Let’s talk about how people interact with each other on the internet. Today’s episode is aptly titled, “Don’t be a dick.”  If you’re a woman and you have spent any time participating in sports or fitness, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about… “you look like a man, football isn’t a woman’s sport,” or for us, in the world of broadcasting, we aren’t allowed to have opinions on sporting events even though we’ve played and watched sports our entire fucking lives.

Or anything, for that matter, not just sports. If you’ve read any comment section on social media, you’ve seen that this is the case. From both men and women.

SARAH FULLER

1. Recently Sarah Fuller was the first woman to play in a Power 5 football game as kicker for Vanderbilt. She has inspired women and girls around the world, but also made a whole lot of dudes on the internet mad. Why?

It really bums me out because the supportive comments are always overshadowed by the shitty ones. 

2. With comments like “Gang bang in the locker room! LMAO!” why would any woman anywhere ever want to do anything? Who wants to hear shit like that about themselves from strangers on the internet?

Or the overly tired “is she going into the kitchen to cook” bs. It makes me wonder how many of these people have ever actually been inside of a locker room. What exactly do you think goes on in them? This isn’t 40, 30 or even 20 years ago. 

3. “What’s the big deal? The kick sucked,” tweeted a man from his couch.

If you truly understand the game of football, you know that that was a designed kick. It’s called a squib kick, people. It’s to hopefully regain possession of the ball, and in that game, that was the right choice because Vanderbilt were getting their asses handed to them. So, that comment, coming from a “coach” makes me wonder what game he coaches, exactly.

SPORTS BROADCASTERS

1. Can we leave Erin Andrews alone please? How much more harassment is that poor woman going to have to experience in her career? Nobody has made a creepy hotel room peephole nude video of any male ESPN personalities… what the fuck.

And if you listen to her story, that incident caused PTSD. The idea that women have to be so cautious in every single thing that they do, and we’re all telling everyone about this now should be cause for alarm for any human that has not experienced it. 

We have to be careful where we park our cars, what trails and areas we run in, and always ON when we leave our houses. It should not be like this, and I strongly encourage anyone who has not actually sat down and thought about these circumstances to do so. Take a long hard look at yourself, and anyone you know who may have made a woman uncomfortable.

Women in media especially are constantly commented on their looks, what they’re wearing, how their voice sounds. You rarely ever see this happen to their male counterparts.

On the other podcast I host, mind your own with my cohost Erin Sorensen, she brought up a story about a news anchor who made it a point to wear the exact same outfit every single day for, I believe it was a month, to test this theory. Not one person said anything. Not one.

2. Remember when Jessica Mendoza started doing play-by-play for baseball games? Holy shit Twitter lost their fucking minds. 

The insane part of Mendoza’s story to me is that she is an accomplished athlete. For the love, she is a 4 time First Team All-American, two-time medal winning olympian, and a retired pro all-star outfielder. What more do you want from someone when it comes to experience? Like, what do you think she DOESN’T know? So that brings us to the root of the issue, right? What is menacing to, mainly, men about a women doing something awesome in male dominated industry. We should embrace these times, it’s a great thing for young girls and women to see. To know, hey, I can do that, too.

3. If you go after Doris Burke on Twitter, I will fight you. She’s a goddamn American treasure and a huge influence for myself and many other women in broadcasting and sports broadcasting.

Not to mention, she’s damn good at her job!

DON’T BE AN INTERNET BULLY LIKE THESE GUYS:

1. POF screenshot “hey bro wrong gender in the search, figure I’d let ya know.”

I don’t understand why any comment like this is even necessary. 

2. “Instagram sluts, they post half naked pictures for a fucking like… they believe they are models, but in reality they are no one, who the fuck will wanna start a family with those cunts? Yes maybe a fat grandpa. No goals no morals.”

Comments like this come off as mansplaining to me. Like, what is the goal of a comment like this other than to preach to people what your beliefs are OR, bigger picture, telling people, women specifically in this case, what they are and are not allowed to do with their bodies. A trigger if you will, because this person obviously had an attraction, and he is incapable of controlling himself. That’s what people say in those instances, I feel like.

3. “Just an opinion, not negative, simple question. Why look like a boy when you’re a woman?”

Just fucking be nice to each other. It’s free and it will make your day a whole lot less shitty. Don’t believe me? Give a stranger a compliment today and see what happens.
If something is honestly making you uncomfortable, try taking a deeper look at yourself. I get that keyboard warriors are inevitable, and I don’t know why or how we extinguish that, other than social media reform, which is an entirely different conversation. 
To that end, and back to taking a deeper look at yourself, ask yourself why you’re having a reaction to whatever you’re looking at. Actually sit with that. Why do you feel compelled to say anything at all? And how would you feel if the roles were reversed and someone was saying the same things to you. If it would make your skin crawl, make you uncomfortable, make you angry or make you feel anything other than positivity, keep it to your damn self.