Sunday, April 29, 2012

Only Slightly Off Topic: In Response to Joe Cowley








How do I even begin to respond to this? As a female sports blogger (one who needs to keep up with a more regular schedule, I will admit), something in me feels obligated to respond to this "media meltdown," as Deadspin.com so cleverly labelles it. Actually, I should remove the "sports blogger." As a female, as a human being, I feel compelled to address this in a public forum.

Now, I know that this particular twitter conversation is not about sports, but rather about an idiot who feels that women are only there to dote upon his "MrHandsome"-ness and that only men should have the responsibility of holding high-risk jobs. I know that this exchange only peripherally touches on Sloane Martin's profession as a baseball writer and blogger, and that there is so much here that I could write about. Because this is my sports blog, and this is what I have experience writing about, I'm going to write about sports-one of the last few areas where men can feel free to by misogynistic and cruel and derogatory.

As many of you know, I'm a regular poster on both OurDailyBears.com and LoneStarBall.com, the SBNation sites for the Baylor Bears and the Texas Rangers, respectively. Up until a little over a week ago, I did not make it overtly public that I was (gasp) a girl. Yes, it was in my profile information, but no one actually reads that. In fact, when I decided to add "I'm a girl and I do stats when I'm bored. Deal with it." to my sig, it came as a shock to some people.

Now then, in this age of equality (as I've been told several times), why did I feel it necessary to disguise the fact that I was a female sports fan? It was because I felt that my opinions would be dismissed, my amateur expertise disclaimed and my self harassed simply because I don't share the same genitalia as the majority of internet-going sports fans. Before you pull the "suspicious without reason" card, this has happened to me in the past, in person. It is the absolute most humiliating experience to attempt to discuss baseball with a group of guys (most of whom I thought would never do this) and be dismissed, fact checked, and laughed at for attempting to assert that one player was statistically better than the other (I was right, by the way.)

Why is it that we are still in a place where the "female sports fan/writer" is still an exotic animal? Why is that male sportswriters can make cracks about Title IX and telling a fellow sportswriter to "hottie up [her] pic" and not be immediately condemned or fired by his employer? Why is it that I feel the need immediately start on the defensive any time I make a stats post on ODB?

I will admit, I have been fairly lucky. The folks over at LSB have been decent-to-awesome, and the one time an obvious troll went after me, the general response was to mock and decry him. I've also been around on the internet for a very long time, so I'm well versed in ignoring idiots. It's just that whenever this kind of thing happens-sports related or not-it deserves to be called out by every person who can.

If you think that women cannot hold high profile stress filled jobs, you are wrong. If you think that it is funny to assert that women are lesser than men, you are wrong. And if you think that you won't get called out on it if you do, you are most certainly completely and totally wrong.


BREAKING: Joe Cowley deleted his twitter account. That's one way to deal with things.
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