If Girls Want To Be Treated Equally, Then We Need To Man Up and Quit Being So Sensitive All The Time
Girls, girls, girls.
Seriously.
We want men to treat us like equals, I get that. I’m fortunate that I’ve only had a few of those rare experiences in my life where I knew I was being treated much differently because I’m a chick, and I didn’t enjoy it one bit. What I did do was react in a way that didn’t make me look insane, and in most cases, I didn’t react at all. What I also didn’t do was assume that, because of those few experiences, all men are sexist pigs and I am now a victim.
In fact, I’m a little bit exhausted by women - mostly left-wing radical feminists - who spend so much time playing the victim. There are real victims in this world, and an article that attempts to help men better relate to women when it comes to sports is hardly something that victimizes women. Seriously. Enough Already.
In case you haven’t heard all the latest buzz, Men’s Health Magazine put up a very short article entitled “The Secret to Talking Sports with Any Woman” yesterday for about a minute, a lot of women freaked out about it, and they quickly removed it from their website with apologies. Here it is, thanks to the Washington Post.
Not all women share your passion for sports, in case you hadn’t noticed. The reason? They need story lines.
“Most women don’t care about stats,” says Andrei Markovits, Ph.D., coauthor of Sportista: Female Fandom in the United States. So while you’re enthusing about Dominic Moore’s scoring record, she’d rather hear about how he supported his wife’s battle with cancer—and even took a season off from the NHL at the height of his career. Treat your heroes as people and not just players on a field, and you’ll suck her in.
Just don’t expect her to wear the foam finger.
What caused me to react was the rant that occurred on ABC talk show The View yesterday in response to the article.
Whoopi Goldberg (with a roll of the eye and a dramatic flair): Men’s Health Magazine has pulled a treat about how to talk about sports with women (the others on the panel gasp in feigned horror)…claiming “she sees the game differently than you.” It linked an article about how women don’t care about how sports stats go, they wanna see a story line to follow…Rosie [Perez], you wanna handle this please?
Rosie Perez: (dramatically) Yes, Men’s Health Magazine, I appreciate that you took back your tweet, but how stupid of you. (the panel laughs and laughs) Um…sorry…it was such an insult to women. It was such an insult to women, to their intellect, to their love of sports…I’ve been loving sports forever. And I know a large group of women all around the world that love sports as well. And this is the problem! This sexism holds women back from wanting to participate in sports and this is why I’m angry about it. Yeah. You know, when I go to the boxing hall of fame in upstate New York?
Whoopi Goldberg: What do you see?
Rosie Perez: WOMEN. Yes, we see men there, but we see a lotta women. And, and, and…there goes the boxing hall of fame right there (looking at photos)…those are the group of women that went up there, and they saw my picture, and they were like “right on, Rosie” and it’s you know an insult to the women, the sports commentators on ESPN and FOX Sports News, and NBC Sports, and the list could go on and on.
Nicolle Wallace: Women make up the largest numbers of decisions when it comes to buying season tickets for any sport, women are the final decision.
Rosie Perez: Yes. It was just idiotic and stupid, and you know what? If you want money for sports, respect women. Thank you.
(audience erupts)
For real?
The Men’s Health article was a 99-word opinion piece describing a study done by the co-author of a book. It was hardly something earth-shattering to get our panties all in a wad over. I don’t know about you, but I’m a tough chick. I’ve birthed a baby, I’ve Crossfited, I lift weights, I’ve taught Physical Education to elementary and high schoolers, and I even played sports in high school and college. I do know a thing or two about some sports, not so much about others. Big deal. I found myself agreeing with the little article…I don’t personally get so much into the stats like most men do, but I know women who do. And the women I know that do are tougher than letting a little 99-word article deemed “sexist” by the broads at The View determine whether or not they participate in sports.
If we want to be treated as equals by men, ladies, we’ve got to stop freaking out and act like grownups once in a while. Don’t agree with the now-erased article? Roll your eyes, and move on.
