NCAA basketball

[blairprovence]

I suppose I should be glad I'm unemployed at the moment, so I don't have to use the BOSS button on the March Madness website in order to disguise my basketball addiction.  I love this time of year, and I'll watch just about any game that's on.  Well, not a few 1-16 matchups - there's no fun in winning by 50.

The men's tournament started on Thursday, and the women's tournament starts tomorrow.  ESPN is covering the women, so we'll get to see a lot more of the games than we used to, with the whip around coverage and the multiple channels.  The women's basketball isn't taking any of the men's off of the air (they're on CBS), but that doesn't stop commenters on just about every online article from writing that NO ONE CARES ABOUT WOMEN'S BASKETBALL and YOU SHOULD SHUT UP ABOUT WOMEN'S BASKETBALL and WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SUCKS and THEY'RE ALL LESBIANS and other erudite, enlightening and informed opinions.  I'm used to that.  Some men think women shouldn't play basketball, especially women whom they secretly know could kick their asses at it.  There are Neanderthals in every walk of life.  Ignoring them now.

And then I clicked over to Deadspin, which I find entertaining sometimes, if only for the way they poke at ESPN.  They have a segment every Friday or so called "Waxing Off", which is their clever title for the female-writer ghetto they've corralled and squashed into a once-a-week post.  The women who write for it seem quite knowledgeable about various sports, and are sometimes very funny.  But today they wrote their article about the women's ncaa's, and I didn't think it was funny at all.

Women's basketball, and why some actual women don't seem to like it.  Oh, goody.  Let's talk about what the women look like, what the uniforms look like, what the cheerleaders are like, and whether or not any of them are sexy.  Let's discuss Candace Parker's breasts!  Let's ponder whether or not it would be less boring if the outfits were more revealing!  Let's discuss how women can't be good athletes because they're not competing against men!

SERIOUSLY?!?!?  You don't have to do the Neanderthals' work for them, ladies!  It's like they're hating on the women so they can be "one of the boys."  STFU!

So I'll root for the Aggie women and I'll root for the Aggie men, and I'll know that both teams are full of kickass athletes who can play a helluva game of basketball.  And I'll acknowledge that things are a lot more equitable than they used to be.

And I shall remain pissed off.

Comments

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

Let's ponder whether or not it would be less boring if the outfits were more revealing!

Now I think about it, basketball would probably be more interesting if men played it in Speedos.

More seriously: ITAWATP. It's really frustrating when women are constantly judged on their appearance, by other men and other women, whether or not their appearance has one damn thing to do with what they're doing (which, 99.99% of the time, it does not.) And it's especially dumb when it's used as a way of othering and dismissing women's sport. Gah.

[blairprovence.livejournal.com]

That's one of the things that really bugs about Beach Volleyball in the Olympics - if the women have to play practically NAKED the men should be in a damn Speedo.

It's funny to be that the Deadspin women can be so smug and dismissive about serious women's sport while corralled in their little SILLY GIRLS' OPINIONS corner. I'm not saying they have to LIKE women's basketball, but dislike it on it's own merits, not superficially and cattily.

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

Sort of related to this, I was listening to a report on the radio about the White Ferns losing the women's world cricket cup final to England, and the reporter's questions boiled down to 1) Don't you think cricket's a man's sport? 2) Aren't you scared when people throw balls at you? and 3) But isn't it really a man's sport?

The team took it pretty well, basically laughing their asses off and telling him they were dumb questions, but it was so insulting - he didn't ask any actual sport questions. The men's cricket team haven't even *made* a world cup final for ages, and the women get this when they do - it's so pathetic.

[blairprovence.livejournal.com]

I know a LOT of guys who like sports - all kinds of sports, even GOLF and NASCAR, which I would rather poke my eye out than watch. But they won't watch women doing any of them. I think it's stupid and idiotic, but not nearly as stupid and idiotic as when other WOMEN feel the same way.

A few months ago the Tennesee women's bball program (which is legendary) was playing the OU Sooners and it was the featured ESPN program that night because the UT coach Pat Summit was going for her 1000th career win. So ESPN hauled out Bobby Knight (notorious crazy man) and Brent Musberger (notorious football guy) to do the commentating, because it was apparently too important an occasion for their usual (female) women's bball expert commentators to work. And they were pretty bad, comparatively, but at least they didn't wonder whether or not the players were scared of the ball.

Progress?

In other news, the Aggies just won their first round NCAA game! Yay!