(Above) Belgium’s Justine Henin, French Open champion three of the past four years, says she’s happy that in 2007 she’ll be paid equal to men for doing considerably less work.
The tennis pay fiasco is a classic example of how feminism, political correctness and male chivalry so often bulldoze common sense and fairness. According to the Associated Press article “French Open extends equal pay to womenâ€ÂÂ
“The announcement Friday by the French Tennis Federation extends last year’s decision.
“The French Open paid the men’s and women’s singles champions the same for the first time, although the overall prize fund remained larger for men. “‘In 2007, the parity will be total,’ federation president Christian Bimes said.â€ÂÂ
The article intentionally ignores the decisive fact that in the French Open the men play a best of five series while the women play only best of three. Men play 67% more sets than women do. Some “equal pay for equal workâ€ÂÂ!
As I noted here a couple of weeks ago, Wimbledon recently made the same decision based on the same feminist strong-arming/shaming tactics.
In the AP article feminist ex-tennis player Billie Jean King saluted this pay “equity.†In 1973 King, at age 29, struck what for some reason is considered a great blow for feminism and women’s equality by beating 55 year-old Bobby Riggs in a famous match in the Astrodome. King was in the prime of her career in 1973. By contrast, Riggs (see below) had made the cover of Newsweek magazine for his play in…1939.
To be fair, I will say that I often find the women’s tennis matches more interesting than the men’s. The men’s game just seems so power-oriented to the point where I lose interest. The women’s game seems more varied and creative. I used to be a decent tennis player but have been shelved for the past couple years by vertigo, which has been a real drag.
Riggs on the cover of a 1939 Newsweek magazine
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