Let me begin by saying that I’m not the perfect guy. The current me, a 43-year old father of two, cringes when I look back at some of the things done by the early 20s version of me. I’m particularly glad that social media did not exist in my younger days, as reminders of my less than stellar choices on occasion would live in perpetuity. That said, I also hate a few of the behaviors that social media enables keyboard warriors to carry out.
Two Chicago-area sportswriters, Julie DiCaro and Sarah Spain, experience the aforementioned daily as women working in the sports world. The website Just Not Sports asked the two women to participate in what had to have been an incredibly uncomfortable experience, listening to men read aloud some of the nasty tweets each received on Twitter. The purpose was to raise awareness of the type of online harassment of female sports reporters. The segment was tough to watch, and I can sum up the content of those tweets with one word — embarrassing.
The online harassment of these women ranges from explicit name calling and profanity, to wishing physical harm, even death, to each woman. Why? Because they are just doing their jobs in covering sports?
The hate-filled tweets about these two specific women were read to their faces; not by the men who actually wrote the garbage, just random guys. While the two sportswriters already knew about the tweets, the men involved were visibly disturbed as they read them for the first time. Many even struggled to read the tweets out loud, and some apologized to the women…apologized for the civilized males who don’t condone what the women were subjected to through the keystrokes of a few petulant guys. Several of the posts even stooped as low to mock DiCaro being raped. A few “milder” examples of the tweets read:
“I hope your boyfriend beats you.”
“You need to be hit in the head with a hockey puck, and killed.”
Excuse me? Hey pal, it’s 2016. Come out of your caves and get a clue!
Over the course of my career in sports, I worked daily with media on all levels and throughout the country. Some of the smartest, most professional and knowledgeable journalists that I worked with were female. It feels ridiculous even writing that previous sentence. Like I’m justifying that women can work in sports; or saying, “Hey, they were pretty good at their jobs, for women.” That could not be further from the truth.
Whether I was working with Liz Clarke at The Washington Post, or ESPN’s Shelley Smith, they were good sportswriters — NOT good female sportswriters.
We’ve all heard the jokes or comments about women having no business covering pro sports. But when I’m watching a broadcast, reading an article or following a game on the radio, I want whomever is delivering my sports to me to be knowledgeable. That’s the only qualifier I care about…period!
Perhaps this online harassment of female sportswriters troubles me even more today since I’m the father of two little girls. Maybe my irritation stems from seeing my two girls in these women, and knowing there’s a good chance they’ll encounter such situations over the course of their careers. Or could it just be that I have no patience for treating people with such over the top disrespect? One thing I do know: the dad (and I’d like to think, decent guy) in me would like to chat with the keyboard warriors who penned these tweets. But that wouldn’t happen since it would require them to flex their virtual muscles in person.
