Twitter Bashing

Without doubt, the 2011 National Championship game between the Bulter Bulldogs and the Connecticut Huskies may be consider one of the most poorly played games in the history of collegiate Basketball. Bulter and Connecticut simply could not find a way to score the ball consistently, therefore, the two teams combined for the lowest combined first half points ever in a national championship game. Bulter, returning to their second straight championship game, shot a disappointing 18.8 percent, setting the record as the last shooting percentage ever in the game’s history. Though the game was boring, interesting tweets concerning the game and women’s basketball were posted online, which some believe denies the women’s game of it’s legitimacy.
“It is not a stretch to say that the women’s national championship game will be far more interesting.” Said CBS analyst Roland S. Martin. “April 2011: The month that women’s college basketball caught up to men’s college basketball” tweeted “The Sports Guy” from ESPN. These kind of tweets may seem positive for women’s basketball, until one realizes that the only reason it’s being compared to a men’s sport is due to the boring and unexciting nature of the men’s title game. Upon this realization, I think it’s completely unreasonable to the women’s game, to compare it to the disaster that the men’s title game ended up being.

In the article “NCAA March Madness” by Coyte Cooper, she covers the multiple issues of gender inequality across NCAA sports. “Women’s basketball is marginalized whereas men’s basketball is framed as the norm” (7) states the article. I believe that this is very true. When one thinks about March Madness, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the men’s tournament, with the women’s tournament being completely ignored by most. With the discussions on Title IX and the individuals that have fought so hard for equality among the gendered sports, it’s sad to see that although women are allowed the opportunity to play, they are still considered to be a lower form of entertainment and only equal to a boring, dull and poorly executed men’s game. It’s not only unfair to the players, but to women in general to be put in that sort of environment, where their best is only as good as the worst of men.

Although Twitter has become a major social outlet for the general public and athletes alike, tweets like these, although may seem funny to some, only do harm to our women basketball players by making them inferior to anything but the worst of men’s performances. Hopefully in the future, tweets like these will cease to occur and equality among the media coverage and acceptance of the two tournaments will be the new norm.