As college football came back into our lives blessing us with the rivalries, quality athleticism, the thrill of upsets, and basically just an overall feeling of awesomeness it has come to my attention how little respect female sports fans get.
Sports have always been a part of my life. One of my first sports memories is my dad watching old Olympic and world champion Greco-roman wrestling VHS tapes and me falling asleep to the sound of people getting thrown for 5. I played just about every sport growing up and watched all of my siblings as they played all of their sports. Sports remain consistent, math got harder (they threw the alphabet in there) as I got older, English introduced sentence structure, all the different variations of there (their, they're), and history was constantly changing, plus science went from the trifold project in elementary school to molecular structure in chemistry. But football stayed the same, a Touchdown has always been 6 points, an extra kick was 1 point, and you could run it in for 2. Hockey has remained on ice, with the winner being whoever got more pucks into the back of the net. Baseball and softball stayed on the diamond, you get the picture. But as I've gotten older I've noticed that my opinions about sports are often dismissed because I'm a girl. As if my gender has any correlation with my ability to watch, understand, and discuss sports.
My opinion as a sports fan should have nothing to do with my gender. I find myself constantly having to prove myself as a "true fan", and defending that I genuinely like the sport. I had someone tell me one time that I only watch UFC to impress boys. If a guy says he is a Seattle Seahawks fan that's accepted with little to no opposition, maybe a bandwagon comment or two, but no real inquisition. If I say I'm a Seattle Seahawks fan (LOB baby! Plus the Dolphins never make the playoffs so I need a team to root for in post season) that's met with questions like "Oh yeah what's the blood type of their coach from 2002?" And "who's the 12th man?" (ME, IM THE 12TH MAN THE WHOLE FAN BASE IS). It's like my statement needs to be backed up with statistical proof that I actually know what I'm talking about.
There is also a constant undermining of my statements. I once said I didn't like Conor McGregor because he refused to fight wrestlers for awhile, and that was met with people telling me I've never participated in any MMA style training so I couldn't comment (jokes on them, I've wrestled, taken BJJ and Muy Thai classes). Also because I didn't play football at any point in my life (looking at you bitterly mom), my statements about needing to change up an offensive strategy aren't valid, it is common sense if your passes are being intercepted, or going long, you need to change it up, Stevie Wonder could see that...
Women in sports are seen as sexualized objects, how Kerry Walsh-Jennings looks playing volleyball should not be nearly as important as her superhuman saves. But apparently, girls are shallow because we only watch football and baseball for the tight pants (added perk but definitely not the only reason).
Sports are a universal language, that's what makes the Olympics such an awe-inspiring event. There is no language barrier in sports, so why is there a gender barrier? Women should be praised for sharing interests with their male friends, and instead they are belittled and criticized for having an opinion or trying to participate in sports talks. Respect your fellow fans, encourage their witty statuses, tweets, and shared memes. In all reality, the only reason you should be belittling a sports fan is during rivalry week.