Pat Cash--still sexist, still offensive, still clueless

Australian tennis great Pat Cash, in a recent interview for the Belfast Telegraph, said he is "sick of the women whining on" about wanting equal pay. "They need to come into the real world and stop making it such a big issue...they need to stop this crap and live in the real world. They're getting paid a million dollars for winning a tournament and they are moaning."

Cash also said "When I hear about it I just want to tell them to 'shut the hell up!' I think the women are overpaid. To be honest, I think they're all overpaid."

He went on to mock Venus Williams, who has become the spokeswoman for women's rights in tennis, Williams was outspoken this year in her call for equal pay at Wimbledon. The argument generally made against equal pay for women is that men play the best three out of five sets and women play the best two out of three--therefore, men work harder.

There are a couple of things wrong with this argument. First, if women are playing two out of three because they do not have the physical endurance of men, then two out of three for them is the same as three out of five for men. But if women have the endurance to play three out of five, then someone, like the Wimbledon tournament, needs to allow them to. The top women players have repeatedly asked to play three out of five at Wimbledon (the used to play three out of five at the Year-End Championships) and the tournament organizers have turned down their request.

You can't have it both ways: Either two out three for women is the same physical job as three out of five for men, in which case, women should get equal pay. Or if women are stronger than that, they should be granted their request to play three out of five, and get equal pay.

An argument is also made that since tennis is entertainment as well as a sport, the amount of work the WTA players do to promote the sport entitles them to get top pay. There is something to be said for that, but it seems clear to me that the real argument can be won by using logic rather than sexism, which--in the tennis world, and especially at Wimbledon--is called "tradition."

People like Pat Cash are incapable of understanding the flaws in the no-equal-pay "argument" because of their contempt for women.