Women’s basketball has exploded in the last few years, in large part because the NBA is finally seeing it as a money-maker on par with the men’s pro-League. Same with women’s soccer.
A lot of this has to do with sports, as a broad category of entertainment, still producing the kind of returns that legacy media - movies, tv serials, live music - struggle to replicate. A lot more has to do with women as an “untapped” demographic for the sports media industry. And then the pivot to Streaming means you get extra value from a continuous fresh series of live events with relatively low production costs (just like with reality TV).
I might argue that the trans-panic around women’s sports is a direct consequence of this huge new effort to commodify the franchise. Trans-rights runs up against the specter of performance enhancing drugs in athletics, giving both state officials and league owners an excuse to aggressively regulate and censor their athletes.
The concern-trolling over it was. Abuse continues to be rampant in professional (and amateur) athletics. Reporting tends to either fixate on the Bad Countries Cheating or explode into a “Last year’s players cheated! This won’t happen again!” moral panic after too many high profile athletes start succumbing to symptoms of chronic misuse.
Trans-athletes (and maliciously accused cis-athletes) get swept up in both. You’re either “cheating” by having the wrong set of chromosomes or you’re accused of cheating because you don’t look Trad enough.
I know that they found Lance Armstrong was cheating simply because everyone else in the Tour De France was too and they knew it wasn’t possible for him to have won fairly if they cheated and still lost. So they mass-reported him for dosing, testing him to “prove” he wasn’t, and found he was.
I hate people with no self-awareness. Like if you’re cheating too, don’t say shit.
I know that they found Lance Armstrong was cheating simply because everyone else in the Tour De France was too and they knew it wasn’t possible for him to have won fairly if they cheated and still lost.
I believe he was able to disguise some of his performance enhancement behind his chemotherapy, which is why he so drastically improved after coming back from testicular cancer.
I hate people with no self-awareness. Like if you’re cheating too, don’t say shit.
No point in staying silent if you still lose. Time to throw the front-runner under the bus and make way for the rest of the cheats.
I hate how professional sports and for-profit prisons are just the way we pretend we don’t enslave black men and make them compete in gladiatorial arenas for our amusement.
I’m not a huge South Park fan, but sometimes they get it so right. Have you seen the one where they make crack babies fight like a game and big money gets interested?
Cartman goes to the head of the NCAA in character as an old time plantation slavemaster and keeps getting confused that the NCAA boss doesn’t realize he’s a slaveowner too.
South Park is very hit or miss, but I mean that in the best way possible, yet also the worst.
When they hit, it’s a god damn homerun that smashes through the stratosphere and takes out a god damn military satellite
When they miss… well, I start telling my closest loved ones about my e621 search history, because that’s less embarrassing by comparison.
I’ve seen the restrictions they put College Athletes on, people here on visas have less fucking restrictions. Former convicted felons have more rights, even if they’re not living in a “Ban the box” state. It’s like they’re TRYING to break their spirits in addition to maximizing profit. I mean the latter sure, but the former too? Why? It’s no wonder crazy people believe the country is ruled by Reptilian Demiurges farming the planet for negative emotional energy, because I can’t think of much else they could do differently if they were.
I admit I’m not, but I imagine it’s rooted in misogyny like everything that involves women in this country because I am having a case of derealization and I now see the strings that are pulled to put on this nightmare puppet show. LET ME OUT OF THE MATRIX!
I feel like seemingly evil behavior is usually just conditioned behavior. Ignorance and misunderstanding are more common than active malice. People feel threatened by something that contradicts the world they were raised to think was normal and correct, so they push it away. In somebody’s eyes this makes them hateful and evil, but they’re really just scared. Very few people in this world are in any position to call the shots. Most of just do what we think we’re supposed to.
This is why I wish we lived in a world where God was real, then someone kind and wise would be running the show the way the show is supposed to be run. It could all be apart of the plan.
You’re not alone in that wish. We just can’t let the fact that there’s no plan and no Daddy protecting us make us feel overwhelmed and powerless. Sadly I think this attitude was a tragic factor in the recent US election, when so many people couldn’t get past none of the choices being good enough for them so they abstained in protest. Even if we’re sick of choosing the lesser evil, we still have to or the greater evil wins. Equally true in a lot of personal life choices.
Reminder: No one gave the slightest fuck about women’s sports until the masses realized transpeople weren’t just a “funny joke” in a 80’s sex comedy.
Women’s basketball has exploded in the last few years, in large part because the NBA is finally seeing it as a money-maker on par with the men’s pro-League. Same with women’s soccer.
A lot of this has to do with sports, as a broad category of entertainment, still producing the kind of returns that legacy media - movies, tv serials, live music - struggle to replicate. A lot more has to do with women as an “untapped” demographic for the sports media industry. And then the pivot to Streaming means you get extra value from a continuous fresh series of live events with relatively low production costs (just like with reality TV).
I might argue that the trans-panic around women’s sports is a direct consequence of this huge new effort to commodify the franchise. Trans-rights runs up against the specter of performance enhancing drugs in athletics, giving both state officials and league owners an excuse to aggressively regulate and censor their athletes.
Wait… “Performance enhancing drugs” was a sham?
The concern-trolling over it was. Abuse continues to be rampant in professional (and amateur) athletics. Reporting tends to either fixate on the Bad Countries Cheating or explode into a “Last year’s players cheated! This won’t happen again!” moral panic after too many high profile athletes start succumbing to symptoms of chronic misuse.
Trans-athletes (and maliciously accused cis-athletes) get swept up in both. You’re either “cheating” by having the wrong set of chromosomes or you’re accused of cheating because you don’t look Trad enough.
I know that they found Lance Armstrong was cheating simply because everyone else in the Tour De France was too and they knew it wasn’t possible for him to have won fairly if they cheated and still lost. So they mass-reported him for dosing, testing him to “prove” he wasn’t, and found he was.
I hate people with no self-awareness. Like if you’re cheating too, don’t say shit.
I believe he was able to disguise some of his performance enhancement behind his chemotherapy, which is why he so drastically improved after coming back from testicular cancer.
No point in staying silent if you still lose. Time to throw the front-runner under the bus and make way for the rest of the cheats.
I hate how professional sports and for-profit prisons are just the way we pretend we don’t enslave black men and make them compete in gladiatorial arenas for our amusement.
Wait we’re pretending? I thought it was blatantly obvious that’s what we’re doing and our society just decided to be OK with it.
I’m not a huge South Park fan, but sometimes they get it so right. Have you seen the one where they make crack babies fight like a game and big money gets interested?
Cartman goes to the head of the NCAA in character as an old time plantation slavemaster and keeps getting confused that the NCAA boss doesn’t realize he’s a slaveowner too.
Damn it’s painfully good.
South Park is very hit or miss, but I mean that in the best way possible, yet also the worst.
When they hit, it’s a god damn homerun that smashes through the stratosphere and takes out a god damn military satellite
When they miss… well, I start telling my closest loved ones about my e621 search history, because that’s less embarrassing by comparison.
I’ve seen the restrictions they put College Athletes on, people here on visas have less fucking restrictions. Former convicted felons have more rights, even if they’re not living in a “Ban the box” state. It’s like they’re TRYING to break their spirits in addition to maximizing profit. I mean the latter sure, but the former too? Why? It’s no wonder crazy people believe the country is ruled by Reptilian Demiurges farming the planet for negative emotional energy, because I can’t think of much else they could do differently if they were.
Found someone unfamiliar with the history of women’s sports (knowledge of memes doesn’t count).
I admit I’m not, but I imagine it’s rooted in misogyny like everything that involves women in this country because I am having a case of derealization and I now see the strings that are pulled to put on this nightmare puppet show. LET ME OUT OF THE MATRIX!
I feel like seemingly evil behavior is usually just conditioned behavior. Ignorance and misunderstanding are more common than active malice. People feel threatened by something that contradicts the world they were raised to think was normal and correct, so they push it away. In somebody’s eyes this makes them hateful and evil, but they’re really just scared. Very few people in this world are in any position to call the shots. Most of just do what we think we’re supposed to.
That tracks…
This is why I wish we lived in a world where God was real, then someone kind and wise would be running the show the way the show is supposed to be run. It could all be apart of the plan.
You’re not alone in that wish. We just can’t let the fact that there’s no plan and no Daddy protecting us make us feel overwhelmed and powerless. Sadly I think this attitude was a tragic factor in the recent US election, when so many people couldn’t get past none of the choices being good enough for them so they abstained in protest. Even if we’re sick of choosing the lesser evil, we still have to or the greater evil wins. Equally true in a lot of personal life choices.