No Respect
We here at Cardinal Couple obviously don't hide our disdain for people who dismiss women's sports out of hand. You would think this isn't an issue that we would need to raise very often...certainly no one would be crass enough to flat reject all women's sports without any subtlety, and yet, it happens...on a regular basis.
I could probably write my Cardinal Couple contribution every week by pointing out examples of this, but ultimately, to advance our mission to share the joy and excitement of UofL Women's Sports, we can't merely point out when people express rampant, overt sexism in dealing with women athletes. We have to show what's great about the sports as played by amazing athletes.
Occasionally, however, I feel we need to circle back to revisit just how disgusting the overt sexism towards women's athletics can be.
About a week ago, Mark Mravic tweeted a short video of a great goal in one of England's Women's World Cup games.
And here some people (ahem, @Andy_Benoit) argue that women's soccer isn't worth watching. https://t.co/0IdV8BdDH3
— Mark Mravic (@MarkMravic) June 22, 2015
As you can see, he alluded to the belief of another sportswriter, Andy Benoit who apparently is on record as saying that women's soccer isn't worth watching.
Benoit tweeted, in response, in a tweet that has since been deleted, "Not women's soccer......women's sports in general not worth watching."
Benoit later apologized in a series of tweets, but not before Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler put together this throwback to their Saturday Night Live days on Late Night with Seth Meyer's. (This is from a post prime-time show, so some minor language is used.)
Why do so many people, particularly sports fans, feel the need to so vehemently put down women's athletics? The usual arguments are hypocritical at best, and completely nonsensical at worst.
"It's not athletic enough." - Then you should be watching track and field, not football.
"It's not exciting enough." - But you'll sit through hours of talking heads for the NBA and NFL drafts, not to mention the many talking head sports news shows that are on daily.
Gimme a break.
I'm gonna call it, if you can see your way to react as Andy Benoit did, even if you got "carried away" (insert epic side-eye here), then you're sexist. If you can dismiss all women's athletics with a single tweet, then you're not even giving it a real thought, and I have to question how much stock I should put into anything you say. Is it offered with the same vapidity that your tweet casting aspersions on all women's athletics was? Did you put just as much depth of thought into your NFL analysis that you did the Women's World Cup?
Of course, as I alluded to in the title, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, here. If you're here, reading this on Cardinal Couple, you've already gone far above and beyond the level of a typical college sports fan to learn about and support your UofL women's athletics teams. We here at Cardinal Couple thank you for that, and while I can't speak for the UofL athletic department formally, I think we can be pretty sure they appreciate it as well.
Keep up the good work. Go out there and share the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics, and bring a friend to a game/match/meet/round/race/regatta and let them see, first hand, what the excitement is all about.
Miss USA TV in Limbo
Well, The Don has gone and done it again.
No, not Don Paulie, Donald Trump.
During his announcement for candidacy for the Republic nomination for the office of President of the United States, Donald Trump made some comments that were considered hostile towards Mexicans and Latinos in general. The fallout of those comments caused Univision to refuse to air the Miss USA pageant, and several days later, Miss USA co-owner NBC Universal, has followed suit.
On the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour the past couple of weeks, I was unsure of television coverage, and posited that it might be on Fox. I suppose there is a possibility that it still could be. With NBC Universal not showing it, where it will be shown on TV in the US, and even if it will be on TV is in some doubt at this point.
Of course, our own Katie George of the UofL Volleyball team is Kentucky's entrant into the pageant, so this is of more than a little interest to many UofL women's athletics fans, including myself. We'll update as this story unfolds.
JMcA
JMcA
Great column, Jeff, and something that needed to be pointed out. Despite all of the sexists, I believe that women's/girl's sports have come a long way. In all probability, it will never be as popular as men's sports, but it does not mean that a large number of people cannot enjoy it. From a purist's standpoint, I believe women's basketball is much,much better game than the men's. I
ReplyDeleten my fairly recent interest in volleyball (thanks to you) I have become even more aware of the amazing athletes who play women's sports. Keep up the good work, guys.
Great write today, Jeff!
ReplyDeleteThe sexist attitudes that still prevail in this day and time are an abomination to all that suggest the competitive nature of sports. I assure you that the lacrosse player trying to get open to score is working just as hard as the wide receiver trying to escape coverage to catch a pass.
Wake up, Earth!
Well said, Jeff.
ReplyDeleteCount me among those who prefer WBB to the male version. If "less athletic" means "plays below the rim", that's true. But I challenge anyone to claim that Angel McCoughtry, Sara Hammond or Emmonnie Henderson (just to name a few recent Cardinals) is not "athletic."
Basketball, invented by man, perfected by women.
DeleteI missed yesterday's "Top Eight" discussion and just have to chime in.
ReplyDeleteIf "appearances/progression in the NCAA tourney" is the primary criterion for determining a program's "all time best players" the logic is flawed. By that logic Pete Maravich would not be an "all time best" player at LSU. Sometimes a great player has a relatively weak supporting cast.
I only saw Sara Nord play in person once but I've talked to a lot of people who saw every home game she played. She was a really special player and her career stats speak to that fact.
I watched Nita Slaughter play for four years and I admired her game, but she was a spot-up three point shooter (a darn good one) and an adequate but not great defender. Her claim to fame is (deservedly) the Baylor and Cal games. But most of her career was up-and-down, and doesn't compare to Nord's on a full-career basis.
As much as I admired Asia's play, her career stats were very good but not great. And Nord was much more important to her teams than Asia was to hers. I'd put Nord ahead of her at #8.
Good points all, Mike.
DeleteI would only point out that Asia's stats may have been only very good instead of great, because she did have a fair bit of time where she wasn't at 100% due to injury. Of course, I think you do have to consider a diminished role from injuries possibly, but if you have a player who spends two years with significantly diminished capability, but the other two years she's the best player ever to play the game...well, I think maybe that deserves consideration in all-time greats lists, even if the overall stats at the end of the career may not stack up against others.
I do think that when Asia was healthy, she was among the greats to play the game at UofL. Its a shame that she did spend a fair bit of time in a diminished capacity due to injuries.
LOL. If I had made it 10 players, there would have been speculation about the 11th. 20 players, the 21st. We presented a 15 player, 1 "other" poll choice (which covered the entire UofL WBB roster from inception) and the voters have spoken.
DeleteI'll point out I left off Kristin Maddox Cox as well, who is probably my favorite UofL WBB player of all time but I didn't think met the qualifications to make the top 15.
"You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people none of the time and..."
I'm done with polls.
Paulie
Ask them their favorite color next month. Paulie
DeleteOur "steamed" colleague Jeff has planted another one over the fence with today's column. WELL DONE, SIR! Maybe we should turn you loose more often...another day per week, perhaps?
ReplyDelete(That scream in the background was Jeff's "scapegoat")
Paulie
I watched 90% of the Atlanta Dream games and only 2 games were worth watching. The WNBA is horrible and I gave it a real chance. I still look at WNBA box scores but have no interest in watching a game. I was disappointed with evel of play in woman's college basketball overall this year but still like to follow the Cards. Can't watch men's college basketball. Kind of strange but like something about woman's college ball better.
ReplyDeleteThe WNBA is inferior to Euroball and the players get paid more over there. Although, raising the pay levels would be nice for the WNBA players...would it increase the caliber of play?
ReplyDelete