Being a woman and a sports fan means looking at your phone first thing in the morning and bracing yourself for the punches to the gut.
We all look on in horror as a bunch of ancient white men who couldn't find a clitoris with a head lamp and a map make ever-more restrictive laws about our reproductive health. Systemic rape as a tool of war is increasing in Ukraine, but it has been a problem for women around the world for centuries. When confronted with a brilliant candidate for the Supreme Court, a bunch of below-average men in the United States Senate put on a blinding display. Louis C.K. won a prize. There is a Ben Shapiro.
The sports world is nothing if not a mockery of online societies, and so it offered up their candidates to make things worse.
You know thatNewton is a sexist jackass. In the midst of a media scrum, he made a comment to Jourdan Rodrigue that it was funny to hear women talking about routes. He said it because he knew he wouldn't get called out by the other men in the room for saying it. He knew it because men rarely get called out for being sexist. It was a big move. In a room full of people, look at what I can do to you. I can make you feel small.
After not being a quarterback anyone wants to hire,Newton went on a podcast to advise women who have been through a lot, and who are watching our rights being eroded daily. DJ Dunson wrote a piece about it today, so you can check it out.
Let's tell some truths. Men working in sports almost never comment or push back on sexism, so it's not hard for CamNewton to say things like this. Go to your timelines and see how many guys covering the NFL said thatCam's statements about women were wrong and he was wrong to make them.
No woman should have to contend with out-in-the-open misogyny in order to do her job. It is part of your life if you work in sports media. The complaints about sexist coworkers are usually met with an eye roll. Your co-workers will keep writing about terrible men. You watch as more and more men are hired to take over an industry that has never been controlled by anything but men.
It's sad and hilarious that a man thinks women are rolling out of bed each morning to figure out what to do to keep a man. There is another kind of sexism that is present in sports, and that is the continued celebration of men who have harmed women.
I bet A-Rod considers himself a great ally to women, even though he was convicted of domestic abuse. Antonio Brown has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than one woman, including forcible rape. Brown settled a civil case accusing him of sexual assault. It took him storming off the sidelines like a toddler to get people to think he might be problematic.
Here is a video of A-Rod greeting a man who has gone to prison for beating women. If you're not familiar with the incident that landed him in the clink, you should read the statement his son wrote about watching his mother lose.
Why is Alex Rodriguez with Floyd Mayweather? I don't know, other than that men don't get canceled for harming women. It doesn't happen in the world of sports. Someone should have been there to tell CamNewton that his association with a Barstool show is problematic and that he should keep his thoughts on women to himself. Someone should have told A-Rod that having a convicted domestic abuser on to rehabilitate the image of a rapist is not a good look. We are here. Again. Women do not matter in the world of sports.
Until we all age out of the business and a younger group takes up our collective angst, women can yell and scream and jump up and down about this stuff. It won't matter until men in the industry decide they won't turn away and let this stuff go. Everyone's voice is not needed in every conversation when marginalized groups are talking about their experiences. We need our male colleagues and male sports fans to speak up.
Anything.
Please.