So, today I'm going to be controversial. Yesterday I went to the Australian Open tennis. I went to 2 matches at the Rod Laver Arena (Centre Court) and saw one women's match and one men's match.
Now, the Open programme mentions that the women receive equal prize money to the men. Interesting. Why do i say interesting? Well, to me the word "equal" implies getting compensated the same dollar amount for the same hours of work. If I lay bricks for 60 minutes and a woman lays bricks for 60 minutes, we should get payed the same amount. That is the meaning of the word "equality," at least as far as I am concerned.
But in tennis, that clearly is not the case. Consider this:
In grand slam events, ie; Wimbledon, US Open, French Open and Aussie Open, the men play best of 5 sets. The women play best of 3 sets. In yesterday's match, Serena Williams finished her match in under 60 minutes of playing time.
Then Lleyton Hewitt came on court--and in the same amount of playing time (60 minutes) they had just barely completed 1 1/2 sets. The match went to 4 sets. I left after 3 sets and they had been going for about 90 minutes of playing time. I walked home. It took me about an hour. Every bar i passed on the way home they were still on court. They finished just about at the same time as i got home around about 11.30-12. In other words, 4 sets took them about 3-3 1/2 hours.
This is not inconsistent for men's tennis. There have been monster 5 setters that have lasted 5-7 hours.
I've looked it up-so the statistics in this paragraph are not my own--they are official. According to the ATP (association for tennis professionals), in their 2011 statistics covering the 4 majors, the average time for a ladies final to take at a Grand Slam event (again, best of 3 sets) is 90 minutes. The average play time in the same event (best of 5 sets) for men is 240 minutes.
240/90=2.666. So the men play on average over 2 1/2 times as long than the ladies.
Lets add in the additional factor of the actual prize money. The prize pot this year for the Australian Open is US$2.3 million to each winning singles finalist So you're a lady, and you play at a 90 minute final. You win. You take home $25,500 per minute played. You're a man, and you play the average 5 set final, taking 240 minutes. You win. You take home a little over $9,500 per minute. Again:
Ladies winner: $25,500 per minute for 90 minutes work.
Men's winner: $9,500 per minute for 240 minutes work.
So: on the per-minutes played basis, as well as on the number of sets played basis, women's prize money now actually more than doubles what the men take home.
How, in anyone's world is that "equal" labour?
Now, this is not to deny that the ladies don't put in the same amount of preparation--workouts, practice sessions, travel time etc, etc as the men do. But in professional tennis the prize money is for playing and winning tournaments.
I could be cheeky here and add the following fact, again from the ATP: men's tennis (in the finals) have higher TV viewing figures and in general, higher actual attendance figures. Most people would rather watch Federer/Nadal/Djokovic etc, than Stosur, Williams, etc. So men's tennis also brings more income into the tournaments (at least at the 4 majors) than ladies tennis does.
Equal prize money in my book therefore, at least at the 4 majors should never have happened. There's not going to be a backward step in reality. Once you've given "equal" prize money, you can't take it back again.
Its now skewed the other way. Sorry ladies--but this aint "equality." You want "equality"? Fine. Start playing best of 5 sets. Then we can say things are equal.
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Hope & Loneliness
The turn into 2012 has led to a little rumination on a specific subject. Lately, I've been feeling very lonely. I am in a far away country, thousands of miles away from what has become my spiritual home at Back Bay Yoga in Boston, thousands of miles and multiple time zones away from the people who mean the most to me.
In the summer of 1997, someone told me that I would be lucky in life if I could find just one handful of people that I would trust 100%, whom I could call upon in an emergency and know for a fact that they would be there when needed, who would have my back no matter what. I have had such luck. I've 6 such people.
That's not to say I don't have other friends--whom I care deeply about, including some wonderful people in Melbourne--but those 6 know everything there is to know about me. They know my fears, my secrets, my hopes and dreams, and they know that I would also drop everything for them. The 6 are the only people who know me with absolutely nothing held back. I hope others reading this don't take offence at that fact.
Yet the loneliness that I feel is not the loneliness of friendship: cliched as it may sound, it is the loneliness of romance. I feel envious. Envious that many of the 6 "inner circle" and others of my friends have found someone special. Someone they can wake up to, snuggle up to: the last face they see at night or the first face they see in the morning. Someone to hold and to be held by.
I'm not a serial dater. I don't jump from girlfriend to girlfriend. It takes me a while to get over heart-ache, and I don't give my heart easily. That being said, I feel like I'm over the last one now....and I'm ready to meet someone.....You all know that I love T S Eliot's poetry and that his stanza, "the faith, the love and the hope are all in the waiting" rings true to me....But right now....I wish the universe would just get a fucking move on!
In the summer of 1997, someone told me that I would be lucky in life if I could find just one handful of people that I would trust 100%, whom I could call upon in an emergency and know for a fact that they would be there when needed, who would have my back no matter what. I have had such luck. I've 6 such people.
That's not to say I don't have other friends--whom I care deeply about, including some wonderful people in Melbourne--but those 6 know everything there is to know about me. They know my fears, my secrets, my hopes and dreams, and they know that I would also drop everything for them. The 6 are the only people who know me with absolutely nothing held back. I hope others reading this don't take offence at that fact.
Yet the loneliness that I feel is not the loneliness of friendship: cliched as it may sound, it is the loneliness of romance. I feel envious. Envious that many of the 6 "inner circle" and others of my friends have found someone special. Someone they can wake up to, snuggle up to: the last face they see at night or the first face they see in the morning. Someone to hold and to be held by.
I'm not a serial dater. I don't jump from girlfriend to girlfriend. It takes me a while to get over heart-ache, and I don't give my heart easily. That being said, I feel like I'm over the last one now....and I'm ready to meet someone.....You all know that I love T S Eliot's poetry and that his stanza, "the faith, the love and the hope are all in the waiting" rings true to me....But right now....I wish the universe would just get a fucking move on!
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Back To Blogging & Reflections on 2011
I basically dropped off this blog for 4 months. Things got a little hectic in the last quarter or so of 2011. Courses got intense, I went through a bit of a down time, and well--life kind of just moved too fast. I've just come back to Melbourne from a 2 week sojourn in the USA, and the trip has set a bunch of stuff running around my head.
Being back in Boston was an emotionally and spiritually fulfilling period, even though it only lasted 4 days. I was able to catch up with old and important friends, and practice some yoga at my spiritual home. I felt, in those 4 days, as though my gas tank was filling up again.
I got to thinking how important it is to be in a city or a place where you are near the people who mean the most to you, where you feel spiritually nourished, and where the heart feels at home. On reflection, this means that Melbourne is not home.
From a personal perspective, the Remedial Therapies & Yoga courses here have given me a new lease of life--people around me here and those who saw me in the states, claim to have seen significant emotional growth. But Melbourne has one massive and key downside: Australia is in the middle of butt-fuck-nowhere. It takes 18 hours to get to the East coast of the USA. It is, simply, too far from my spiritual homes and the core "Fabian's Jedis" group that is so vital to me.
So here's my decision: I won't be staying here. Yes, I have met some wonderful people here--whom I hope to be life long friends with--and they know who they are. But I don't feel "at home" here.
I stand by my decision to leave Boston and come here. I had gotten to a point there, where i was emotionally and spiritually stagnating....I was in a massive rut, and I was not happy. My relationship was on the verge of tipping into death throes--if it hadn't already done so, and I felt lost. I needed to go somewhere completely different. I have grown emotionally here--because I have been way, way, way out of my comfort zone--and I needed to be out of said comfort zone--I never had been before.
It has been emotionally challenging and at the same time, draining to be here. Some aspects of my self-care, including my fitness have suffered because of the energy that has been needed to maintain sanity in the midst of this emotional challenge....and we all know that Fabs is an emotional eater.
But I feel lighter now that the decision has been made. So...4 months left to go. So my resolutions for 2012 are to figure out where to end up, whether the UK, mainland Europe or North America--nearer to those dearest to me; to maintain this blog, which is so cathartic for me; to let go of a few things i still need to get shot of, and to get myself in the best condition of my life by the time i leave.
I'll see you all in 2012. Love and Peace to the Jedis. Again...you know who you are.
Being back in Boston was an emotionally and spiritually fulfilling period, even though it only lasted 4 days. I was able to catch up with old and important friends, and practice some yoga at my spiritual home. I felt, in those 4 days, as though my gas tank was filling up again.
I got to thinking how important it is to be in a city or a place where you are near the people who mean the most to you, where you feel spiritually nourished, and where the heart feels at home. On reflection, this means that Melbourne is not home.
From a personal perspective, the Remedial Therapies & Yoga courses here have given me a new lease of life--people around me here and those who saw me in the states, claim to have seen significant emotional growth. But Melbourne has one massive and key downside: Australia is in the middle of butt-fuck-nowhere. It takes 18 hours to get to the East coast of the USA. It is, simply, too far from my spiritual homes and the core "Fabian's Jedis" group that is so vital to me.
So here's my decision: I won't be staying here. Yes, I have met some wonderful people here--whom I hope to be life long friends with--and they know who they are. But I don't feel "at home" here.
I stand by my decision to leave Boston and come here. I had gotten to a point there, where i was emotionally and spiritually stagnating....I was in a massive rut, and I was not happy. My relationship was on the verge of tipping into death throes--if it hadn't already done so, and I felt lost. I needed to go somewhere completely different. I have grown emotionally here--because I have been way, way, way out of my comfort zone--and I needed to be out of said comfort zone--I never had been before.
It has been emotionally challenging and at the same time, draining to be here. Some aspects of my self-care, including my fitness have suffered because of the energy that has been needed to maintain sanity in the midst of this emotional challenge....and we all know that Fabs is an emotional eater.
But I feel lighter now that the decision has been made. So...4 months left to go. So my resolutions for 2012 are to figure out where to end up, whether the UK, mainland Europe or North America--nearer to those dearest to me; to maintain this blog, which is so cathartic for me; to let go of a few things i still need to get shot of, and to get myself in the best condition of my life by the time i leave.
I'll see you all in 2012. Love and Peace to the Jedis. Again...you know who you are.
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