Sometimes men need to just stop talking for a minute and listen.
I enjoy sports. It's one of the primary things in my life that I look to for entertainment. I watch sports shows during the day, I listen to podcasts, I follow players and sports news outlets and beat reporters on social media, and, of course, I watch games. Baseball and hockey are my personal favorites, and thus the sports I watch and immerse myself in the most and the ones I know the best. But I'm always down to watch other sports if they interest me. Most of the time, I love consuming sports and being a part of that world.
However, sports are very male-dominated, and boy do you learn that very quickly once you're in the sports world. The coverage is practically all men. The official media is mostly men (though there's definitely progressively more women in sports media as time goes on). Men don't like to accept women into sports. If you're a woman, you have to constantly prove your sports fandom and knowledge, and even then you might not be taken seriously, and men are just automatically accepted the second they put on a jersey. Getting asked if I know Mike Trout's slugging percentage in April in the daylight on turf with a breeze in order to prove my worth as a fan is ridiculous. Do you even know all these particular stats? Would you ask these questions to a fellow man to make them prove themselves? No, you would not.
Sometimes, it seems like they're trying to keep women away from sports, which is stupid for a number of reasons. First off, sports should be open for anyone to enjoy and perhaps even find a profession in. Second, teams can stand to make so much money if they also start doing more to market to women. But alas, they haven't seemed to have gotten that through their heads yet and are still making it difficult. Particularly in the merchandising area. Are you a woman? Do you want a women's cut jersey for your favorite team? Fine, but it's only available for two players and it's made out of a worse quality fabric. Do the leagues know that they are losing money by doing this? Do they not know how much money they could be making if they made as many women's jerseys as men and of the same quality? No? Okay.
Recently, I've gotten opportunity to write about sports, particularly baseball, and state my opinion to a broader audience. I think I know a lot about the sports I focus on, certainly enough to put together a coherent, smart piece of writing and express a valid sports opinion. Oh, but men do love to act like they're smarter than women, don't they? I just love having my sports talk torn down by men telling me that it's wrong and insisting that they know more than I do. Goodness they love to be arrogant. It's also so plainly obvious when they didn't even read it or clearly misunderstood the point. Congratulations, now you're arrogant and stupid.
Men, I think sometimes you need to take a step back and shut your mouths for once in your lives. Women have some insightful things to say about sports. In fact, I trust a woman's word over a man's word about sports because chances are they're not trying to prove they're smarter than everyone else, they're usually just looking for someone to talk to about sports who isn't trying to either tear down their opinion and credibility or get in their pants.
I'm not pretending like I know everything. I will freely admit when I don't know something about the sport I'm talking about; advanced stats and possession and analytics will probably always continue to elude me. But I am always willing to learn. Stuff like that interests me, and I am always down to have you explain it to me if you know and I do not — as long as you're not condescending and treat me like you would any other sports fan. Talking down to me — or mansplaining to me — is not going to benefit anyone.
Women are fantastic sports fans, very pleasant to be around, and very knowledgeable. It would be fantastic if there were more women in the sports world, both as fans, contributing members, and as media. They have refreshing viewpoints and great insights which would benefit sports in general. Men, you need to take a couple of steps back, shut your mouths, and let women have a few words. You might like what you hear. And women, don't be afraid to speak up. Your opinions are worth listening to.
