Just Because I Have a Vagina Does Not Mean I Need a Women's Guide to Sports

Kudos on the essay, Sarah. I host a blog on baseball books and have received several titles along these lines wonder who the audience is. I would imagine most women, fans or not, would be insulted by the dumbing down of the sport so that "even girls can understand it." And don't even get me started on Alyssa Milano's attempt at writing.

Thanks for this. I'm a fan of lots of sports from football to figure skating, so I hate the 'women are clueless about sports' myth. That advice you quoted sounds like it's straight out of a Cosmo article on how to pretend to like sports to impress a guy.

~Jezebel

The Evil Slut Clique

EvilSlutopia ( http://evilslutopia.com )

Yeah, you know, I wasn't sure how to feel when I first saw Danica's GoDaddy commercials (you know, the one where she's seductively unzipping her racing jacket) - is she selling out? Showing that hardcore female athletes can still be sexy? Playing to all the stereotypes? Or just doing what all the guys do and leveraging her star power (in sports) to get sponsors and rake it in while she can?
I figured - as long as she is still on the leaderboard (no Anna Kournikova's, puhleez) and burnin' rubber, who's to judge?!? That's all that matters.

We can be ladies and still like anything. Look at Danica Patrick.

Well, okay, don't look at Danica Patrick... but you know what I mean.

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sarah can also be found at Sarah and the Goon Squad ( http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/ ), Draft Day Suit ( http://draftdaysuit.com/ ) and MamaPop ( http://mamapop.com ).

My state can beat up your state.

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sarah can also be found at Sarah and the Goon Squad ( http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/ ), Draft Day Suit ( http://draftdaysuit.com/ ) and MamaPop ( http://mamapop.com ).

I love sports, always have, and I've encountered the same treatment/prejudices you refer to when I started farming. Guys laugh if they hear I want to drive the tractor. They look flummoxed when I say I don't need help carrying a hay bale to my truck. And they downright can't look me in the eye when I start discussing animal husbandry. Well, I just shift that tractor into gear, sling that hay bale over my shoulder, and talk about pig semen 'til they start looking past the long hair and breasts (or they just walk away eating my tractor dust).
My favorite part is when those same guys are even more baffled when they see you out later in a dress and lipstick. Just because I like farming (and sports) doesn't mean I can't enjoy those things, too. Women are multi-faceted, powerful beings.
Good on ya for the dead-on article.

I just can't imagine who these books are appealing to. If you are interested in sports, you'll already know this stuff. If you're not interested and you are reading this dreck or in need of something like it, then you are a phony-baloney who is trying to impress a man with your sports knowledge?! To me, the whole premise of this pitch is pretty offensive.

Amy @theBitchinWife http://bitchinwivesclub.com

You know, just because you have a vagina doesn't mean you have a stadium.

It's so great we can help you out and let you visit, thoooooough hon. ;)

Laurie
LaurieWrites ( http://lauriewrites.typepad.com )
Photos on Flickr ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubyshoes )

Stop making fun of my state, you are just jealous because I can buy beer in the grocery store.

And yeah, let's take Suebob to Camden Yards! BlogHer field trip!

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sarah can also be found at Sarah and the Goon Squad ( http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/ ), Draft Day Suit ( http://draftdaysuit.com/ ) and MamaPop ( http://mamapop.com ).

I agree with most everything you said EXCEPT flip flops at a game. Public restrooms and flip flops-that is just nasty. I hate the marketing to women about sports that assumes that we are stupid and never watch games. I can recite just as many college football statistics as my husband.

Someone had the foresight to write a book telling me how to dress for outdoor sporting events.

Yeah I live in Florida, but I guess wearing my winter jacket in the middle of August is a bad idea. oops

So we can take her to a city that has better stadiums and teams than that team and/or place in Virginia. What team is that? What stadium is that?

IS there one? I mean, not a college one? (Sorry NCAA, you know I love you, until you mess up March Madness and then I'll be even more of a hockey freak.)

What was that Virginia stadium again?

Haha. ;)

Suebob needs to come to Charm City. The end. It sounds like a Choose Your Own Adventure book.

Laurie
LaurieWrites ( http://lauriewrites.typepad.com )
Photos on Flickr ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubyshoes )

Both of our sons play travel soccer, so yeah, they've got skillz. I cannot tell you how many times people have gone up to my husband and said, "Your son plays great, good thing you got him to play soccer." And my husband always says, "You need to turn around and tell that to my wife, she's the one who gets all the credit because she played and got our son interested in the sport."

And yeah, off sides in futbol takes a while to learn, but take heart. So many refs miss the call anyway so it really doesn't matter if anyone else can figure it out. The ref's can't and they're on the field! ; )

This rant was long time coming Sarah, thank you for the Vagina Monologue: Sports Edition!

Devra Renner

@ParentopiaDevra on Twitter

Contributing Editor, Family Connections

I also write at: Parentopia ( http://www.parentopia.com/blog ), Draft Day Suit ( http://www.draftdaysuit.com ),

Lucinda,

Exactly. Even people (female or male) that don't know anything about sporting events can dress themselves without a book.

We aren't stupid.

It is insulting.

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sarah can also be found at Sarah and the Goon Squad ( http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/ ), Draft Day Suit ( http://draftdaysuit.com/ ) and MamaPop ( http://mamapop.com ).

Camden Yards is an amazing place to watch a baseball game.

Even if it is in Maryland.

Actually, my favorite football stadium is in Baltimore too. I love M&T. It is fun every time.

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sarah can also be found at Sarah and the Goon Squad ( http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/ ), Draft Day Suit ( http://draftdaysuit.com/ ) and MamaPop ( http://mamapop.com ).

I don't follow sports. Don't really like them. Yet even I find that pitch insulting because even as a seriously *non-fan* woman, I know the stuff they were pitching. I have been able to dress myself for a very long time now, can figure out on my own when I need to use the bathroom, and know most commonly heard terms because they are *gasp* common. Ugh. Vagina does not equal stupid.

Thanks!

I have plenty more rants where this came from. :)

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sarah can also be found at Sarah and the Goon Squad ( http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/ ), Draft Day Suit ( http://draftdaysuit.com/ ) and MamaPop ( http://mamapop.com ).

I am so tired of lame media that translates as "What he thinks she thinks because of a ladybits distortion field." As if.

I would like to see you reading this in a video on YouTube Sarah. So smart. So smart-ass. Which the best sports programming always is! Especially this graph: These pitches (and yeah, they are pitches, just like in baseball) from the PR people, who think my readers need me to tell them to read this book so that they can figure out when the line will be shortest for the bathroom, don't understand that my readers aren't stupid. Sure, you might not all be able to explain the wild cat offense, but if I tried to pander and tell you not to wear a leather jacket to a baseball game in Florida in August*, you would probably Google my address, come to my house, and beat the crap out of me with the hockey stick that you own because GIRLS LIKE SPORTS TOO!

More sports Sarah-style please. Makes my ovaries perk right up. :)

Lisa Stone, BlogHer Co-founder ( http://www.blogher.com/member/lisa-stone )

BlogHer is non-partisan but our bloggers aren't! Follow our coverage of Politics & News ( http://www.blogher.com/topic/politics-news ).

The concessions at Nats Stadium got more press than the team for a long time. The Post and Washingtonian did features -- and those are just the ones I remember.

And if you promise to come back and visit the real state around these parts, Camden Yards is totally worth a trip for the park as well as the food and beverage options. ;)

Offsides makes no sense, so Deb's is the only possible explanation.

Laurie
LaurieWrites ( http://lauriewrites.typepad.com )
Photos on Flickr ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubyshoes )

Suebob,

If you find a book on that one, please let me know.

I laugh every. single. time.

Pujols.

Heh.

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sarah can also be found at Sarah and the Goon Squad ( http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/ ), Draft Day Suit ( http://draftdaysuit.com/ ) and MamaPop ( http://mamapop.com ).

"I just think if you try to "explain" sports, it should take on more of a viewpoint of "this is why sports are fun" instead of "you should learn sports to impress your man". "

Exactly!

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sarah can also be found at Sarah and the Goon Squad ( http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/ ), Draft Day Suit ( http://draftdaysuit.com/ ) and MamaPop ( http://mamapop.com ).

And why are publishers that turn down good stories putting their money behind this kind of pandering?

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sarah can also be found at Sarah and the Goon Squad ( http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/ ), Draft Day Suit ( http://draftdaysuit.com/ ) and MamaPop ( http://mamapop.com ).

A map of where each kind of food stand is at baseball parks.

Someone to explain the offsides rule to me in futbol, but I actually like Deb Rox's rule - if it is against your team, the ref is a moron. If it is against the other team, it is obviously correct.

How to keep from saying "Pujols" without laughing rudely.

And where to get tickets cheapest. That would be cool.

I love how they want you to know about sports to impress men. In my experience, nothing makes a guy feel better than to be able to explain the fine points to a woman. Makes them feel all manly and shit.

You don't need these books because you already rock. And I don't need these books because I can enjoy the game without knowing every small fact (er...and I know how to pull on a pair of shorts). So who is buying them?

Melissa writes Stirrup Queens ( http://stirrup-queens.com ) and Lost and Found ( http://lostandfoundandconnectionsabound.blogspot.c... ). Her book is Navigating the Land of If ( http://thelandofif.blogspot.com/ ).

I can't say how annoying it is to see the **shocked** look on people's faces when I express an opinion on sports. There are so many women out there that are legitimate fans that it still shouldn't shock people this much.

But on the other side of it, there are a lot of women who want to learn about sports but were never taught. I recently went to a "Football 101 Class for Women" (don't need it, but sounded fun) and I was amazed at how many women (mostly in their senior years) that showed up.

Because while there are woman sports fans out there, there are just as many who just don't know yet how much fun watching sports really is. Hence the need for books along those lines.

I just think if you try to "explain" sports, it should take on more of a viewpoint of "this is why sports are fun" instead of "you should learn sports to impress your man".

Poor marketing and lack of research on the PR firms part to approach you with a book like that.

Great article.

Blythe Brumleve

http://www.GuysGirl.com

My mother-in-law didn't buy a Mercedes SUV from a guy because he insisted on calling her husband to make sure it was okay with him if she bought a car.

She could afford it all by herself.

Some other guy (at a different Mercedes dealership) got the sale and a far commission check.

Why do people act like women are stupid or like we can't make decisions ourselves?

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Sarah can also be found at Sarah and the Goon Squad ( http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/ ), Draft Day Suit ( http://draftdaysuit.com/ ) and MamaPop ( http://mamapop.com ).

I love your post Sarah! It is much like the time my husband and I went to buy a new truck with a 5 speed and the salesman asked me if I could drive a stick. I looked at him and said yes and a 3 on the column can you? Funny, he couldn't drive a stick at all. I told him, he lost the sale, we would come back on a day he wasn't there and perhaps find a salesman who wasn't so ignorant! ARGH! Having a vagina, doesn't make one an idiot!