Tuesday, August 14, 2007
BIKINI BEACH PARTY.
Or, why MetsGrrl is not at the SNY viewing party at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone tonight
The first time TBF and I went to the “Glory Days” exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, the thing that struck me the strongest was all the *women* in the photographs of Ebbets Field (and Yankee Stadium, truth be told). Women in the stands. Women with pennants and scorecards and programs. Women yelling, women cheering, women heckling. Wearing hats and heels and hose, even, they were there, at the games.
And this is odd to me, still, because my perception growing up was that baseball was not a place for girls. I mentioned this to TBF, and he suggested, gently, that I wasn’t exactly around to know, and he’s right. And not growing up in a household that had any focus on sports (although had a strong focus on the three sisters [and one brother] in it being able to do whatever they set their minds on), my perception of professional sports, and baseball, probably came from the media, and more specifically, beer commercials. Everything surrounding baseball seemed to have a NO GIRLS ALLOWED sign on it.
This is why, when I started this blog, I went out there looking for other girls like me. And, like MG reader April (who wrote some very kind words about this blog a few months ago), I don’t know why I was surprised. To be fair, I don’t know if it was surprised so much as delighted. But it’s why I have the girls-only blogroll, and is one of the reasons I go out of my way to read other female baseball bloggers. (The second reason is that they are funny, or incredibly interesting, or amazingly good writers.)
[more after the jump]
But the NO GIRLS ALLOWED aura is still true to a certain extent; aside from the goddamn pink hats (and even Alyssa Herself went off on a tirade against them in a recent Mets Weekly), Stitch and Pitch, pink bats on Mother’s Day, and the once-a-year “Take HER out to the Ballgame,” MLB does *absolutely bupkes* to acknowledge just how many female baseball fans there are, or make any attempt whatsoever to cater to - or even capitalize on - that market. (Given MLB’s drive to monetize ANYTHING associated with baseball, it astounds me that they would not even try.)
Nothing makes this more obvious than tonight’s SNY viewing party at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone. Calling the Hawaiian Tropic Zone “misunderstood” is like calling Hooters “a family establishment”. It’s a restaurant where the waitresses wear bikinis, and then there’s a bikini fashion show (where they wear even less) every night, where their attractiveness is voted on by the customers.
Why on earth would I want to go to this place to watch a baseball game? How is this appealing or friendly to me as a woman, at all? Guys are going to be there watching the half-naked women, and if you try to tell me that’s not why they’re going, I bet you’ll tell me that you only read Playboy for the articles. I know that Zoe is going and Coop is going, and I wish they weren’t. They valiantly tried to convince me to come with them, and while part of me said “what the hell,” the other part of me just felt ridiculously uncomfortable, and then the feminist brain said just what the hell do you think you’re doing, young lady? Zoe said she would talk to the SNY people about making it more “female friendly” which, unfortunately, you can’t really do without a change of venue. (And for the record, TBF wanted no part of it once he heard where it was.)
Maybe SNY doesn’t really care about their female viewership, or doesn’t think there is one, or there isn’t one worth targeting. Maybe they think that it’s not a big deal. Or, maybe they truly think this is a suitable venue for all of their fans.
From the New Yorker: SOME of the city’s top financial firms have banned their execs from having business lunches at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone, where waitresses wear slinky bikinis and sarongs, because they think it’s too much like a strip club. Morgan Stanley, Lehman Bros. and Smith Barney have not only told employees not to entertain clients there but also won’t accept receipts from the Times Square eatery on expense accounts, reports The Post’s Jeremy Olshan. The firms declined to comment. But Dennis Riese, who opened the babe-filled joint with a menu by celebrity chef David Burke, told us, “We are a totally misunderstood restaurant.”
Here you go:
“We have a section that says ‘simply grilled,’ because women don’t like to eat sauces the way men do,” he said. “They’re watching their weight more often.” He pointed at the menu. “Also, see, it says ‘sharing encouraged,’ no extra charge. Well, women have smaller stomachs. And maybe two young single girls have a smaller pocketbook, and the idea of encouraging two girls to come in—nobody’s going to put a spotlight on you, make you feel uncomfortable because you’re sharing a dish, or that you want something just simply grilled.”
And this from a guy who swears that he’s a feminist. In case I was against the place before, I wanted nothing to do with it after reading the article. (You’re right, two young single girls probably have a smaller pocketbook because chances are THEY’RE ONLY MAKING 77% AS MUCH AS THE YOUNG SINGLE GUYS.)
(I’ll stop now.)
So instead of going to the SNY viewing party, instead I’m going to spotlight just a few of the great baseball bloggers out there who also happen to be female:
Center Field - the great Texy from Ladies... shares her love of not one, not two, but three teams. She has such unbridled passion and love for baseball it will make you want to go to a game, immediately.
Church of Baseball - Sister Daedalus also has a trio of loves, and writes about them beautifully.
Marinerds - Deanna’s just moved to Japan to teach English, but there’s enough on the site to engross you for hours. She’s an engineer and she speaks Japanese and she takes killer photographs (and manages to do that, keep score, and take notes at games).
Serious Dismay Sports: Indians fan, feminist, vegan, and she wrestles with the contradictions in public.
and finally…
The late, lamented Bat Girl. The site may be dormant, but it’s still there, and anyone who loves baseball should read her site at least once.
And there’s a whole host of others over on the right hand side there - these are just the ones I happened to be reading earlier today, when I was struck by the wealth of women writing about baseball all over the country. Joan Walsh laments that baseball has yet to produce a worthy female sportscaster on TV; I wish/hope she’s taken a look at what’s going on online because they will give her hope. Because they remind me that I don’t need SNY, MLB, the Mets, or anyone else, to tell me that I belong here, or give me permission to be here.
That pissed me off the second Keith and Gary started their heh-heh-hope-Ron’s-having-a-good-time heh-heh dialog about the thing. This team, this history is all about family. Yeah, we drink, and occasionally we curse, but we’re Met fans together first and foremost, and I’m utterly off-put by an organization that seems to be going out of its way to alienate a potential half of its fanbase.
Would SNY risk offending its Latino following by having Mr. Met have an afternoon siesta with the Frito Bandito? Bring back Piazza for a Manly-Met-Man I’m Not Gay Night at some demonstrably straight bar?
Didn’t think so.
Or in the case of whoever dreamed up this shizzle, just plain didn’t think.
You, and Jessica, and the multitasking Emma and the Nationals’ Shannon, are among my favorite daily baseball reads, because of the content of your content, not the content of any particular article of clothing that you might or might not possess.