130 replies to this topic

[WelshSwan]

I feel that someone of the "It's just a joke" brigade should try to explain where the funny is. It would be irony if the truth was that motorsport was an open and welcoming environment for women...

If would also be funnier if I hadn't witnessed girls driven off the track in karting just because the absolute worst that could happen would be if a girl beat you - that mindset is taught to boys VERY early and apparently Perez still live by it. Yeah, wonder why there aren't more women in motorsport.

 

Personally I don't find the joke funny as I have heard it so many times before but I don't honestly believe that this makes him sexist. Stupid? Yes most definitely as he should know by now how the media can twist things to suit themselves so by making a comment like this, even in a jokey way, was always going to make him look bad. I don't think he will be cracking any 'kitchen' jokes in the future put it that way!

[superden]

'Its just a joke, move on'

 

Easy to say, when you aren't the butt of a 'joke' that's been running for centuries. Well done Checo, own goal.

Edited by superden, 04 July 2014 - 20:26.

[toroRosso]

F1 came as far as it did without women, I don't know why it should ever change because of some vague desire of feminists. They wanted women to become engineers, it never worked because society is made by humans and you can't change humans, you're just only sort of bullying people to go against their nature, sort of riding the wave of anti-racism.

 

Also even here, on these forums, I can't get rid of this subject, truly saddening

Edited by toroRosso, 04 July 2014 - 20:53.

[Ross Stonefeld]

You cant change humans = women aren't intelligent or women aren't interested in engineering? 

[Zoony]

I don't really care what Checo said; it was clearly tongue-in-cheek in any case.

 

Talking of which, I wonder what the marital protocol would have been over the dinner table this evening when the conversation opened with, "You know, my public debut as an F1 driver today was totally ruined today by one of your damned engines!"

[NoSanityClause]

F1 came as far as it did without women, I don't know why it should ever change because of some vague desire of feminists. They wanted women to become engineers, it never worked because society is made by humans and you can't change humans, you're just only sort of bullying people to go against their nature, sort of riding the wave of anti-racism.

 

Also even here, on these forums, I can't get rid of this subject, truly saddening

Nature determines that women cannot be engineers? Did you arrive to that conclusion using your superior male intelligence?

 

Nice! 

[Sheepmachine]

F1 came as far as it did without women, I don't know why it should ever change because of some vague desire of feminists. They wanted women to become engineers, it never worked because society is made by humans and you can't change humans, you're just only sort of bullying people to go against their nature, sort of riding the wave of anti-racism.

Also even here, on these forums, I can't get rid of this subject, truly saddening

May I point in the direction of Williams or Sauber who both have women running the team. Women have influence in F1. Seriously get out of the dark ages.

[eero1]

Sergio apologized his joke.

http://sergioperez.mx/en/susie-wolff/ english version

Edited by eero1, 04 July 2014 - 22:12.

[Richard T]

And Check has apologised to Susie in a statement.

http://sergioperez.mx/mx/susie-wolff/

Good move, now let's move on!

[Andrew Hope]

I lose more respect for a driver for bowing down to pressure for an apology than for whatever he said in the first place.

[Ferras]

i think he just lost his Female fans

Indeed. Most of women here are alrady wishing luck to Susie to beat that lout in the race XDXD sometimes reading Facebook and Twitter is fun 

Edited by Ferras, 04 July 2014 - 23:25.

[spacekid]

Looked like an ironic sort of joke to me. He said some good words about Susie, then answered a silly question with a silly response.

There is blatant sexism in F1 with the grid girls and girls around the podium ceremony. I think that's really cheesy.

[Ricciardo2014]

I have no doubt this was said tongue in cheek and should be taken as such, however misguided he was in saying something like that.

As to the hurdles women face in Motorsport, and whether they can make it or not ?

Back in the 90's a mate and I used to commentate at various tracks around NSW, mostly speedway and karting events.
In 1994 a young girl was catching the attention of just about anyone who new anything about talent.
Her name was Leanne Ferrier, and she was ripping up the track and starting to really compete amongst the top guys.
I got to speak with her on several occasions over the years, although I doubt she would even remember me now.

I'll never forget her though.

She was the most determined young lady I have ever met, largely I believe due to the attitude she faced from the males all around her.
Apparently she gave up an international class gymnastics career to concentrate on racing, such was her determination !

It was painfully obvious though, that the boys just couldn't get their heads around being beaten by a girl, and on quite a few occasions I witnessed less than sporting tactics employed to remove her from a race.

She went on to win karting titles, state titles in the Improved Production series racing an RX7, in 2007 and 2008 she contested the Australian Formula 3 Championship, narrowly missing out on the title both years, only being beaten in the final round, she's also raced V8 Supercars both in the development series and the main game including Bathurst, Touring Car Masters in an old XA Falcon GT, the list just goes on and on and on.

Her racing career took the back seat when she married former V8 Supercar Champion Garth Tander and they had children, although she does continue to race.

I believe she earnt the respect she deserved eventually, but I witnessed sexism first hand in her early years.
Guys running her off the track, the snide remarks and jokes made behind her back etc etc.

Could she have made it to F1 ?
Probably not, mainly I would say due to finances.

Did she have the talent, almost certainly.

Was she ever treated differently due to gender ?

ABSOLUTELY !

Edited by Ricciardo2014, 05 July 2014 - 01:21.

[JTSaika]

The only person in F1 who would intentionally hit into Susie would be Maldonado, and i highly doubt it would be because she's a women. Checo may make jokes such as this; much like Vettel publicly swears, Hamilton makes soft racial jokes and Raikkonen pushes over press but at the end of the day, these lads are professionals. Absolutely no special treatment, bad or otherwise would be given to Wolff and we all know that. In-fact the most sexist thing to even come out of all this is the increasing amount of times people feel the need to big up her and defend her like she can't fight her own battles. Yey, so Susie Wolff is the first Female Driver to enter a Weekend in 20 odd years!. Well Pastor Maldonado was the first ever Venezuela to win a race. Marcus Ericsson is the first Swedish driver to race in many many years!. How many people rejoiced over that though?, aside from maybe half of Sweden and Venezuela for about 2 weeks. Not to mention to ask a question such as 'how would it feel to lose to a girl' is mind-blowing. The last time i heard that was when the boys in my year 3 class laughed at one lad for getting beaten up by a girl. I also haven't seen much of this 'media outrage' following the one article that was in Spanish either.  

The fact that people feel the need to dig every little bit of scrap of this to justify women as equal to men is probably more sexist than anything said in the interview by far. I'm sure by a normal standpoint in a women's eyes, they can say they are clearly capable of anything a man is, including fighting their own battle and ignoring such jokes instead of making it the biggest news story of the week.  

¬_¬ ugh. 

Edited by JTSaika, 05 July 2014 - 01:54.

[CoolBreeze]

It's really silly. or rather a trick question. If he answers in a positive way, i can't imagine the trashing he will get, imagine if he gets beaten by her! And if he jokes like this, it gets taken out of context, and everything will be thrown against him, labeling sexism, etc. 

 

Personally, I rather have a wife at home. Not in an F1 car.

[slideways]

In the modern workplace women are allowed to spend the day complaining about men and then at the end of the month hold a ladies only yet corporately catered luncheon with the purpose of disseminating and consuming said months various complaints about various men.

 

So the men follow the time honoured tradition of retreating to the pub to buy each other liqueur in which to escape thoughts about women.

[Eff One 2002]

As others have mentioned, it was an dopey question to start with and it got an equally dopey answer. Perez was just going with it.  

[Afterburner]

It's really silly. or rather a trick question. If he answers in a positive way, i can't imagine the trashing he will get, imagine if he gets beaten by her! And if he jokes like this, it gets taken out of context, and everything will be thrown against him, labeling sexism, etc.

Personally, I rather have a wife at home. Not in an F1 car.

Pfft, I'd want my significant other as my teammate.

[Lazy]

Well, she did cook the car.

[Vinsin]

I think Perez, & Suarez flashes past my vision.

Politically incorrect, but grabs headlines and xploding forums.

[Docc]

Perez answered about how he would feel being beaten by a woman..

 

Is there anyone he would feel better being beaten by ?

Just seems asking a Jimmy Clark..or Shumacher..answer would be..

 

No one..

 

I don't think a world class driver of merit want ever to be beaten or admit they were content with being beaten by any other driver..

 

The woman "joke" was lame..and a foolish remark..

..stupid..

Edited by Docc, 05 July 2014 - 07:31.

[f1RacingForever]

I wonder if Claire is good in the kitchen? She could make me sandwiches all night.

[Wiggy]

Susie has tweeted a picture of Sergio and herself and a wee joke... No offence taken in this case it would seem.

[f1RacingForever]

Nice to see she wasn't offended. She is after all a professional

[raiderhall]

Thank god Lewis didn't say it. The internet would have melted down.

[raiderhall]

It would have gone nuclear.

[billm99uk]

Perez answered about how he would feel being beaten by a woman..

..stupid..

Just say "Bloody terrible... just like I would being beaten by a man...."

Edited by billm99uk, 05 July 2014 - 12:07.

[bub]

F1 came as far as it did without women, I don't know why it should ever change because of some vague desire of feminists. They wanted women to become engineers, it never worked because society is made by humans and you can't change humans, you're just only sort of bullying people to go against their nature, sort of riding the wave of anti-racism.

 

Also even here, on these forums, I can't get rid of this subject, truly saddening

 

Sometimes that's a good thing. People should be made to go against their nature if that nature offends or hurts people. If somebody is capable of doing something then they should be allowed to do it, if they are not, then they shouldn't. There is no reason to bring gender into it.

 

 

I lose more respect for a driver for bowing down to pressure for an apology than for whatever he said in the first place.

 

I gain respect for a driver if they realize they made may have unintentionally offended someone and apologize for that.

Edited by bub, 05 July 2014 - 12:03.

[Andrew Hope]

Sometimes that's a good thing. People should be made to go against their nature if that nature offends or hurts people. If somebody is capable of doing something then they should be allowed to do it, if they are not, then they shouldn't. There is no reason to bring gender into it.

 

 

 

I gain respect for a driver if they realize they made may have unintentionally offended someone and apologize for that.

 

Given that people mostly choose when and where to be offended and there is a very large percentage of the population looking for any excuse to cast themselves as the victim if I was Perez I would pay absolutely no attention to any outrage at all.

[Dan333SP]

Women aren't better in the kitchen.... Maybe in the homes.

But certainly not in restaurants... Look at every Michelin Starred place in Europe or Americas. Alain Ducasse or Joel Robuchon for example....

Did you just get defensive as a man about a stereotype involving women? Wow. Many layers of absurdity there.

[pongkai]

What a dick.