By now, you may have seen the video of Dustin Hoffman making the rounds on Facebook, wherein he gets teary-eyed because he had an epiphany when makeup artists couldn’t make him beautiful to play the role of Tootsie. If you haven’t, it’s here.

You may also have seen the disgusting display on Twitter in response to Marion Bartoli’s Women’s Singles win at Wimbledon.

I think the two dovetail rather poetically. The one, a man getting misty because he suddenly realized that over the years, he’s ignored any number of intelligent, worthwhile women simply because they weren’t beautiful. All the friendships he could have had. The interesting conversations. The opportunities to discover a person of worth. I’m waiting to see if he takes his epiphany and does something with it. Like champion women’s equality, or even just dope-slap his colleagues when they act like sexist jerks.

The other, a revolting load of crap thrown at an elite athlete only because she’s not tall, blonde, and beautiful, posted by armchair warriors with the utter gall to declare she didn’t deserve her Wimbledon victory. Because of her looks.

When such morons can win a prestigious tennis tournament, I might listen to them. Until then, I’ll remain in awe of her accomplishment and applaud her for it. Three cheers to Marion Bartoli for her outstanding performance on the court. She earned her win, not just with the effort she gave to each game, but with the long-term effort she put into training for it.

But she’s not tall and she’s not thin and she’s not blonde, so therefore the unwashed have decreed she is a fat slut who shouldn’t have won.

Dear God. Perhaps men should be required to compete shirtless, so we can see if
they have hair on their backs, and decide who deserves to win
accordingly? No? Then why in the name of little green apples does it matter what a victorious woman looks like?

Oh, that’s right. Women are worthless unless they’re pretty to look at. So sorry, my bad. I forgot that all the time spent training, all the sacrifices, all the effort, all the sheer skill and talent — those don’t matter unless a woman is pretty.

When it comes to globally-televised women’s sports, only the beautiful need apply.