Women DO Know About Sports

I know this blog focuses a lot on gender issues with women in sports, but hey, I’m a girl. If you want to talk about men, write your own.

Which brings me to my next topic: after downing 3 cups of coffee and finishing my homework in record time at 2:00 in the morning, I was not going to sleep anytime soon. I headed off to the gym for a late-night work out and turned on ESPN2 before I hopped on the elliptical. The show Sports Nation was on, which is hosted by (a woman) Michelle Beadle and (a man) Colin Cowherd, and usually features guests: athletes, former athletes, sports commentators.

One part of the show, Michelle presents a statement made by someone in sports culture and Colin and the guest decide if the speaker should “Shut It” (that comment was unnecessary/dumb/pointless/basically they shouldn’t have said it) or “Shout It” (that comment was justified/they had a right to say it). At one point the comment in question was football-related and Michelle’s opinion differed from the guest, a former football player.  The guest then went on to say, “That’s how I know you don’t know anything about football”.

“That’s how I know” meaning this woman’s statement reaffirmed your suspicion that she couldn’t possibly know anything about football? It caught me off guard—and Michelle appeared slightly uncomfortable for a moment, before she had to play it off with a quick comeback.

Do you think this guest would have made a comment like that to Colin, a fellow man? My guess is no. So why is it that men assume that women know nothing about sports? I’ve heard arguments that it’s because women try talking about sports they’ve never played/never could have played. Nice try, but if that’s the case, the man with the huge beer gut that loses his breath during his halftime waddle to the kitchen is not allowed to talk about ANY sport. There goes half of the male-sports-fan population.

In reality, I think this belief is probably so prevalent simply because women haven’t been involved in sports as long as men have. In fact, there used to be laws preventing women’s participation in sports. After the first televised sporting event, it took 35 years for a women’s event to be aired! And when television stations begin hiring female sportscasters (only because they were forced to) they were former beauty queens and cover girls—who usually didn’t actually have much knowledge of different sports; even though there were definitely knowledgeable female sports fans at the time, they weren’t openly displayed.

I think that it’s been a struggle for women to gain respect in sports because sports have been dominated by men for so long. Men assume women don’t know anything about sports because they think we’re new to the game (pun intended).  But that’s an outdated view; we’re out of the kitchen, we know our stuff, and our opinions deserve just as much respect as men’s do.

Sexual Orientation Depends On What Sport You Play?

 

Playing sports and being surrounded by athletes throughout my life has made me notice a few interesting things about the stereotypes that exist for different sports.  I played four sports in high school and I’ve received ridicule on every level for the different stereotypes associated with my sports—and  I’m sure I’m not the only athlete that has had this issue.   Even now that I’m in college and I no longer play those sports I still face ridicule.  “Wait, you were a cheerleader in high school?  Are you embarrassed about that?”  No, I’m not.  But you should be for being so judgmental. What’s even more annoying is that a lot of the stereotypes happen to be particularly in relation to my gender.

My favorite stereotypes are the ones that question a person’s sexuality simply based on the sport that they play.  Women’s basketball players are all lesbians.  So are softball players.  Especially if they’re wearing attire associated with their sport.  In high school I once went out wearing my basketball shorts, a cut off, mid socks, and Adidas slide flip flops and I was told that I looked like a “dyke”.  Um what?  I thought I looked like an athlete who just left practice.

I’ve had multiple conversations with my own father about his tendency to call women’s basketball players “manly”.  “But look at her, you don’t think she looks like a dude?” No Dad, I think she looks tall, and I would kill to have her height and her skill.   I also had a conversation with a friend here at school where I had to defend that all softball players aren’t lesbians.  “But most of them are.” No, some of them may be, but it’s unfair and ridiculous to make that assumption.

One of the most common instances of questioning the sexuality of athletes occurs with male cheerleaders, dancers, or gymnasts.  For some reason participating in any of these sports automatically means that you’re gay (“Bring It On” ringing any bells?).  I just dealt with this a few weeks ago at a basketball game when the ignorant asshole to my left made a statement about all of Pitt’s male cheerleaders being “fags”.

 

 

So where do these ridiculous stereotypes come from?  Is it when a man participates in a female-dominated sport or when a woman participates in a male-dominated sport that their sexuality is suddenly in question?  Does it have to do with the amount of physicality and strength the public associates with the sport?  Maybe it has a little to do with both: a sport like basketball requires a certain level of physical fitness that may be associated with men.  On the other hand, dancing and cheerleading (though in reality both can be very physically demanding) are assumed to be easy or delicate which is generally associated with women.  Do I think these reasons are fair? Hell no!  But it’s something to think about: they may explain—at least a bit—why playing a certain sport automatically comes with the label of a certain sexual orientation.

 

To Compare Isn’t Fair

The other day, while embracing my obsession with Twitter, I came across a tweet that seriously rubbed me the wrong way.  A friend of mine (who is a writer for a local sports website mind you) tweeted “is there a sports league that everyone cares less about than the #WNBA please get off my TV”.

Okay, I know everyone has their own opinion about sports—I think golf is incredibly boring—but the fact that this opinion was gender-based bothered me.  They’re professional athletes that are good at what they do, so where’s the animosity coming from?  Unfortunately I think that it comes from the ongoing comparison between men and women’s sports—which is truly unfair.  Men are typically biologically better prepared for sports, so even the best of the best of women’s athletics usually can’t compete with the best of the best of men’s (obviously this isn’t always the case, but a lot of the time).  Watching the different sexes play the same sport is like watching two totally different games, they just are two different types of athletes. However, I don’t think that this makes women’s sports any less important or entertaining.  Watching a WNBA game can be very entertaining, but you can’t continuously compare it to the NBA because it’s on a completely different level, you have to take it for what it is.

The part that annoyed me the most about this tweet is that my friend, and most people with similar opinions, would have their asses handed to them by any of these women because though they may not play like men, they are still true athletes. Because they’re women it seems like people tend to forget that.  And don’t think that this issue is limited to professional sports.  It’s apparent in college, high school, and other levels—but that could lead to a whole new post, so I’ll save that for later.

He continued his rant of obnoxious, sexist tweets for the next hour or so, ending with, “and juwanna mann hits a shot with 1.9 seconds left to give phoenix the win #WNBA”.  Juwanna mann, really?

Did you ever notice that no matter how athletic the girls were, they were almost always the last ones left when picking kickball teams in gym class?  Or when you see a 6’9” guy you figure that he must play basketball (there’s no way he could be a dancer)?  Or that a tall girl who is good at sports is considered “manly”?  The stereotypes surrounding physical fitness and athletics because of gender  in our society are seemingly endless.

As a former high school athlete, I’m familiar with these stereotypes.  Even though I’m not playing a sport in college (a 5’6” center isn’t exactly Division 1 basketball material) I still see and experience the stereotypes on a daily basis—apparently a female who watches Sports Center religiously, is manly…and the guy who has never watched in his life? Well of course, he’s gay.  And while it is no secret, it’s interesting to examine how much gender influences society’s views on sports and athletics, and that’s what I plan on doing with this blog.  It may include features from my life, examples from the media, or a mixture of both—but it will be about gender, and it will be about sports, and it will (hopefully) be somewhat interesting.