Women's Sports
Here's an article in the Seattle Post-intelligencer on the difficulties women's sport finds in getting an audience in the USA.
I occasionally write for a women's basketball magazine on the internet called Fullcourt Press... I haven't done for a while, but I will again soon. I get pocket money only, I do it because it's fun. I like basketball, and I like the way the women play it -- it's technical and intelligent, with an emphasis on technical skills rather than simple size and athleticism.
It's always puzzled me that more people don't watch women's sports. I'm not political about it, I won't watch women on principle, and I hate the local bastardized-basketball for girlies we call netball (I won't repeat the things some top female basketballers have said about netball within my hearing). But some sports are simply more interesting when played by women. Basketball can be, in a good game... although the WNBA and NBA are so different they're almost two different sports. Women's volleyball is vastly superior to men's, because the women actually have rallies. Women's tennis can be too, for similar reasons... though the women's power game is pretty ugly, and my favorite player is Justine Henin-Hardenne, who's 5 foot 5 and plays like Roger Federer, ie: beautifully.
But the author of the above article seems confused about something -- he blames men for the poor ratings of women's sports. However, in America, what little ratings the WNBA gets are %70 male. The biggest problem women's sports face is not that men don't respect them, it's that women don't respect them. Or otherwise aren't interested. That's a hard nut to crack. It's hard to convince anyone that what they're watching, or should be watching, is impressive, if they can't figure it out for themselves. The publisher of Fullcourt Press, Clay Kallam, says often that in the end, people will judge quality objectively. I dunno. I used to watch Perth Breakers (now Perth Lynx) games regularly. They had a player named Gina Stevens, now retired, who had one of the best jumpshots I've ever seen, male or female. She would get on a streak, destroy her opposition, almost make them cry with frustration because there was nothing they could do about it... and the few hundred people in the crowd would yawn, and a few would clap politely. Then the Wildcats -- the men -- would come on, and someone would do something technically very average by comparison (like a dunk in the open court, which if you're 6-8 and athletic is as easy as falling over), and the crowd would go nuts -- men would roar approval, and women would swoon. Sure, Gina Stevens could never have gotten a spot on the men's team, but that's beside the point. Lightweight boxers can't beat heavyweights, but they move faster, throw better combinations, and are usually more entertaining. In America, college sports are even more popular than the pros, even though the standards are lower. There's more to a great sporting contest than simply who could beat who in a head-to-head fight.
Yeah okay, I've been outed -- I'm a sports snob. A lot of viewers, who fancy themselves knowledgeable about sports, don't really know what they're looking at. Once upon a time, white baseball fans in America wouldn't watch black players either, and aside from the general racism of the age, I'm sure a lot, if asked, would have said there wasn't any talent in the black leagues worth watching. People, and sports fans in particular, see what they want to see... or rather, what they expect to see. Until the assumptions of what female athletes actually ARE can be changed, women's sports will continue to struggle.
This is why I love to see those rare sports where women can beat men at the highest level. Motorsports is the main one. I've watched enough women's basketball from close range to know for an objective fact that there's no talent difference between top men and top women -- it's only size and strength that makes the difference. In a contest of pure skill, women have no disadvantage at all. Michelle Wie is fascinating too, because golf is less obviously a candidate for women-beating-men... but still pretty obvious, if you think about it. I think the best hope for women's basketball is that some successful women take motorsports by storm, and maybe Michelle Wie wins or comes close to winning a men's tournament. Then maybe some basketball fans might figure out a few simple things about gender... like Shaquille O'Neal is not a BETTER player than Lauren Jackson, he's just a BIGGER player.
I occasionally write for a women's basketball magazine on the internet called Fullcourt Press... I haven't done for a while, but I will again soon. I get pocket money only, I do it because it's fun. I like basketball, and I like the way the women play it -- it's technical and intelligent, with an emphasis on technical skills rather than simple size and athleticism.
It's always puzzled me that more people don't watch women's sports. I'm not political about it, I won't watch women on principle, and I hate the local bastardized-basketball for girlies we call netball (I won't repeat the things some top female basketballers have said about netball within my hearing). But some sports are simply more interesting when played by women. Basketball can be, in a good game... although the WNBA and NBA are so different they're almost two different sports. Women's volleyball is vastly superior to men's, because the women actually have rallies. Women's tennis can be too, for similar reasons... though the women's power game is pretty ugly, and my favorite player is Justine Henin-Hardenne, who's 5 foot 5 and plays like Roger Federer, ie: beautifully.
But the author of the above article seems confused about something -- he blames men for the poor ratings of women's sports. However, in America, what little ratings the WNBA gets are %70 male. The biggest problem women's sports face is not that men don't respect them, it's that women don't respect them. Or otherwise aren't interested. That's a hard nut to crack. It's hard to convince anyone that what they're watching, or should be watching, is impressive, if they can't figure it out for themselves. The publisher of Fullcourt Press, Clay Kallam, says often that in the end, people will judge quality objectively. I dunno. I used to watch Perth Breakers (now Perth Lynx) games regularly. They had a player named Gina Stevens, now retired, who had one of the best jumpshots I've ever seen, male or female. She would get on a streak, destroy her opposition, almost make them cry with frustration because there was nothing they could do about it... and the few hundred people in the crowd would yawn, and a few would clap politely. Then the Wildcats -- the men -- would come on, and someone would do something technically very average by comparison (like a dunk in the open court, which if you're 6-8 and athletic is as easy as falling over), and the crowd would go nuts -- men would roar approval, and women would swoon. Sure, Gina Stevens could never have gotten a spot on the men's team, but that's beside the point. Lightweight boxers can't beat heavyweights, but they move faster, throw better combinations, and are usually more entertaining. In America, college sports are even more popular than the pros, even though the standards are lower. There's more to a great sporting contest than simply who could beat who in a head-to-head fight.
Yeah okay, I've been outed -- I'm a sports snob. A lot of viewers, who fancy themselves knowledgeable about sports, don't really know what they're looking at. Once upon a time, white baseball fans in America wouldn't watch black players either, and aside from the general racism of the age, I'm sure a lot, if asked, would have said there wasn't any talent in the black leagues worth watching. People, and sports fans in particular, see what they want to see... or rather, what they expect to see. Until the assumptions of what female athletes actually ARE can be changed, women's sports will continue to struggle.
This is why I love to see those rare sports where women can beat men at the highest level. Motorsports is the main one. I've watched enough women's basketball from close range to know for an objective fact that there's no talent difference between top men and top women -- it's only size and strength that makes the difference. In a contest of pure skill, women have no disadvantage at all. Michelle Wie is fascinating too, because golf is less obviously a candidate for women-beating-men... but still pretty obvious, if you think about it. I think the best hope for women's basketball is that some successful women take motorsports by storm, and maybe Michelle Wie wins or comes close to winning a men's tournament. Then maybe some basketball fans might figure out a few simple things about gender... like Shaquille O'Neal is not a BETTER player than Lauren Jackson, he's just a BIGGER player.
3 Comments:
I get annoyed when people try to browbeat me for not caring about women's sports! It simple, really. There's an opportunity cost to everything that you do. And for me, observing women's sports is seldom worth that cost. I'd rather be doing something else. And no one has any business criticising that. Multiply me times 140 million and you got the US audience of male sport fans.
Who says I should be watching women's volleyball? Just because a sport exists, and athletes play it with intensity, skill, and passion, doesn't mean I should set aside my time and become a fan. I have other calls on my time, and I don't care about women's volleyball. (And I feel the same about men's soccer and hockey).
I find women's basketball EXTREMELY boring. Most people do. Talk all you want about the technical skill of women BB players or how well someone can do a jump shot, but guess what, those things that the men have -- the strength, speed, leaping ability, powerful slam dunks -- THAT's the very stuff of dreams that makes B-Ball worth watching. Kids dream of slamming it home, and they rig up 7-foot tall goal posts to do it. They don't dream of executing a proficient pick-n-roll and maintaining a well-balanced passing game.
Maybe that ever-increasing athleticism is why the NBA is so vastly more popular than basketball was in the 1940s and 50s -- when men played the way women do.
Add to this, how much sport can you handle? Between fall football, winter/spring basketball, summer baseball, NASCAR, and some Hockey for the NHL crowd, most sport fans are kept pretty busy keeping up. Consider that, even though football is the most popular sport of all in the US, every attempt at creating a spring or summer football league fails miserably.
Now we're supposed to double our sports intake with a female version of everything too? And we get criticised for not playing along with that? Gimme a break.
Tennis fits in comfortably as an exception because you don't have to FOLLOW it. Unless you're a tennis geek, you just perk up for the weekend 4 times a year, check out the latest Russian hotties, and call yourself a fan.
Now where women can really get attention is a situation like Danika and Michelle Wie. We can admire them without having to follow some additional, alien sport. And, I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this, but to see a woman succeed against men in a men's sport arouses, uh, interest. Especially if they're hot.
Disclaimer, none of this applies to Michelle Wie, who is but a child. Note that Wie won't turn 18 for another 661 days, according to the notches I've been carving here on my forearm, and it would be quite inappropriate to suggest she arouses anything prior to that day.
But just suppose Wie -- a grown-up 19 yr old Wie of course -- wins a major men's tournament, beating Tiger Woods and the rest. She'd instantly become the most acclaimed human being since Alexander the Great, and men of all ages would be having wild fantasies about her.
Hi Kevin
I guess it depends what you find interesting about sports. I'm fascinated by technical skill. My all time favorite viewing sport remains Australian football, and all my favorite players are the smaller, more skillful midfielders. Size and power just don't impress me very much. Sure they can be fun to watch, but anyone can be born big and athletic, or can take drugs that make them that way. Skill is a much rarer commodity.
If sports fans honestly prefer size and explosiveness, then I agree, there's nothing women's sports can or should do about that to change their minds... like you say, it's just a fact of life. But there's another bunch of people out there with a very different attitude, an attitude that honestly considers all women not only physically less powerful, but technically inferior as well. And not all of the people who believe this are men, either.
A lot of female race car drivers have refused to race men because they don't believe their gender can take it. A lot of female golfers still think Michelle Wie's a fool for the same reason. It's possible they're right, but what gets me is that they've got no interest in finding out for certain. I guess it's a threatening prospect -- you work your whole life to try and be better than Annika Sorenstam, and now someone comes along and tells you you should be aiming for Tiger Woods instead... as if beating Annika weren't hard enough.
And there's a whole bunch of NBA fans who won't watch the women not only because they can't dunk, but also because they honestly believe the girls can't shoot, dribble or pass either. And they can watch entire WNBA games, if forced, and still insist that, even when it's patently not true. Just like there are lots of people around motor sport who still can't accept Danica or Katherine Legge or Erin Crocker... although they're smarter now, and have learned to keep their mouths shut about it, since the girls have proven so popular. I saw Paul Newman on Letterman saying Danica was basically a rare genetic freak. It's a common belief, I think... and again, not just amongst men.
I find it intriguing because it's one of the last obvious big falacies that our otherwise advanced society hasn't shot down. And like you say, I can't see anything but a women-beating-men sporting event being able to do that.
Joel
I'm the opposite of Kevin. I find most mens sports dull. But then I like strategic sports that use skill rather than strength. I think that skill is harder to obtain than strength as any common twit can walk into a gym and walk out (a few months later) strong enough to rough house with big boys... not everyone could walk into a coaching clinic and walk about (a few months later) and be able to pick and roll.
Besides which, who wants to be part of 100s of thousands of other mindless lemmings who follow mens sports just because other people do. I also like individualism... most of the athletes on male sporting teams all look the same... tall (in basketball), heavy (in football), skinny (in soccer).
Michael
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