Female Sports Fan Fantasy

Are women ever really fans of professional sports?

JOHN:  When I'm not blogging, I'm a cameraman in film and television. Recently, I worked on a beer commercial. The brilliant original concept was: "Beautiful young people throwing the ultimate tailgate party." A bunch of men and women from various modeling agencies were dressed in the phony game jerseys of a fictional team posing as hyper-enthusiastic football fans. Throughout the shoot, several jokes were made by members of the crew about how these women were doing some serious acting because they'd clearly never seen a football in their lives. Quite frankly, I doubt if many of the male models had seen one either.  

The point is, when a man sees this commercial, he's supposed to be enticed by this "perfect" world where women (and in this case, really hot women) love football. This got me thinking about the running debate I have with Amy. Are women ever really fans of professional sports (e.g., baseball, football, men's basketball, hockey)? Or are they just trying to make themselves more attractive to men?

I feel like there must be thousands of women in America who are genuine sports fans. I see them at games and on TV. And even though I don't personally know any of them, I'm confident that plenty of women truly enjoy the excitement, drama, and team spirit involved with following pro sports -- just as much as men do.

Certainly, many young girls begin to follow sports just to feel more connected to their sports-crazed fathers or brothers. But don't some of these women end up becoming "real" fans in the process? It seems to me that Suzyn Waldman, the Yankees color commentator for WCBS Radio and Doris Kearns Goodwin, the Pulitzer Prize winning historian who appears in Ken Burns' "Baseball," both prove that women can have just as much passion for a male sport as any man. 

So why do I still wonder if Amy's right?

AMY:  I HATE SPORTS! Maybe "hate" is too strong a word -- probably not. I'm just not interested in following any teams whatsoever. I don't care about who's just been traded, or who's in the finals, or who's broken the RBI record. (By the way, I just had to ask John, "Hey, what's a specific 'sports term' I can use as an example for this last phrase?") I'm telling you: I don't care!

I hate sports so much that I didn't even want to write about this topic for this blog entry. But, of course, John really did. He'd like to sneak some stupid sports talk into each of our blogs.

Now, I feel pretty guilty admitting my true feelings because -- born and raised in Boston, and now living in NYC -- sports should really be "in my blood" by now, right?  Wrong!

As a kid, I sat through thousands of Celtics, Red Sox and Bruins games, mostly because my brothers and father were obsessed, to put it mildly. I was raised in a clan of super-fans. I sat in my pajamas, crossed-legged, in front of the TV mostly because I didn't want to be left out. Meanwhile, my poor mother (like most women) poured tortilla chips into big plastic bowls, and counted the seconds until the final buzzer.

But it wasn't all bad. Watching Larry Bird play in his prime was amazing. And I certainly enjoyed watching the Red Sox break the curse a few years ago. 

But, as a woman, I'm always aware that pro sports is still a man's world. As little girls, we can't dream of a career in the big leagues. The only women we see in major-league sports these days are the occasional perky sportscasters, or even worse, women like this! Oh, and let's not forget the vapid cheerleaders, bouncing around like idiots for male titillation. It's depressing.

And sure, there are talented women's professional teams now, but who can actually name these female teams in their city? (Let alone produce a ticket stub!) Unfortunately, women's professional sports still has a long way to go. 

The problem? Most women -- like me -- just don't care about sports. I'm sorry; that's my opinion. Sure, I'll go to the Super Bowl, if someone has an extra free ticket, but watch ESPN, or read the sports pages? No thanks.

Sometimes, I see women stumble out of sports bars (with the guys) after a big game. Or, I'll notice a lady wearing a baby-pink Yankees baseball hat at the gym. But I don't buy it. I still maintain they're just trying to appeal to the sports-obsessed men around them.

One last thought: If women really are sports fans, why isn't there any sports content on this website? (Believe me, if this was a men's entertainment website, it would be 99 percent sports.) No, I'm not missing it. I'm just saying...