Phillip Miller; the fun park owner with a less than fun outlook on women in sports, it would seem

I say this having been forwarded a Tweet/Post (delete as appropriate) regarding the progress of the women’s national team with his comment of “Good luck girls'' followed by an image of washing up tagged with the text “The tragic unseen side affects (sic) of the women’s world cup.” Needless to say, I learned what “ratioed” meant looking at the view the post had, in contrast to the likes and reposts.

I think it would be fair to say Miller, who through his social media channels has posted the pleasure it was to host Nigel Farage on an open-top bus or showing his support for Brexit, is not making that tweet in a “hipster post-ironic” fashion. Truth be told, I think perhaps it’s one of those moments where he’s posted something to elicit a bit of controversy in an era where “all publicity is good publicity” and people getting offended being likened to “snowflakes,” if that term still exists. 

But let’s be honest for a moment; read the room.

While everyone is rooting for the team to win, a sporting team not just a bunch of “girls,” the optics of the post is of course going to cause an uproar. Miller has been branded a misogynist for his stab at humour, perhaps digging out the “Big Book of Bernard Manning Jokes” to find just the right antiquated jab at women in sports. I don’t think that Miller is just misogynistic though - just incredibly unfunny, and a misogynist. 

“Bleeding heart liberals” is no doubt going to be the call that some defenders of Miller will make, and that many of us have “gone soft” and forgotten how to take a joke. He and his men’s club pals might be right, but if a “bleeding heart liberal” is a term used to describe many people, male and female, who feel a sense of pride in what the Women’s team are doing and that a dated joke about women staying in the kitchen is pretty offensive, then I guess that makes me “one of them.”

But by that extension, with the 1950’s take on what a women’s role should be, does that give me the opportunity to call you a “boomer,” a term that is viewed as every bit of a pejorative to an older generation much like “woke” is being used as pejorative to some of us that have some form of social consciousness and responsibility?

I didn’t take too much offence about the nature of the post because having had a cursory glance at his other stabs at humour, I’d be huffing and puffing all day. I take offence to the fact that it’s not even that funny - so why bother in the first place?

No, wait, sorry - I took some offence to it as it’s such an old fashioned take. Hopefully the amusement park is a little more modern than Phillip Miller’s views, as I don’t think my excitement levels could take a cup-and-ball game and Punch and Judy shows.