Seven Podcast Interviews that Reinforced the Importance of Inclusion in Sports Fandom

It started with an idea and a social media post. In March for International Women’s Month, I decided that it would be timely to record a podcast episode discussing the fan experience for women. I started by messaging a friend who is a sports fan, but she wasn’t interested.

I then decided to take to Threads, where I asked if there were any women that wanted to have a conversation about their fan experience. As I hit send, I was hoping for one person to respond. Instead, there were 30 women and non-binary people that responded, expressing interest in discussing the subject.

The result of these interactions? Seven interviews where women’s fandom, institutional boundaries, and sexism were discussed at length. These conversations offered me a glimpse into a perspective that is often defined by harassment and gaslighting courtesy of “reply guys”. The lessons I learned were eye-opening, infuriating, and worthy of everyone’s attention.

A Lack of Acceptance

The most disappointing aspect of these interviews was how the stories of treatment by male sports fans mirrored one another. Everyone I spoke to told me stories of being degraded, gaslit, and talked down to by male sports fans.

From my vantage point, the fact that this was a widespread reality as opposed to a rare occurrence was jarring. Most of my guests told me that men have pushed back on their basketball fandom and suggested leaving male sports to men. This has resulted in a focus on the WNBA and Unrivaled for some as a protective measure to avoid harassment.

Others have taken it as an opportunity to shield themselves in a sort of armor, an expectation that men will harass them for simply liking a sport. To counteract this, the solution was to formulate communities that are more accepting of people of all backgrounds. These communities have manifested in the way of group chats and social media circles.

Often, these communities are incredibly diverse with people connected by sports from all sorts of backgrounds. While the notion of sports as a great unifier of people is an encouraging thing to see in such turbulent modern times, the necessity for it to be created feels like a sign that our gatekeeping of sports fandom is out of control.

Far too often, it feels that many men make being a sports fan a sort of testable moment for women. There are quizzes to name players, to define what terminology means, in the most dismissive manner possible. It is behavior that we would never see applied to another man. One of my guests theorized that this is due to a perceived invasion of space, as archaic as that sounds.

The idea of the “man cave” originated in the 1990s in the book “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus”, where a man needs a retreat from his wife, a place where his “masculine aesthetic” can flourish. The concept is incredibly antiquated by the standards of most modern relationships, where gender norms and interests are not so linear. But the thinking has survived and made watching sports a decidedly male thing in the eyes of many men.

To these men, sports remain their haven, a place where only they are allowed. As someone who often values the importance of multiple opinions in any forum, this thought process has always vexed me—why wouldn’t you want a shared interest with people?

In my conversations, I learned that the way this animosity is delivered often varies. Sexist comments, belittling of intelligence, and the assumption of ulterior motives are all common fare. Perhaps the one that felt the most discouraging was the collective agreement over the overt sexualization of both women athletes and fans.

The Sexualization Element

The sexual focus on female athletes has been something that has been widespread for many years. In the past, this has often manifested itself in derogatory comments about an athlete's lack of femininity. Most notably with Serena Williams, where the tennis legend was accused of being born a man because of her physique. That talking point demeaned the collective athletic ability of women while also insulting Williams in the process.

Today, this sort of commentary still exists, predominantly in the WNBA. But the added layer has been that the pendulum has shifted the other way where more traditional feminine presenting women have entered the space and are being viewed in a strictly sexual aspect. This was addressed by WNBA players Angel Reese and DiJonai Carrington on Reese’s podcast, where the duo said that the public can’t decide if it wants woman athletes to be traditionally attractive or more physically imposing.

Recently, we saw this sexualization in action when the LA Sparks were looking for male practice players. Their post on Instagram was filled with misogynistic comments, with men saying that they would attend the tryouts so that Cameron Brink, Kelsey Plum, and Rickea Jackson could back them down in the post. The comments were so nasty that Brink said that she was “really icked out”. It was once again a moment where male sports fans refused to take woman athletes seriously.

This applies to fandom as well, particularly when it comes to attending live events. There is a tendency, that was confirmed by my podcast guests, that many men assume that a woman is attending a live game for any reason other than simply watching a game. The example that comes to mind immediately is when a woman goes to a baseball game. Because baseball is both an outdoor and summer sport, there is an assumption by many men that women who attend games and are fans of the sport do it only for social media purposes to dress a certain way and garner likes.

This presumption has been proven to be incorrect, and yet it continues to be a talking point for many men as a low-hanging fruit to disparage women who like sports (NYU had a great study about this, take a look at it here). Resorting to this talking point is yet another instance of devaluing the ability for women to comprehend a game, once again pushing the false idea that there is an intelligence disparity between genders.

Before having these conversations, I foolishly thought that these occurrences were an outlier. A small fringe of the online community, hell bent on making women miserable. Instead, I have realized that these moments are so common that they are the accepted norm for women, and it has made me change the way that I view commentary online.

It is especially gross to think about when you consider that when everything is stripped away, we are just human beings trying to find enjoyment in something that helps us escape the realities of a world that is more disastrous by the day.

The Roots of Fandom

There was one common question that I asked all my guests: “how did you form an interest in sports”. It’s a simple question but one that I think many men online would guess incorrectly. Because of the popular culture enforcement of traditional gender norms and stereotypes, many men still view sports as a male domain, not a place for the “delicate” woman. By this logic, any woman that is interested in sports is violating the premise.

And by violating the premise, the logic reinforces that women are interested in sports for reasons of vanity. It could be seeing athletic men in tight pants, or the aesthetics of a uniform or logo. These are all valid reasons to start watching, for the record, but it is not exclusive to women because women are not a monolith. The reality that I came across was that the love of sports is often inherited and acquired in ways that cross definitions of gender and sexuality.

Almost all of my guests shared beautiful stories with me about gravitating to sports and teams through bonding experiences with their parents, siblings, or friends. They were exposed to incredible feats of athletics and finding what they saw fascinating, an experience we can all relate to. That story does not have an asterisk attached to it defining this as a male-only experience, rather it is universal.

My biggest takeaway from these conversations led me to a conclusion of a positive and a negative reality. On one hand, I was reminded just how much gatekeeping has occurred in fandom, and just how fiercely protective some men are over that parcel of imaginary land. But on the other hand, it showed me the true collective nature that sports can foster.

The exposure to so many passionate fans from so many backgrounds showed me the beauty of sports. It is the great unifier and brings us together in a way not much else can. At a time when there is so much division in the world, it presents an opportunity for fostering community. I love that about sports, and I am so glad that the amazing people that I was able to talk sports with reminded me of that.