For those of you with a penis, you may not know that ESPN added another member to their family. And all joking aside, we’re getting closer to the possibility of an ESPN 8, but the new ESPN is numberless - a simple letter: W.
ESPN has launched ESPNW; the W stands for Women. According to the website, the new ESPNW is a “destination for women who are passionate sports fans and athletes. We hope you find it surprising, informative and inspiring, because we created it just for you. We welcome your thoughts”.
Lets all give a collective awww. How cute of ESPN to have a website dedicated strictly to women. So now I ask, where’s the website dedicated strictly to men?
Oh wait, isn’t that ESPN?
Why do women need their own website, and possibly at some point their own channel? I totally get it from a marketing standpoint. Why not tap into the female market, after all, we are over half the population, but as it stands right now, over 75% of ESPN eyeballs are men.
The ESPN programming with the highest rated female audiences are the National Spelling Bee with 63% and surprise, surprise, cheerleading competitions with 52%; and frankly I’m a little disturbed it’s that low.
Most female sports fans I know sound something like this, ‘Oh yeah, I’m a huge (insert team) fan’. Then you ask them to name a player on the team, (insert star of team). Then you ask them to
name two other players, and it goes something like this, ‘Oh, ummm, that big guy, with the tattoo, or umm that hot blonde with the nice ass’.
You see these faux fans at sports bars and they look all cute with their jersey on, yet if you look closer they really aren’t watching the game, playing on their phone, and remember to 'cheer' when everyone else does.
If this is the audience ESPN is looking to harness, then count me out. As a woman, I could care less that 85% of the writers and personalities on ESPN are men -- in all honesty, they kind of lend some credibility. No offense to my sex, but we aren't coaching the games we're watching, so why should we be on these shows voicing opinions?
We as women have our place in sports. We (and I say we, I mean the non-women’s lib ones) know that boys are bigger and stronger than us, and that they're better at sports then we are. Yes I know that women play the game 'technically' better, but that doesn’t mean it's fun to watch.
Does the UConn women’s basketball team make me want to tune in, sure they do; and the only reason is because they’re good, and people like things that are good and dominate. Women sports for the most part aren’t very good and aren’t very dominating.
Call this blasphemy but stop discriminating against us ESPN. We don’t need our own website and channel, we’re fine with what you have to offer, now. Leave us women alone.
