Incase you missed it, Sports Illustrated writer Andy Benoit recently tweeted that women's sports "weren't worth watching" when talking about the Women's World Cup. While he has since retracted his tweet and apologized, it brings up an interesting discussion on how men in sports media view female athletes.
I think it is downright hilarious that Andy Benoit, a man whose job it is to analyze sports -- and not play them -- thinks that he can have such an opinion on women’s sports that we would take seriously. I guess Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler agree with me on how hilarious it all is, since they did a piece on Late Night called “Really!?!” I think I can agree with a lot of what Seth and Amy said, while adding a bit more.
1. What about Serena Williams?
Seth and Amy suggested Andy say something to Serena Williams about how she is not worth watching. I agree. I dare him to try to tell Serena, who was in Forbes for being in the top 100 of celebrities for 13 years thus far, has won three US Open Series, a five time ITF Women’s Singles World champion, and much more, that she is not worth watching.
2. What about the US Women’s National Soccer team?
Seth and Amy mentioned how the US women’s national soccer team has yet again made it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup. The women’s US team has not only made it to every single world cup since theirs started in 1991, but has been in the top three every time. They also went on to win two of them so far. The men’s US national team, on the other hand hasn’t been in the top three of the world cup since theirs started in 1930.
3. What about Ronda Rousey?
You cannot tell me that this woman is not fascinating to watch. In her career with MMA she became the Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion after defeating Miesha Tate in just four minutes and 27 seconds. She was then the first woman to sign with the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and was the Bantamweight Champion. Ronda kept her title submitting Liz Carmouche in just four minutes and 49 seconds. She has yet to have been defeated and has yet to let a match last more than four minutes and 49 seconds. I triple dog dare Andy to tell her she isn’t worth watching.
Unfortunately that’s not good enough for Andy Benoit, women are still not worth watching. Despite being dominant in these aspects plus some, Andy sticks to his misogynistic ways and tweets his opinions while he is most likely sitting on his bum criticizing athletes he could never even come close to competing with. I’d like to see him play a tennis match against Serena, try to dribble through the US soccer team and try to score on the number one goalie in the world, and try to last more than 30 seconds in the ring with Ronda. So go ahead and make your tweets, Andy, while all of these athletes continue to be much better than you at what you criticize them for.
