Being a woman in sports has been one of the most exciting and rewarding things in my life. Making the choice to follow this career path has been my proudest decision. With all of this being said, it is also one of the most frustrating things I am a part of.
People being sexist is really no surprise for any women in the workplace, especially those women that work in the sports industry. There’s a stigma that revolves around women in sports that is constantly perpetuated in the industry. Sports have always been seen as a “guys” thing. The guys get together to watch the game, the guys play the game, the guys broadcast the game, the list goes on. There has always been pushback from men with women in sports and there probably always will be. What becomes the most infuriating part of the sexism comes when women are the ones making the comments.
My whole idea for writing this came from a Tik Tok video that I saw. It was a woman bashing people who “only talk about sports.”She said people that like sports, especially girls, are boring and are “pick me’s”. Essentially she was saying that women who like sports have no personality, and most of them just like sports to get attention from guys.
Videos like this seem to go out of their way to invalidate women in sports. It’s just more people saying that what we do is only for men or because we find athletes attractive or we want attention. Women have been fighting for real recognition in this field forever, and there will always be someone saying something misogynistic, trying to make women think that they don’t belong.
Hearing these things gets exhausting. I’ve only been actively in the sports industry for a little over a year, and I’m already over hearing what people have to say. As someone who’s been a sports fan my whole life, I have always gotten sexist comments from guys who think I know nothing about sports just because of my sex. Hearing comments like these from men is not something new, but it’ll never be something I’m used to. But hearing these things from women is truly one of the most disheartening parts of this career path.
The reason I wanted to be a part of Girls Club is to get away from people like that and surround myself with a group of supportive girls that share the same passion as I do.
All I can really say about this matter is that women DO belong in sports. There is a place for us in this industry and sometimes there are gonna be people that don't agree with that, but that doesn’t mean that that place doesn’t exist. Women are powerful and deserve the place that they gained. It's an exciting time for women in sports and I’m so excited to be a part of it.
Comments