On Sept. 14, 2005, Sports Illustrated posted
a column by Jay Mohr, “I
Don’t Love This Game.” Mohr describes the WNBA as
“unwatchable” and a “debacle of a league.” He can’t
understand how anyone can be entertained by “7 foot, 225
pound women from Poland who have less basketball skills than
the worst NBA D-leaguer.” He goes on to malign lesbian fans
of the WNBA, describing them as “lumberjacks” and “brutes.”
Strangely, he also cites the ticket price of “a hundred
bucks to sit on the floor” as more evidence of the WNBA’s
inferiority.
This column is
only funny if you like mean-spirited, sexist and
homophobic jokes. Mr. Mohr is a man who is apparently so
terrified of sitting next to a lesbian and being in the male
minority at a basketball game that he quakes with fear at
the prospect of offending lesbian fans by cheering against
the home team.
I expect that someone who writes a column for
Sports Illustrated might actually have something intelligent
and informed to say. Oh, wait. I forgot. The most
extensive (un) coverage of women in SI is the annual
swimsuit issue. It is a shame that SI respects its largely
male audience so little that it serves up the kind of
testosterone fueled claptrap in this column. Men who only
appreciate a game if the athletes have penises, as is
apparently true of Mr. Mohr, are missing a lot. Even more,
I worry about their daughters who might want to be
athletes.
The women who play in the WNBA are superb
athletes who deserve respect not derision from jock-sniffers
like Mohr. The truth is, even Mohr acknowledges, that these
women are far better athletes than he can even dream of
being. Most women athletes, especially on team sports,
persevere despite obstacles that far less talented male
athletes never encounter. They succeed despite sports boobs
like Mohr who can only appreciate female athletic
performance in the bedroom (or in their own pea-brained
fantasies).
Rather than appreciating how much women’s
basketball has grown or how quickly the game has gotten
faster, bigger, more athletic because of the fairly recent
opportunities afforded by Title IX, Mohr takes cheap shots
at the players and the fans. How insightful.
Mohr’s homophobia is so extreme that he
really should consider seeking professional help. He pulls
out all the old lesbian stereotypes to describe the fans –
big, mean, hostile to men, boot-wearing “brutes” who leer at
the players and scare the bejabbers out of the few men in
attendance. It’s funny how homophobia warps perception. I
am not sure what WNBA game he attended, but the fans at the
games I’ve attended are a great mix of little girls and
boys, families of all kinds and colors, retirees, and, yes,
lesbians. No one at these games seems fazed in the least by
the fact that they might be different from the person
sitting next to them. They unite around the team. They
high-five each other and pass the popcorn around. This is
one of the cool things about the WNBA.
You want to talk about scary, Mr. Mohr? The
beer-swilling, obscenity-shouting, boorish, shirtless guys
at every men’s professional sports events are a lot more
scary and offensive than some lesbians in flannel shirts.
Finally, the comment that baffles me the
most: the ticket prices. Ticket prices for men’s
professional games are so out of control that most families
can’t afford to go. I’ve always appreciated that WNBA
tickets are within the reach of most of us who are not
celebrities and CEOs. I see that as a good thing. So many
young girl and boys get to see these amazing women athletes
play because families don’t have to choose between
forfeiting the college tuition fund and attending a
professional sport contest.
Maybe all of
the fans at WNBA games will learn that sitting next to
lesbians, talking to them, cheering with them is not really
so scary after all. And maybe, just maybe, those little
boys watching WNBA games will grow up with a little more
respect for women, on and off the playing field, than you
have, Mr. Mohr.
Pat Griffin played basketball and
field hockey at the University of Maryland and coached at
the high school level. She is also a prolific author on
issues of sexism and homophobia in sports. Griffin is a
professor in Social Justice Education at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research and writing interests
focus on heterosexism and homophobia in education, lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender teachers and students, and
heterosexism and homophobia in athletics, with a particular
interest in women's sports.
Dr. Pat Griffin has been leading the quest
combating homophobia in sport for women and men in
the world of sports. She is director of the “It
Takes a Team” project for the Women’s Sports
Foundation. I work for equality and opportunity for women
and men with the
National Center for Lesbian Rights.
Many of you know both of us; have respected
our views of fairness and inclusion in the “LGBT Sports
Movement”. We have worked to try to get all of us to
realize that being on a level playing field critical for all
people including women, people of color, those with
disabilities, etc., before we can really make societal
changes in attitudes towards “us” in sports.
With that said, both Pat and I find
frustration, sadness and anger overtaking our emotions as we
realize through reading comments on the Outsports discussion
board (read
comments here) concerning Jay Mohr’s column in
Sports Illustrated that Pat’s letter must pertain to gay men
as well as straight men.
Let me
thank the people were very supportive of women in
sport in the posting; however, the comments in these posts
did sadly seem to represent the majority:
-’Nobody cares about the WNBA.’
-‘WNBA need to be comfortable being a 2nd
tier sport.’
-‘Guys watch chic sports because of short
pants.’
-‘Guys don’t watch it (the WNBA games).
-‘Jay wrote a tiny little column about going
to a bb game primarily attended by bulldykes-what’s the big
deal?”
Many say Mohr’s piece was only a column of
humor. Humor comes from what one finds as the truth and
then puts a funny twist on it. This humorous "truth" is
harmful to any work we do for equality of women in sport.
The Outsports postings and Mohr’s article simply expose what
an uphill battle we are to fighting; especially considering
that many gay men are entrenched in this sexist mindset.
I am calling upon the men that can see these
injustices and roadblocks to help us change this destructive
attitude. It is so much deeper that how the WNBA plays
basketball
If you have positive ideas on discussions or
panels that could happen contact me. Or better still--do it
yourselves. Actually, I will put that anger on the back
burner and be available to help or advise any way I can with
action items that will make a change. It’s just your turn
to step up and lead some of this fight for equality.
Helen
Carroll, a former college basketball coach and athletic
director, runs the
Homophobia in Sports project for the National Center
for Lesbian Rights.
