Christina Scavo Vs. Brett Favre: Women Need to Stay Away from Men's Sports

Christina Scavo and Shannon O'Toole, former massage therapists for the Jets, are filing a lawsuit against Brett Favre and the Jets for more inappropriate behavior, more proof that women should stay far away from any kind of profession where they'll find themselves up close and personal with male athletes.

Of course such an outrageous statement needs plenty of explanation. Am I saying that women shouldn't be allowed to become sportscasters or massage therapists for sports teams? Of course not. I'm simply advising women to stay away from professions like these that will have them getting up close and personal with male athletes. Why? Because they're putting themselves in positions where they're constantly surrounded by testosterone-fueled men used to most women enjoying their attention (think Tiger Woods and all of his mistresses). Such positions get even more difficult for women when all the men around them engage in groupthink, as in the case of Ines Sainz, a reporter subjected to inappropriate comments in the Jets locker room (sometimes all it takes is one man to say something inappropriate to a woman to make the others in the group feel comfortable with chiming in).

Christina Scavo and Shannon O'Toole held jobs that also made them likely targets. They were massage therapists for the Jets, which means they were getting very up close and personal with all the players. However, in this instance, it seems that only one man crossed the line when he was one-on-one with the women. Christina Scavo and Shannon O'Toole have singled out Brett Favre as making sexual advances toward them, although they describe the Jets, their locker room, and their training facility as a "hotbed of sexual harassment, sexism and inappropriate behavior."

Of course this wouldn't be the first time Brett Favre has been in trouble with women working for the Jets; he recently was fined for not cooperating in an investigation involving whether or not he sent inappropriate photos and text messages to former game-day hostess Jenn Sterger.

But the problems women face with jobs involving men's sports go further than the Jets. Poor Erin Andrews was turned into a sexual object, seemingly thrown on the sidelines for her looks rather than her knowledge or talent, and just today a female sportscaster with a great heart, Jeannine Edwards, was called "sweetcakes" by ESPN reporter Ron Franklin. When she stood up for herself by saying that she didn't like being referred to by the sexist term, he then called her an a-hole (what kind of guy refers to a woman with that term, anyway?).

So I hope women continue to learn from the likes of Christina Scavo and Shannon O'Toole that a job around male sports stars just isn't worth it; a lot of those guys don't deserve the company of successful women that stand up for themselves, anyway.

SOURCES:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/12/ines-sainz-azteca-jets_n_713843.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/sports/football/04favre.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20026977-10391698.html