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The argument has become far too simplistic because we have become the same. It’s all black and white, and that is so boring. Not that it isn’t true.
So many wretched individuals, men and women both, hate that Caitlin is the star of the WNBA… a league that struggled and lost millions from the outset. She filled the stands, brought ratings, and she gets record shoe deals. You’d think the eventual trickle-down effect would make the women thankful.
Nope, of course not. That makes too much sense.
Let’s go to the simplistic arguments first.
Women can be petty, indignant, jealous, and flat-out hateful. There is a reason there are always good ol' boys' clubs and not good ol girls' clubs. Men are able to get it all out of them and have a beer afterward. You hear stories of men in locker rooms fighting constantly, yet they will team up to win on the court. John Wayne, the biggest pro-patriot, right-wing Republican, could be in the same room with flat-out socialists without bloodshed. Contrast that with the legend of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford that will last till the end of time.
Then there's the ultimate elephant in the room. (One I hate to bring up.) She’s white and straight.
This became an insult because the WNBA is full of lesbians and 70-80 percent black. They cannot stand that, after all those years of struggling to gain any traction and being carried by the NBA, it took the straight, white, Iowa girl to get the job done by simply focusing on her game and getting better.
However, there are two words that are important in this equation.
"Iowa" and "girl."
There is nothing the media,—and a lot of players—hate more than those two words. Being honest, I don’t like the simplistic approach of “she’s white, we hate her.” We already know that happens based on the wretched things the creatures like Jemele Hill keep saying. Monica McNutt is allowed to ask fans to root for “dark and queer” without losing her job because producers are fearful of rage mobs. In 2024, we shouldn’t have any of this, but we do, and it is bound to get worse.
But let’s be honest. Paige Bueckers is white and straight and not going to take this level of abuse. Cameron Brink isn’t taking this level of abuse this year. They both pandered and bowed down properly. They said the necessary things to give them great press. Cameron Brink got best rookie of the class the minute she pandered in a USA Today article. Those two are safe.
They are also coastal. Bueckers plays at UConn; Brink played at Stanford and is from New Jersey.
Clark is from Iowa and played at Iowa. Everything in her blood is Iowa. The media hates her for that. And for the same reason they hate Trump. Just the same as Trump bringing a voting bloc back that they desperately wanted gone, they hate Caitlin for filling stadiums with the same.
And hate her for what? She says nothing offensive. She talks nothing but basketball.
But between her background, and filling the stadiums with “the wrong kind,” CC is public enemy number one. That is too bad also. If they blow it with Caitlin, the WNBA is finished.
And it will be all their fault.
Discussion (38)
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What's the WNBA?
Great point
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It's something Caitlin Clark carries.
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No sexism, though. I ignore the NBA with equal fervor.
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I haven't watched any pro sports for quite a while, but hearing about Clark and the stuff thrown her way reminds me of basketball in the 1970s. It became a black sport then, not just because of the race of the players but also in the different racial attitudes about the game. That was something I noticed about the attitudes toward the local college team. After a game, the black guys first question was, "How many dunks did Lee get?" The first question from the white guys was, "Did they win?"
Fast forward to the documentary A Courtship of Rivals about the stories of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, how they got to the NBA and how their rivalry made the game popular again. At one point when the subject was whether the game was "too black", how the finals were shown on tape delayed broadcasts, Michael Cooper said something like, "It wasn't about winning for us. We wanted to make the flashy play, get the big dunk . . ." No wonder the game sucked the mop and the fans found other diversions; they wanted winners. In Bird and Magic, they found them. A lot of black players resented the attention Bird got, assuming it was only because he is white. To me that was BS because Magic and MJ got as much attention as Bird did.
As I said, I don't know anything about the WNBA except that if the articles are accurate, it's losing money, and the players are mostly black lesbians. Is there any parallel with the Bird/Magic storyline?
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