Hey, Sportsbet: Female athletes are not your eyecandy.

This would never have happened to a man.

For those of you who don’t know Ellyse Perry, you should. If she was a man, every single Australian would know her name. You see, Ellyse represents Australia in not one, but two, sports – cricket and soccer. She is the ultimate sportswoman. She has more athletic talent than most of us put together.

Read: Mamamia’s interview with Ellyse Perry

Today, Ellyse Perry went to One Day World Cup Final in a professional capacity – as a commentator and a spectator.

If she were a male cricketer, she would have been treated with the respect that professionals afford each other in professional environments.

Instead, she was publicly objectified in a Sportsbet tweet that reveals everything wrong with attitudes to women in sport.

Sportsbet, let’s get one thing straight. Ellyse Perry is a professional. She has no interest in your opinions on her appearance, and it is unacceptable that you chose to give them anyway.

More: ‘Don’t just be good – look good,’ sportswomen are told.

In a society where women in sport are already chronically marginalised by the media, behaviour like this is entirely inappropriate.

So next time you pass comment on a female athlete, ask yourself this: would I say that about Steven Smith?

If the answer is no, step away from the keyboard. Women in sport have enough to deal with without being objectified at work.