Whitecaps to Distribute Turtlenecks?

Have you seen the spot? If not, you can view it here.

It's been labelled misogynistic. It's been decried as sexist. Someone even commented: "Kids don't need to see this." Um, what century are we in again? I must have missed the memo that we'd become a repressive neo-Islamic state.

The video isn't staged. The people aren't actors - it's footage from the crowd, and part of what was supposed to be a series of short clips forming the ticket renewal campaign. There are vids of heavily hirsute alpha-male supporters, there are vids of kids, and there is there was a vid of three admittedly attractive young ladies.

Is that their crime? Could it be that, as another poster on the Province noted: "Really the message here is that Women don't like other Women."?

Maybe it's their attire. After all, one of the three wasn't wearing any Whitecaps gear at all, another was wearing the old kit, while the third appeared to have only a Whitecaps lanyard to show her team colours.

Or the fact that they had the audacity to jump in celebration - in front of kids? Is there no shame? I suppose the vocal minority and the "intellectuals" from a local university would have preferred the images to have been heavily pixelated.

Sure, it's all fine to have George Clooney grace our TV screens dreamily pitching coffee products, and for soft-drink purveyors to rely on bare-chested window washers to attract the interest of female viewers. But god help the Whitecaps for featuring a segment of their fans.

Within hours of posting the video, the Whitecaps pulled it down. I suppose that it had already served its purpose, going viral. But what message does that send? It would appear that the message is this:

The Vancouver Whitecaps organization feels - or at least doesn't disagree with the sentiment - that it's inappropriate for women to attend matches in summer wear, and that they should refrain from jumping, raising their arms, or otherwise drawing attention to themselves.

It's disheartening to see that the club front office, which expects so much from its young players in rising to the challenge of playoff qualification, doesn't have the same strength of conviction themselves to stand up and defend their product from the well-meaning, but misguided.

Can we all expect the club to hold a turtleneck giveaway in the near future? Or will it be burkas?