You Throw Like a Girl

Ever since I was dragged to my brother’s first recreational soccer game at the ever-so significant age of five, I was thrust into the world of sports. Also since I’ve been alive, I’ve been a girl. Sports and girls mix a lot like water and oil, in that they don’t. But from the age of five to now twenty sports have played a prevalent role in shaping the person I am. It was not an option to settle for not mixing.

In my generation alone there have been some beyond amazing female athletes. Mia Hamm, Abby Wambach, Lisa Leslie the list goes on. But, I’m five one and incredibly clumsy, I don’t think there was ever a time my aspirations were to be the next Wheaties spokeswoman, although I do make a mean power forward if I do say so myself.

Photo Compliments of ESPN

So Nike model and Gatorade sponsor aside, I turned to the other side of sports, reporting. Again the list of amazing names before me was countless, Michelle Beadle, Erin Andrews, Linda Cohn. But did I really aspire to be another female sports journalist? To be on this list of what I see as impressive ladies? Maybe when I was younger, but in today’s world, not completely.

Being a woman in the world of sports journalism is pretty much the equivalent to walking around with a hot pink and sparkly chip on your shoulder. The reporters I mentioned above embrace that chip. Wear it probably, and find some amazing outfits to match. But it’s still there. For as long as Erin Andrews dates Aaron Rodgers and other male athletes, the chip is there. For as long as Michelle Beadle feuds with said Andrews, the chip is there. For as long as you type in “Female Sports Journalist” into Google and the only hits that come up are “10 Sexiest Female Sports Journalists” that chip is gleaming. Go ahead try it, just stay away from the images button.

At the last ESPYs there was a noticeably uncomfortable situation, which included Beadle and Andrews, where profanity was screamed and negative remarks about sexual history were dropped. Not OK, on either end. That just set women in sports journalism so far back, which is an utter shame. These women are both so proficient in their field. And yet when Andrews becomes intimately involved with the subjects she’s reporting on, lines are crossed. When Beadle feuds with one of the few other females in her field, lines are crossed. Women shouldn’t be competing against one another to be the best, only pressures them into fitting the catty stereotype so perfectly.

Many sideline reporters, anchors, cohosts, everything really have at least one female taking the role. And that number is

Photo Compliments of ESPN

exponentially expanding. Which is amazing. But what I have also found to be true is the number of female reporters trying to be the best female is also increasing. Why?

And I say “why” not in a way as to not strive for the best, because everyone should. But “why” as in a way to settle. As a female interested in sports reporting myself I notice the chip, I notice it every time someone looks at me like “Why the hell are you here” or asks the man three over from me a question because the girl sitting right next to him would never know. But instead of accepting the chip and living with it, I just gnaw at it. Day in and day out I try my best to make it disappear and go unnoticed. If I’m going to strive in my field it’s because I’m trying to be the best. Not the best woman at what I do, just the best.

I will never use my looks or chest to advance myself in my field nor do I believe anyone of any sex should do so. I will not become intimately involved with those I report on and will never pick fights with my peers about their personal lives. Like I said earlier Michelle Beadle and Erin Andrews are two amazing reporters, not female reporters just reporters. The two of them have moved mountains for women in journalism and for that I am so incredibly thankful. In fact Michelle Beadle is who I one day aspire to replicate. But maybe if I ever get there, and that’s a big maybe, it’s because I wanted to get there as an avid lover of sports, not to be the best babe on ESPN.