Sportswear company apologizes for sexist washing instructions printed on Indonesian club’s shirt
March 8, 2015
Kalimat diskriminasi/pelecehan gender pada jersey Pusamania Borneo FC buatan @SALVO_ID pic.twitter.com/dW5z3zNUEq
— REVOLUSI PSSI (@revolupssi) March 8, 2015
Sportswear company Salvo Sports has apologized — albeit not convincingly — for the insanely stupid decision to print “Washing instructions: Give this jersey to your woman IT’S HER JOB” on the inside of Indonesia Super League club Pusamania Borneo’s shirts.
The astoundingly bad attempt at a joke wasn’t well received (obviously) and on Sunday, International Women’s Day, Salvo attempted to backtrack with a dumb explanation and apology.
From Reuters:
“The message is simply, instead of washing it in the wrong way you might as well give it to a lady because they are more capable,” Salvo posted.
“There’s no intention to humiliate women. In contrast, (we want to tell the men) learn from women on how to take care of clothes because they pay attention to details.
“Not all men understand/know how to take care of their own clothes, women are more knowledgeable/experts on such matters.
“We apologise profusely for any miss-interpretations.”
The original comment was bad enough, but this statement only shows how irredeemably clueless the company is. There is absolutely no way “IT’S HER JOB” was intended to mean that men should learn from women and to apologize just for “any miss-interpretations” shows that they don’t think there is anything wrong with their crap joke.
This is just the latest in a flurry of stories that illustrating the extent of sexism in football, though. Footage of Manchester United and Arsenal fans shouting sexist abuse at Chelsea doctor Eva Carneiro emerged on Thursday and on Friday an investigation was launched into reports of British soldiers shouting sexist abuse at Cyprus Cup match between the England and Australia women’s teams.
As discouraging as all of these incidents can be, the fact that the mainstream is finally paying more attention to them and the condemning voices are growing louder will hopefully bring much needed change.