opinions // 20

Women are sports fans too

» Men's Health article results in outrage

Mercedes Deutscher
Staff Writer

n October 6, Men’s Health
magazine published an

article online titled “The Secrets :

to Talking Sports with Any
Woman.” The article, an advice
column, spoke about how “she
sees the game differently than
you [men].” It continued on to
mention how “most women
don’ care about stats” but
instead only care about stories
happening within the players
lives.

It provoked public outrage
from men and women alike,
with Twitter users calling
the article misogynistic and
sexist. In response, Men’s
Health issued a public apology
and promptly deleted both
the article and their tweet
promoting it.

While the article may
no longer be accessible, its
message remains, along with an

fans. It’s common to portray a
male sports fan and his friends
going wild over touchdowns
while eating chicken wings or

: pizza, but rarely are women

: seen as similar sports fans, with
: maybe a few exceptions from

: How I Met Your Mother and The :
: Big Bang Theory. :

: avid fans of the BC Lions.

: We watch the games, discuss

: the plays, and talk about the

: stats. Whenever we attend a

: football game, there are just as
? many women in the stadium

: as there are men. And during

: the last game we attended,

: we overheard the women

: sitting next to us talking about
: incomplete throws. Most

: women don’t care about stats? I
: don’t think so.

: media portrayal of women’s

: relationship with sports

: insulting to female fans who
: pledge so much support to

: their favourite teams, it’s an
: insult to women who choose
: careers surrounding sports.
inaccurate view of female sports : Many women here at Douglas

: College are enrolled in sports

: science programs. Every

: country that has sent athletes

to the Olympics has sent female

Why is this?
My mother and I are

Not only is this article and

: senior editor who works
: for ESPN Magazine,

: was one of many

: professionals insulted

: bythe Men’s Health

: article. On Twitter,

: she criticized Men’s

: Health, saying: “hi @
: MensHealthMag, you
: don’t know me,
: butI run @
: ESPNMag’s
> annual

: analytics

: issue. [A]

: Iso, havea
: vagina!”

: athletes, with the United States
: sending more women than
: men during the 2012 Summer

Olympic Games. Let’s not

: forget the women who work

: behind the game, such as sports
: reporters, coaches, and general
: managers.

Megan Greenwell, a

 
    
     
      
 
 
 
 
 
  

To add insult to injury, the

: article was written by Teresa

: Sabga, a woman. I’m fairly sure
: that she, along with female

: sports professionals and fans

: alike, cares about the stats. So

why write an article putting
down women
in relation
to sports

herself is
a woman

when Sabga

theotherpress.ca

: who has sports involved in her
: everyday life?

It may be true that not

: all women care for sports, but

: many of us do. To Sabga and the
: world, females matter—both on
: and off of the sidelines.

 

The Olympics that no one wants

» Why world-class cities opt out of hosting

Elliot Chan
Opinions Editor
M opinions
@theotherpress.ca

A nd then there were two:
maty, Kazakhstan and

Beijing, People’s Republic of
China. How on Earth did this
happen? Is it because hosting
an Olympic event is sucha
drain on a country’s economy,
or is it because people just
don’t care about the Winter
Olympics?

When Oslo, Norway—the
frontrunner to host the 2022
Olympics—withdrew its bid
on October 1, many fans,
organizers, and athletes awoke
to a realization: the Winter
Olympics was just not worth
the trouble. For too long,
the International Olympic

 

popular girl at prom, but now
she might have a profile on
Plenty of Fish.

The problem is not
necessarily the Olympics’
attractiveness, but rather its
high standards. The IOC is
demanding, and that was
the greatest turn-off for the
Norwegians. After all, the
committee did send over a

: is prestige from hosting the

: two-week event. Just look at

: the result of the 2010 Winter

: Olympics here in Vancouver,

: and you'll see that the event

: elevated the city into the

: world-class standard. It put us
: centre stage and we astounded
: the world, in addition to

: proving many skeptics

: wrong. We can all agree that

: Vancouver’s infrastructure,

: traffic, and tourism economy
Committee (IOC) had been the : has takena step ina positive
: direction since.

: not many cities are capable of
: becoming world-class cities.

: Sochi, for example, struggled
: with the event to the very

: last moment, and tourism is

: not exactly flourishing there

: now. Recessions across many
: European countries also make
: the opportunity to host risky.

: 7,000-page handbook and

: requested alterations of traffic
: and airport customs just

: for the officials, in addition

: toa cocktail party with the

: Norwegian royal family. Such
: pompous demands say a

: lot about the organization’s

: culture. And it’s not too

: surprising to see that Norway
: wanted nothing to do with it.

With that being said, there

The global situation is that

The most likely event

: now is that the IOC will

: select Beijing as the host of

: the 2022 Olympics—it’s the

: most reasonable choice. The

: second possibility is that

: the committee will offer the

: opportunity to a country that

: has proven experience hosting
: recent large-scale events.

What the committee needs

: to establish is six to 10 world-
: class cities across the globe

: that can host the Olympics

: should a newcomer fail to

: meet the exceptionally high

: standards. The United States,
: the United Kingdom, Japan,

: Canada, South Korea, Italy,

: France, Russia, and whoever
: else the IOC deems suitable

: should be added to their little
: black book.

No doubt having a list of

: suitable candidates will reduce
: the status of the IOC, but is

: that such a bad thing? What’s

: the alternative? Waiting by

: the telephone, hoping that

: arich country will call? The

: IOC should know better: the

: Winter Olympics is not to

: be compared with the World

: Cup or the Summer Olympics.
: People just don’t need it as

: much.

words long.

Must haves:

* Strong writing skills

events

search of stories

Pay: $470/month

 

THE OTHER PRESS
IS HIRING

FEATURES EDITOR

Wanna flex your lexicon on longer form
pieces? Want to dedicate some time and effort
to producing more in-depth articles?

 

 

The Features Editor is responsible for three
articles for four pages worth of content in the
Features section. One article in each issue
should be 1,200 — 1,500 words long for the
cover story; the other two articles
(“featurettes”) should be roughly 800 — 900

* Experience writing and editing, with a history
in student journalism a plus

* Interest in student and community news and

* Experience with conducting interviews

* Ability to produce quality, long-form content
* Ability to work with contributors and staff on
producing the Feature/featurettes, or to go in

Interested? Apply by October 23, 2014 to
editor@theotherpress.ca