Two players for the LA Lakers, Nick Young (swingman) and Jordan Clarkson (guard), were accused of sexually harassing two women on Sunday night, 3/20. The two women were a mother and daughter, the mother being 68 years old and the daughter's age was not provided. They claim that a Jeep full of young men pulled up to them and began to say vulgar comments and make sexual gestures that caused the older woman to break down in tears.
An interesting turn in this story is that the younger woman, Alexis Jones, is actually the author of the book, "I Am That Girl," and founder of ProtectHer. ProtectHer is "a nonprofit program aimed at working with college and professional athletes to curb sexual assault and domestic violence by reframing traditional concepts of masculinity." (I've listed a link to the ProtectHer website at the end) In other words, the target of this sexual harassment case is actually someone who has dedicated her career to solving this exact problem. Knowing how important the issue is, Jones took out her phone and began recording the incident, and posted pictures of the men in in the Jeep to her Instagram account (picture below).
While this story was discouraging in some ways because it supports the stereotype of professional athletes acting recklessly and disrespecting women, there are positive takeaways to the story as well. Firstly, I was surprised at the irony of Alexis Jones actually being the founder of an organization like ProtectHer, and wondered whether this might decrease her credibility to the public. I could envision people doubting her and accusing her of lying for publicity, especially because it is such a coincidence. Nick Young even posted a Tweet suggesting that Jones had made up the claims, but he quickly deleted it. Even though people might not believe her, I felt that it at least gave her credibility and gave her organization more attention.
The biggest source of optimism from this piece is the way that the Lakers handled it. Jones herself said that she was inspired by the way that the Lakers responded, as she was quickly contacted by Lakers spokesperson John Black. They offered the possibility of Jones to speak to the Lakers team about respect and treatment of women, and a chance to meet with Clarkson and Young in person to discuss the incident. Jones was unable to meet them in person, and requested to talk with them over the phone, which the Lakers did not allow. Their response wasn't perfect--for instance I don't understand why they would not allow her to speak with them over the phone, but they did make a few valiant attempts to remedy the situation. Hopefully as more issues like this are addressed in the media, there will be greater accountability and higher expectations for athletes' behavior.
Yahoo News Article found here.
ProtectHer website found here.
I completely agree with you that this is upsetting not only because of the fact that it supports the stereotype of professional athletes being disrespectful to women, but that these men were harassing/taunting a 68-year-old and her daughter. I just don't ever see how that could be deemed okay or funny by anyone. Not that this is ever acceptable to happen to anyone, but I'm glad that Alexis Jones is extremely educated with this kind of behavior and took the right steps into taking videos and exposing these men so that they can be held accountable. I can't imagine it was easy for her to experience this own behavior herself knowing that she has dedicated life to trying to teach respect. I also see how people could look at this and automatically accuse her of making it up for her own benefit, but that falls exactly into the rape myth trap we've talked about in class. She said she started recording the situation and hat the guys immediately stopped and panicked when they noticed, but I wonder if she was able to get any footage of the harassment.
ReplyDeleteI'm honestly so surprised at how the Lakers responded to this. I agree that it's super weird that they wouldn't allow Jones to speak with them over the phone, but regardless I feel as though their reaction is drastically different than how we've seen other sports teams react (specifically in the NFL).