compare that with a men's golf club, I think, is frankly absurd. There's no comparison whatsoever." He later added: "It's just kind of, for some people, a way of life that they rather like. I don't think in doing that they're intending to (bring) others down or intending to do others any harm."