As we noted yesterday, Martha Burk is back and she’s once again whining about the Masters Tournament.
Yes, it does seem trivial in a span of weeks that has seen not only the death of a pope but also the death of Terri Schiavo (with nary a word from the feminist sisters, even though Ms. Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed to accommodate the wishes of an estranged husband, who claimed to be speaking for his silent wife).
But forget all that. What matters to feminists is that a golf tournament for millionaires doesn’t feature gal millionaires. Whining about the National, as IWF’s Carrie Lukas notes, is now “a feminist tradition.”
Any way you slice it, this is not one of the issues that will move history. Burke, however, doesn’t see it that way:
“Burke notes,” writes Lukas, “that the public wouldn’t stand for a club that discriminated based on race. She reports that in 1990, IBM pulled sponsorship of a golf tournament held at a club that excluded African Americans, explaining: ’Supporting even indirectly activities which are exclusionary is against IBM’s practices and policies.’
“Burk is right — the public won’t stand for exclusion based on race, but there’s a big difference between race and gender. No matter how much feminists pummel Larry Summers for saying so, most Americans recognize that there are differences between men and women, which is why men- and women-only entities abound in respectable society. There are Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, sororities and fraternities, and women’s and men’s colleges. The health club, Curves, has become the world’s largest fitness franchise in part because of its women’s only membership, which recognizes that many women prefer to exercise away from the eyes of the opposite sex.
“Once you accept the idea that it’s reasonable for women to see out women-only refuges, it’s difficult to argue that men’s desires for male-only sanctuaries are any less legitimate.
“Burk would undoubtedly point out that these male dens are bastions of power: titans of big business rub elbows and form alliances, and women miss out from being excluded from that arena. True enough. But does this truth trump the right of a private entity to exist? I don’t think so, and apparently neither do most Americans.”
If Americans don’t like the Masters, they can protest without Ms. Burke: by not watching the tournament on TV. Advertisers will get the message, and the tournament will be forced to change–if, that is, a significant number of Americans disapprove. So far, it appears that the issue resonates mostly with an unrepresentative band of professional feminists.