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PORTSIDE CULTURE

AN EXPLOSIVE FOX SPORTS LAWSUIT HAS TURNED INTO A SALACIOUS, SEXIST
MESS  
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Kyndall Cunningham
January 19, 2025
Vox
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_ Sexual harassment claims involving hosts Skip Bayless and Joy
Taylor have become a playground for misogynists online. _

Skip Bayless at IAVA’s Heroes Gala on November 12, 2013, in New
York City. , Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for IAVA

 

Kyndall Cunningham
[[link removed]] is a culture writer
interested in reality TV, movies, pop music, Black media, and
celebrity culture. Previously, she wrote for the Daily Beast and
contributed to several publications, including Vulture, W Magazine,
and Bitch Media.

_____

Fox isn’t exactly known for fostering ethical
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environments
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However, a new lawsuit against Fox Sports, marquee commentator Skip
Bayless, and network executive Charlie Dixon has sent shockwaves
through the sports broadcasting industry, emphasizing a bleak reality
for women in the field.

On January 3, a former hairstylist for the network, Noushin Faraji,
filed a lawsuit accusing Bayless, the former co-host of _Skip and
Shannon: Undisputed_ from 2016 to 2024, of making unwanted sexual
advances toward her, including offering her $1.5 million to sleep with
him. The plaintiff also says that Dixon, executive vice president of
content at Fox Sports 1, groped her at a party and sexually pursued
other women employees.

Other notable defendants listed in the complaint include popular Fox
Sports 1 host Joy Taylor, who allegedly dismissed Faraji when she
confided in her about the groping incident in 2017 and began mocking
her accent in 2021. In one of the lawsuit’s more salacious claims,
the plaintiff says that Taylor engaged in a sexual relationship with
Dixon to get a position on _Undisputed_.

The lawsuit alleges a harrowing saga of systematic abuse and
complicity over almost a decade. Despite the breadth of the
allegations, the majority of online backlash by sports fans, tabloids,
and even some commentators has unsurprisingly been directed at Taylor.
It reveals a double bind for women working in male-dominated
environments, who find themselves in a “damned if do, damned if you
don’t” position when it comes to sexuality in the workplace. The
online response to Taylor, however, shows a gross enthusiasm by men to
discredit women in sports journalism. In an industry that on the
surface seems like it’s embracing
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women
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there seems to be no way to win.

WHAT EXACTLY IS FARAJI ALLEGING?

In the 42-page lawsuit
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initially reported by _Front Office Sports_
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Faraji’s attorneys say that she was “forced to endure a
misogynistic, racist, and ableist workplace where executives and
talent were allowed to physically and verbally abuse workers with
impunity.” It includes counts of sexual battery, hostile work
environment, retaliation, and wrongful termination. Faraji is also
requesting that her suit be certified as a class action. The complaint
includes allegations on behalf of other anonymous Fox employees in
California regarding unfair wages and illegal business practices. Fox
Corporation, Fox Sports Holding, LLC, Fox Sports 1 LLC, Fox Sports 2
LLC, Dixon, Bayless, Taylor and several anonymous Fox employees are
listed as defendants.

In the initial reporting of the lawsuit, Fox Sports told _Front
Office Sports_, “We take these allegations seriously and have no
further comment at this time given this pending litigation.”
Representatives for Dixon, Bayless, and Taylor have yet to comment on
the situation. Taylor, however, resumed hosting on FS1’s
show _Speak _on Monday without addressing the lawsuit.

According to the complaint, Faraji began as a part-time hairstylist
for Fox in 2012 before being hired full-time in 2016. In 2016, she
befriended Taylor, who was then working on a day-to-day basis for the
network. It was through Taylor — who Faraji eventually styled
on _Undisputed _and, later, _Speak_ — that she first became
aware of Dixon’s alleged sexual impropriety with women employees at
Fox.

Faraji says she discovered that Taylor and Dixon had a sexual
relationship in 2016 after he began accompanying Taylor on their
social outings. A couple of months later, it was announced that Taylor
was hired for the then newly announced _Undisputed _television show
as a moderator.

The complaint alleges that Dixon gave Taylor the job as a “reward”
for their relationship. Faraji also claims she heard that Dixon also
punished women at the network for not obliging to his sexual demands.
Faraji says in the lawsuit that an anonymous woman employee claimed to
have been let go for rejecting Dixon’s advances and that another
talk show host had reported his predatory behavior to the network.

[Sports commentator Joy Taylor]
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Joy Taylor at Billboard Women in Music on March 6, 2024, in Inglewood,
California.

 Oscar Del Aguila/Billboard via Getty Images

In 2017, Faraji had her own run-in with Dixon at Taylor’s birthday
party. Faraji alleges that the executive grabbed her butt while they
were standing at a bar. Faraji says that when she confided in Taylor
about the incident, Taylor told her to “get over it.”

At the same time that Taylor was allegedly seeing Dixon, Faraji claims
Taylor also began dating ex-NFL player and network talent Emmanuel
Acho, in hopes that he would recommend her for_ Speak. _Faraji says
she advised her not to see Dixon and Acho at the same time, as Dixon
might retaliate against her. Taylor allegedly responded that she would
tell the company that Dixon “forced himself on her” and that she
wouldn’t be “forced out by Mr. Dixon” like other women.

Faraji alleges that she started experiencing harassment from Bayless
while working as a full-time hairstylist on_ Undisputed_ beginning
in 2017. Faraji says that Bayless would give her “lingering hugs”
and “kisses on the cheek” before becoming “more aggressive and
direct” with his advances, which she consistently declined. In 2021,
she told Bayless about a cancer scare involving her left ovary hoping
he would back off. In response, she says, he offered her $1.5 million
to have sex with him, which she rejected. According to the complaint,
Bayless continued making advances over the years, eventually accusing
Faraji of sleeping with his co-star and “rival” Shannon Sharpe —
which she denies — and threatening her job at one point.

Throughout her tenure, Faraji, who’s Iranian, says she experienced
sexual and racial harassment from a mic technician (who allegedly
doubled as an on-set cocaine dealer). She claims she was called a
“Persian b****” by an unnamed employee (called “Ms. M” in the
suit).Taylor also allegedly mocked her English and complained about
her habitual humming, which Faraji says is a coping mechanism for her
diagnosed PTSD. Faraji says a co-worker reported Ms. M to human
resources on her behalf in 2020 while she told a supervisor about her
issues with Taylor to her supervisor in 2023. But she says both
incidents were ultimately dismissed or handled poorly by higher-ups.

By August 2024, Faraji was taken off the work schedule. Her
termination came a year after she participated in an internal
investigation in which she says she was asked about Taylor’s
relationships with Dixon and Acho. During this time, Faraji claims
that Bayless was asked by human resources whether she had offered him
sex. When Bayless responded no, they allegedly “impli[ed] that they
wanted him to say otherwise.” Her complaint describes this as the
company’s “common tactic” of retaliating against employees who
were either “witness[es] or target[s]” of bad behavior, although
Fox told Faraji they could no longer afford her services. Faraji is
now seeking unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.

Indeed, this is hardly new territory for Fox, although most of the
corporation’s history of misconduct allegations have occurred under
their news arm. In 2016, a number of women Fox News employees,
including anchors Gretchen Carlson
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Kelly
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accused now-deceased CEO and chair Roger Ailes of sexual harassment.
In 2017, a bombshell _New York Times_ investigation
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that Fox News and Bill O’Reilly paid tens of millions of dollars to
settle six allegations of sexual harassment and verbal abuse. Fox’s
sports division isn’t unfamiliar with public scandals either. The
same year, Fox Sports ousted its former president of national
networks, Jamie Horowitz
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for sexual harassment claims.

SPORTS FANS ARE UP IN ARMS — BUT NOT ABOUT DIXON OR BAYLESS

The coverage of the lawsuit within the sports world hasn’t been much
better. Incendiary former Fox Sports host Jason Whitlock, known for
his controversial 
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issues, had some sexist words for Taylor when discussing the lawsuit.
On his show _Fearless With Jason Whitlock _this week, he called her
a “symbol of this whole feminist movement” and said she
exemplifies the consequences of “sharing everything with women.”
Meanwhile, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy
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Taylor’s alleged relationships with her colleagues but rejected
Faraji’s allegations, calling the lawsuit a “shakedown.”
Notably, Sharpe didn’t have anything to say about his former co-host
Bayless’ alleged behavior or his own involvement in the lawsuit when
it was brought up on his podcast _Nightcap_. “That ain’t got
nothing to do with me,” he said. “So there’s nothing to
address.”

It’s not a surprise that most of the attention has fallen on Taylor
in the aftermath online while Faraji’s allegations against Bayless
and Dixon have caused less outrage. Many social media users expressed
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that Taylor had planned to accuse Dixon of sexual misconduct if she
faced retaliation for dating another man. Meanwhile, jokes
about Taylor’s
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including the fact that these salacious
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of Bayless and Dixon — abound online.

[Erin Andrews interviewing Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons]
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Sideline reporter Erin Andrews interviews Dallas Cowboys linebacker
Micah Parsons after the Cowboys defeated the New York Giants on
November 28, 2024, in Arlington, Texas.

 Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Several [[link removed]] users
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that Taylor’s alleged actions will negatively affect other women in
sports journalism and cast doubt over their accomplishments. On one
hand, it’s hard not to assume that Taylor’s part of the lawsuit
will have negative repercussions for women. Male sports fans online
are figuratively foaming at the mouth to purport the narrative that
Taylor allegedly “slept her way to the top,” and some are
even implying [[link removed]] that
other women sports reporters may have done the same. However, the
discourse surrounding Taylor has exposed a long-standing problem
facing women in the field.

The landscape of sports broadcasting has changed a lot — at least,
cosmetically — for women over the past 50 years. In 1978, _Sports
Illustrated_ reporter Melissa Ludtke
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to sue Major League Baseball for denying her access to players’
locker rooms. Now, women sports journalists, like Jemele Hill, Taylor
Rooks, Erin Andrews, and Mina Kimes, are some of the most recognizable
faces and awarded reporters in the industry — while still having to
navigate their own challenges.

Andrews notably became a flash point for the sort of misogyny women
sportscasters can experience when a nonconsensual nude video
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her was posted online in 2009 after she was stalked and secretly
recorded in a hotel room. In 2017, after Hill called Donald Trump a
“white supremacist” on social media, she faced a wave of
misogynoir from critics online. More recently, Kimes was called a
Japanese slur by a Boston radio host, while Rooks has had to defend
her way of dressing
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finger-wagging sports fans. Many issues remain for women in the
industry regarding casual sexism, equal pay
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and the ability to challenge sports narratives
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by their male counterparts.

Outside of issues they may face directly in the workplace, there’s
the struggle to be taken seriously by audiences when reporting on a
subject that only men are viewed as having true expertise in. Carolina
Panthers quarterback Cam Newton famously got in trouble
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2017 when he told a woman journalist that it was “funny” to hear
her ask him about football. In a 2022 interview
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Cut_, several women sports reporters spoke about the anxiety of having
any sort of slip-up on-air, given the way male sports fans are eager
to label them uninformed. “The fear of being wrong and losing
credibility because of something really dumb is real,” NFL Network
host Colleen Wolfe said.

The worry of being labeled unqualified — and the harassment that
comes with it — seems to have made this lawsuit particularly bleak
for women sports commentators. Contrary to popular takes on the
internet, it’s not something that the allegations in this lawsuit
have newly brought on but that misogynistic sports fans are happy to
perpetuate.

* fox sports
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* misogyny
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* Sexual Harassment
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* women in sports
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