This week a Belgian sports journalist has sparked fury after making a 'sexist' comment about a young reporter's top on Twitter.
Recently, British TV presenter Piers Morgan also came under fire for making a comment about a woman's clothing:
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The trouble began when Belgian journalist and former pro athlete Sven Spoormakers took to his Twitter account to post a picture of Argentinian journalist Belén Mendiguren interviewing cyclists during the Vuelta a San Juan cycling race in Argentina. Spoormakers was accused of objectifying the reporter after he captioned the image "Is it cold in Argentina?"
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However, Australian journalist Sophie Smith took umbrage over Spoormakers' remark, and defended Mendiguren by retweeting the post and writing: "Seriously? Please tell me this is lost in translation and you did not just publicly objectify a young female reporter. Speaking from experience, let me say she does the exact same job as you but has to work and withstand twice as much still because of bullsh*t like this. [sic]"
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Spoormakers attempted to defend himself by replying: "Objectify, really? Come on. Don’t draw the feminist card on this one. She knows exactly what she’s wearing – or not wearing – and why. If I would interview a female athlete with my balls out, you’d be joking about it too. Or calling it a disgrace."
Menddiguren herself then responded to the caption by writing to Smith: "Thank you Sophie, it’s gonna take time, but I really hope men will finally understand that this kind of comments are a complex gender issue. We live with this kind of gender violence since we r born. I invite everyone to ask your closest female friends about it as a first step. [sic]"
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Spoormakers seemed to later recognize that his caption had been in bad taste, and wrote to Menddiguren: "What was meant to be a funny remark, turned out to be offensive to a lot of people. That was bad judgement. Sorry. And to @lelumendy in particular: we never met, but if you're ever in Belgium, you're welcome to discover I'm not the brontosaurus you think I am. [sic]"