Feminism and the NFL are not compatible

[ismnotwasm]

First of all, football is not complex, second of all while I agree with much of the article, there's something about teams-- a kind of tribalism I guess, that can bring out the best and worst in people.
Perhaps some of the inherent sexism in football could be eliminated given enough time-- I don't know.

A caveat: football is not complex to me. my father played a little semi-pro many moons ago, and I understand the game. My dad lost interest a long time ago. Became a boxing fan though.

There's more wrong with football than sexism, such as certain recruiting techniques and deliberate injuries handed out to a oh say a high school quarterback

No I'm not a fan, despite all the Seahawk fever around here.

The article presents an interesting and potentially difficult point of view.

This is a piece about football and feminism so before I proceed, let me offer an obvious but necessary caveat. I’m a dude. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to write about feminism. But it does mean that some readers can and will object to a piece by a guy about women who call themselves feminists and who also watch football.

So let me say for the record that I am not trying to mansplain the evils of football to feminists, or suggest how they should feel about something as complex as football. What I am trying to do is to understand why women, and feminists in particular, not only tolerate but in some instances consume (and therefore sponsor) a game as flagrantly misogynistic as football.

But before I get into all that, I want to talk about Hannah Storm, because she’s the one who got me thinking about all this. Last Sunday, Storm took a few minutes on Sportscenter to rebuke the NFL for its conduct around the Ray Rice scandal and violence against women more generally. The veteran broadcaster and ESPN anchor explained that she and her three daughters were all huge football fans. “One of my daughters has her first fantasy football team this season,” she noted. “But at breakfast this week, instead of discussing how her team was doing, we watched the Ray Rice video play out again, in all its ugliness.”

Storm added that she’d spent the week answering a series of “seemingly impossible questions” from her daughters about the league, then posed a few of her own, such as when the NFL would “take the lead on the issue of domestic violence,” and, more dramatically, “What exactly does the NFL stand for?”

The response to this soliloquy was a rousing chorus of Give ’em hell, Hannah! So maybe I’m the only person in America who came away with a few questions of my own — for Storm.

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/28/feminism_and_the_nfl_are_not_compatible/

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. Rec because I'm a Baseball Fan :D

[jakeXT]

2. The MMA is now looking for more money from female fans, but it sounds like a pipe dream to me

The female-friendly pitch comes as the testosterone-fueled sport tries to shed a reputation as a haven for misogynistic behavior. Three brutal domestic violence incidents this year involving male MMA fighters have reinforced the sport’s bad boy image and threaten to make any appeal to women a tough sell.

The courting of female fans and fighters follows the surprising rise of Ronda Rousey, a former Olympic judo medalist who has quickly become one of MMA’s brightest stars. She works under the banner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the biggest of the MMA circuits. Her success comes only three years after the UFC’s president said he would never hire a female fighter.

On Sept. 10, Fox Sports (FOX) kicked off a new season of the reality television series The Ultimate Fighter, which this year features a cast made up entirely of female fighters. The 16 women will be competing to win the championship of a new female-only division in the UFC.

Bellator MMA, a rival league owned by media giant Viacom (VIA), plans to reintroduce female contests in October after an 18-month hiatus. The executives in MMA are hoping women fighters will draw female fans inspired by seeing members of their own gender in the octagon, while also targeting male fans who will view the new crop of brawlers as both sexy and exciting to watch. “Easy on the eyes and hard on the face,” is how Fox is promoting the reality show, which premiered on Sept. 10.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-11/ufc-courts-more-female-fans-after-domestic-violence-incidents

[ismnotwasm]

3. Wow

I agree, it would take a lot to entice women into the MMA. I think the "targeting male fans who will view the new crop of brawlers as others sexy and exciting to watch" just reinforces inherent sexism, if not the outright misogyny not to mention typical heteronormative crap.

Of course, outside of fandom the standard role of women has been one of the groupie.

The MMA always reminds me of Fight Club with talent.

[Shivering Jemmy]

4. Maybe. Tactics still interest me.

Will continue watching.