Entry 13: Women belong in sports
Hello! I went a little MIA again, but I’m back! I’ve had so many thoughts in my head and so many topics I’ve wanted to write about — a good and bad “problem” to have. Now that we’re back in football season, I wanted to talk about my passion for women in sports.
As a kid, I played practically every sport, but as I got older, I only played softball. I’ve always loved both playing and watching sports. In college, I majored in sports marketing and management and worked for the athletic department as a marketing intern. All of this is to say: I genuinely enjoy sports. It’s silly that I feel like I need to present my résumé and list my “credentials” as a sports fan for someone (men) to believe I actually enjoy and know sports. This Saturday, a couple friends and I were out watching football, and this guy was shocked to hear that we were watching football. Why? Why is this so shocking?
10 year old me playing softball and rocking my rec specs. I would always bite the chin piece on my face mask.
A couple weekends ago, I was at a bar with friends watching football, and a guy walked up to us to promote some sports betting apps. Our one guy friend said he already had all the apps, and our girlfriend said the same thing. The sports betting guy then looked at him and said, “I believe you have all the apps.” He then looked at our girlfriend for her response. I stepped in (as I always do) and asked him, “Why do you assume he has all the apps and not her?” He didn’t have a response. This is something so small but so telling. My friend knows football probably more than most men. She watches it every weekend. She regularly sports bets and knows what’s going on. Now, he didn’t know all of this about her, but he just assumed she didn’t know anything. Why did he assume this? Because she’s a woman.
In college, we learned a lot about Title IX and the history of women in sports. In the early 20th century, women were not allowed to play sports. Being athletic meant a woman was “unladylike,” and there were myths that it could harm or damage a woman’s fertility. It wasn’t until 1972, when Title IX was passed, that women started to gain the same experiences as men (kind of). Over time, high schools, universities, and professional sports introduced women’s teams — but then a new stigma was created.
“Women’s sports just aren’t competitive.” “Women’s sports aren’t fun to watch.” “I could play better than all of them.”
Now that women finally had a chance to compete, they still weren’t good enough to receive recognition. Just yesterday, I was having a conversation about women’s basketball. We were talking about the University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball program — a program that has won 3 National Championships, made 8 Final Four appearances, and been runner-up twice. One of the best programs in the country. In this conversation, he said, “Well, there’s no competition in women’s basketball anyways.” No competition? Have you ever watched women’s basketball? All I can say is: that same comment would not have been made about any men’s basketball program.
The language we use around sports is so male-dominated as well. When you hear someone talk about a basketball team, soccer team, swimming team, etc., we automatically assume it’s the men’s team. But we always differentiate when we’re talking about the women’s team: women’s basketball, women’s soccer, women’s swimming, women’s volleyball. We don’t assume women are playing these sports — we have to specify. Another example of this is March Madness. March Madness is the men’s tournament but we say Women’s March Madness for the women’s tournament. The NCAA has now changed this.
Working an IU football game duirng my senior year. This was taken 10 minutes before kickoff. I can never be accused of being a bandwagon fan.
In 2021, the NCAA got a lot of backlash for how they treated the women’s college basketball teams in March Madness compared to the men’s teams. I highly recommend reading articles and looking up pictures to see how insane the differences were. Essentially, the women’s teams got significantly less in weight training facilities, gear, and even the food they were served. And I can already hear the arguments: “Well, men’s basketball just brings in so much more money than women’s basketball.” “It’s more fun to watch men’s basketball, so that’s why the women don’t get as much.” Yes, men’s basketball does bring in more money. HOWEVER, women’s basketball has never been given the opportunity to make more money. How are they supposed to bring in more — or equal — if they aren’t even given the chance? In recent years, women’s basketball has gained a lot more viewership, and that’s because they are finally getting the investments they deserve. Things take time, but they’re moving in the right direction.
Although things are improving in some areas, there are times where it feels like we’ve taken 15 steps back. A couple weeks ago, Texas played Ohio State in football, and Ohio State lost. It was a big win for Texas. During every college football game, the head coach gets interviewed at the start of halftime and immediately after the game. Holly Rowe, a sports reporter for ESPN who has been in the industry for over 30 years, was the reporter for this game. She tried talking to the Texas coach after the game — which happens every single game — and he totally blew her off. She didn’t even ask a question; he yelled “Hook ’em!” and walked off. He blew her off like she wasn’t doing the job that every coach participates in every game.
He has since apologized, but that’s not even the worst part. A couple days after the game, Arch Manning, the quarterback for Texas, brought up an AI-generated video of the Texas coach slapping Holly Rowe in the face. Keep in mind, he was asked about what he had seen on social media about the game, and this was part of his response. His exact quote was: “I’ve seen a few AI edits of stuff. I saw an AI edit of Sark — y’all seen that one? That’s a good one, of him slapping Holly Rowe. It’s hilarious.”
First off, what freak would even create this video? Second, why is this the video you’re choosing to talk about? Third, why is it hilarious? What is remotely funny about this? What’s even worse is that the entire room of sports reporters laughed. It’s all just so weird and disappointing — but unfortunately, not surprising. Arch Manning has now apologized to her.
All of this is to say: women deserve to be respected in sports. We deserve to be there. We are just as athletic and competitive. We are just as capable of being reporters, commentators, coaches, leaders, players, etc. Being a woman doesn’t mean we are less than in any way. Women’s sports have improved immensely over the years, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Although some of the examples I’ve given seem small, I promise you they aren’t. Calling out bias is so important because a lot of people don’t even realize they’re doing it. I truly believe many of the comments people make aren’t meant to be malicious — they’re just repeating phrases they’ve heard for decades.
It’s our responsibility to change our unconscious bias. We have to take initiative in how we discuss sports and put more effort into watching women’s sports.
I’ll get off my soapbox and go back to religiously checking my fantasy football teams.
Sincerely,
Courtney