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September 21, 2002
Here In Washington, D.C. .
Here In Washington, D.C. . . There are few things that can kill a career quicker than a lengthy write-up in the Washington Post detailing some sort of personal misbehavior or criminal malfeasance. For the most part, despite the words of former New Orleans Governor Edwin Edwards, there are plenty of things that will kill a career besides being caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl -- and being caught in the crosshairs of a Post profile is one of them. Having this profile appear as a page 1 headline can be especially deadly. Unless of course you're the coach of the local WNBA team. This past Monday, Post staff writers Jessica Hopp and Greg Sandoval reported that Washington Mystics Head Coach Marianne Stanley, while she was women's basketball coach at UC-Berkeley, had forced one of her assistant coaches, Sharonna Alexander, to resign when Stanley had discovered Alexander was pregnant. Essentially, Stanley said unless Alexander had an abortion, she was out of a job. Later, after Alexander filed suit against Stanley and UC-Berkeley, the University quickly settled her suit out of court, and made sure the decision was sealed. Afterwards, UC-Berkeley continued to reccommend Stanley for other jobs without reservation and without mentioning Alexander's suit. And to make things worse, Stanley has often used her feminist credentials to promote her own career, even going so far as filing a very public, and ultimately, unsuccessful lawsuit against USC for wage discrimination. All in all, Stanley has been exposed as a feminist fraud who wants to have it both ways. Well, it's been six days since the story hit the Post's front page. And the reaction? How about less than zero? Today, came the second mention in the Post of the suit, and it's in a Saturday column by Sally Jenkins, one of my favorites and the Sports section's resident gender feminist. But other than that, there has been nothing. No followups to get reaction from the Wizards. No reverberations on talk radio or on the cable chat programs. Do a google search on Stanley, and you need to pile through pages of biographical info before you find any mention of the case. Why the silence? Where are all the feminist groups who normally rail against employment policies and practices that discriminate against women? Where in fact, is Martha Burk, head of the National Council of Women's Organizations? One would think that this sort of misbehavior, especially when it occurs in her organization's front yard, might actually interest her. The answer, of course by now, should be pretty clear: if you're able to define you're enemy as an out of touch White guy, go in with guns blazing. Then again, when you're confronted with the fact that a woman might have committed a greater sin (and in this case I think Stanley is guiltier of behavior far more heinous than the membership committee at Augusta National Golf Club), feel free to ignore it. After all, it won't make for headlines, and it won't make for great copy in fundraising letters. Then there's the other dirty little secret: that no matter how successful the women's movement may have been, and no matter how much men and women alike would never want to go back to the world we came from, the fact remains that the movement has engendered a real disrespect for women who choose to have a family. This, even among some women who have chosen to have children of their own, much like Stanley. In her column this morning, Jenkins compares Stanley's actions to the static former Houston Oilers offensive lineman David Williams got a few years ago when he missed a game to be with his wife as she gave birth to their first child. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid Stanely's transgression here, and her subsequent attempts to scrub it from her job history, are at least as reprehensible as a number of incidents that have gotten male coaches the boot from college basketball. Jenkins goes on to say that she hopes Stanley isn't fired from her position as Mystics coach, but that rather the team should simply refuse to renew her contract. I have to ask why. After all, I thought the point of the women's movement was a simple struggle for equal treatment. And if that's the case, the Mystics should have sent Stanley packing within hours of last Monday's paper hitting the street.
Eric
03:17 PM
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