Tweet nicely or don’t tweet at all

This week I read the blog titled “Twitter users compare men’s basketball to the women’s game”. While I do not know much about Twitter, I do, however, know that messages posted by high profile people such as journalists and television hosts can be far reaching. This article shows certain updates by a CBS analyst and another by an analyst for ESPN that were condescending towards women’s basketball, both professionally and collegiately. They read, “the month that women’s basketball caught up to men’s college basketball”, and “it is not a stretch to say that the women’s national championship game will be far more interesting. The second one is particularly condescending in a sense that insinuates it would almost be impossible for a women’s game to be as competitive or intense as a men’s game. It is quotes like this that reach audiences of millions that keep the socially constructed ideology of women’s sports being less interesting than men’s sports alive. This article reminded me of the readings we had from the beginning of the semester that touched on the huge gaps of coverage between the two athletic programs where the Women’s NCAA Tournament got significantly less coverage than the Men’s Tournament. As Erin Whiteside states in the post, these negative remarks take away from the legitimacy of women’s sports. This line reminded me of the readings from last week, particularly the one by Vicki Krane where they interviewed female players from the various programs at the school. I felt that the general consensus of that reading was that these girls felt that wearing short skimpy skirts and tight spandex shorts that reveal everything takes away from the competitive side and legitimacy of their respective sports. As if people only watch women’s sports to see something sexually stimulating. One girl who played volleyball even said that she would invite her male friends to come watch and they would respond by saying something along the lines of being able to go see some girls in tight uniforms jump around. Im not sure if that’s exactly how it went but its close. In the end, it comes down to something I have been hearing my whole life; if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. It will saved hurt feelings and will keep the sporting arena in safe guards.