This is one of three views to be published on the site today. You may read the others here and here. Views are not necessarily those of teenAGE or Jamaica Observer.

…. 

Inappropriate, not disrespect. 

To me, the entire situation surrounding the comments made by Jamaican cricketer Chris Gayle to the female Australian reporter has been blown way out of proportion.

What happened essentially was that, in about ten seconds, Chris Gayle complimented Mel McLaughlin’s eyes, asked her out for drinks, and upon seeing her mortified reaction to this, said “Don’t blush baby.”

Since then, Gayle has been widely criticized as being tasteless, unprofessional, and has even been accused of sexually harassing the reporter (who by the way has accepted Gayle’s apology and said she would rather talk about cricket than being at the centre of a controversy).

Though I do not condone Gayle’s comments, and I agree that they were very inappropriate for a live interview, sexual harassment is a bit of a stretch. If we were to move this situation from live TV interview to them just being passersby at the cricket match, it would not be seen as disrespect, would it? It would just be seen as flirting, and Mel would probably even have considered his advances. So what is really Gayle’s crime? Flirting with a woman or flirting on TV?

The issue of gender inequality in the workplace has also been brought into play, and this situation may very well be on its way to being inducted as a case of men belittling women in the working world and not taking them seriously as professionals. Gayle, in his apology said he did not mean any disrespect, he was just joking. But since when does joking with someone in a working environment mean you do not think they are deserving of their position?

 Women have been advocating for centuries for equality in all aspects, and rightly so. But the definition of equality can be very relative, and in the end, will be left up to personal judgement. Gayle’s error was time and place, but there is nothing wrong with flirting with a woman you think is attractive, understanding that it is up to her to decide how to respond to your advances.  

After all, does seeing a woman as an equal mean you no longer see her as a woman?