Any woman knows every day is a minefield of sexism and misogyny. But sometimes a woman will post their version of what they have to deal with and it’s still shocking. The other day, ESPN sport reporter, Mina Kimes, posted an email she received from a viewer who accused her of not knowing anything about “male sports.” Kimes, who graduated summa cum laude from Yale, was a business journalist prior to joining ESPN in 2014. In addition to her written sports profiles, she hosts and writes several NFL shows, including NFL live. For almost a year, Mina hosted the ESPN Daily podcast. Suffice to say, Mina knows plenty about sports, let alone ‘male sports.’ But that doesn’t stop men from sending her sexist crap all the time. So Monday, Mina posted one of their messages to Twitter
Sir this is a Wendy’s pic.twitter.com/Wg5gZamL1N
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) January 3, 2022
Most of the comments to this tweet were supporting Mina. A few tried to make jokes, especially about the guy’s name being Charlie Brown. A few losers tried to support the guy’s argument – that didn’t go far. Mina responded to her own tweet by saying:
I understand that “Don’t amplify” argument, I really do. But I get asked by women every day whether it’s normal, and I want people to see: It never ends and it has absolutely nothing to do you with.(sic)
When a fan wrote, “man WHAT lol” in the comments, Mina replied, “just a typical monday lol” I don’t think she’s exaggerating either. I’ll bet she does receive crap like this every Monday. And probably the rest of the week too. I don’t need to break down how insulting his comments are, you can all read them. His arguments are based on her being a woman, not any examples of her technique. She doesn’t post the rest of the email. I shudder to think what he feels Mina is “suited for.” A couple of fellow female sports anchors replied to Mina, thanking her for putting this out there and letting the public know that yes, it happens all the time. Kayla Anderson from WKRN in Nashville said she’d just been told to go back to “working at Ulta.” And Drea Blackwell from KSBW thanked Mina for being a role model… and then a man replied to Drea that she and Mina had responded to the sexist remark the wrong way. I mean, it never flipping ends.
What’s really sad is Mina got into sports reporting because ESPN was so impressed by an essay she wrote about how she and her dad bonded over the Seahawks. Football is deeply personal to her. I hate that this is being sullied for her. Men don’t get to have that world alone. Plenty of us sat with one or both parents or someone else dear to us and bonded over sports. I can speak circles around my husband about football.
Fortunately, another person who had Mina’s back was her co-host mentioned in the email, Jeff Saturday:
This is absolute trash! Mina is fantastic at her job and has earned everything she has at Espn. I can also tell you that I have reached out to Mina a number of times so that she could teach me about the use of analytics in football. She makes our NFL team better.Pipe down Charlie https://t.co/SLlhd6h6cW
— Jeff Saturday (@SaturdayJeff) January 3, 2022
Because Jeff is a former NFL player, some people feel he was patronizing about needing Mina’s help with analytics. I think maybe he responded emotionally, but meant well. Plus, players generally understand the stuff that pertains to them, but not what applies to the other positions. So Jeff may actually need Mina’s help for the whole picture. I like that he wanted to back Mina up. Others think he was trying to White Knight her. I don’t know, he would’ve looked like a jerk if he hadn’t said anything. Jeff was mad. I’m mad. Mina was mad. The only person that doesn’t deserve to be mad is Charles Brown, who is an @$$hole.
Photo credit: Instagram and Twitter
And yet most of her comments are men telling her to let it go, because hate is part of her job. Honest question, do most men even like women?
This is a gross generalization by me, I get that. But my feeling on this isn’t that all these men hate women (don’t get me wrong, I’m sure some do). I think it is just that most men fundamentally (with limited exception) don’t understand the differences to walk this earth as a woman. They don’t get that women have genuine fear they will kill them. They don’t get that even a simple act like taking the trash out at night has extra risk. It just, honestly, is lost on most of them. If they don’t get it at a major level of actual physical harm, they ain’t getting it at this level either, which is that these types of comments field differently when (a) you either the only or one of a few women in a room full of men, (b) men dominate your profession for the most part, and (c) there is going to be less tolerance for your mistakes.
Though some do, It’s not that men generally HATE women, it’s that they view us as pets/decoration/objects. And they get mad when we don’t stay in the lane they created for us in their heads.
Some don’t. But most are unable to wrap their brains around (1) the concept of male privilege, and (2) how they benefit each and every day from it. Even the BF, who is on the good end of the spectrum of gender sensitivity, needs me to point it out to him occasionally. His respect for me as an equal means he listens and tries to understand my point of view. But sometimes his blind spot is just too great.
My point is that so many things need to be in place in order to even have the conversation: awareness, respect, willingness to learn, etc. That’s a tall order. Too tall for most men.
Yep, even my husband who is amazing is still learning. He read an article a few months ago that had a bunch of women’s experiences of just everyday harassment and misogyny and he was appalled and couldn’t believe it because it has never and would never cross his mind to treat women, or anyone like that. He was like, I had no idea and I hope I’ve never made a woman feel uncomfortable because of my ignorance.
People feel that women should either hide and avoid public spaces and things they have the right to altogether, or quietly accept sexism and abuse as natural consequences of not doing so. She’s doing neither, so to them, that makes her part of, or all of, the problem. Looking down on women for not following this kind of “advice” in every personal and professional situation is the more comfortable option for a lot of men and women.
Honestly, if north american and british men want women to stay out of public spaces and hide, what is the difference between them and the taliban? Rhetorical question, none. Since the solution from both is to avoid rape, sexual harassment, online harassment, physical abuse, psychological abuse, and murder by staying in the house or the kitchen at all times.
‘Someone who wears lipstick and high heels. ‘. What kind of Neanderthal believes that is an insult? Both men and women wear lipstick and high heels and it has nothing to do with love or understanding of a sport.
Kudos to her for being such a classy lady.
She’s a smart woman who makes these men feel stupid. If she was giggling endlessly and twirling her hair and letting her male cohost do all the talking it wouldn’t be an issue. Just typical male fragility.
That’s the problem. Smart women who make men feel stupid, instead of playing helpless and dim. I’m glad I’m not a man, because dealing with masculinity seems so ridiculous. Men treat masculinity as something they have to hold tight against loss or theft. Men are taught to treat masculinity as some kind of zero-sum game: if a woman succeeds at something, that means a man is “losing” something. The only “acceptable” emotions are hostility and anger, and they will sacrifice their own well being, happiness, and the happiness and well being of their families for their own selfish pride. Real maturity for cisgender men only happens when they actively let go of that bullshit and learn to discover their authentic selves. As much as maculinity gone toxic sucks for men, it sucks even more the women and children who have to deal with it, tiptoe around it at times, or suffer for it. A Celebitch said it beautifully the other day–I can’t recall the exact words, but the idea was that men can frame their abuse of women as a natural step on their path to “personal growth”. I really feel for women who work in traditionally male environments. This shit must be absolutely exhausting, and they are expected to just take it as some sort of legitimate price to pay
Exactly. You know the saying (paraphrase), “Women are afraid that men will kill them, men are afraid that women will laugh at them?” We could add that men are also afraid of women who are smarter than them. Male fragility all over the place.
@bluesky
Exactly
“White knight her?” That’s crazy – he is being an ally, which is what people need to do. “I’ve got your back” is different than “I’m fixing this for you.”
I love that so many sports shows now have women reporters, anchors, etc. I too am more well versed than my husband on the game of football, which I love, btw. However, why is it okay to have aging, overweight, sometimes not attractive men on these shows but the women must be under the age of 35, thin, very attractive? Where is the typical female represented?
I think about this all of the time. There are so many men like that in every facet of entertainment and yet women are still held to the highest of standards in all of those places and it’s ridiculous and infuriating.
I totally agree and I feel like that’s common with nearly every aspect of TV programming. Like, why are all the Boston female meteorologists young smokeshows but all the male meteorologists are bald, portly and in their 60s? I hope I’m wrong but I tend to think this double standard will always exist in our broken patriarchal society.
Jackie MacMullan is one of the most famous female sports writers and did plenty of on-air interviews with star athletes over the years . She’s a handsome, if rather average-looking, woman but it also took her toiling away for years in sports journalism and making a name for herself before she got to appear on TV. It’s pretty f*cked up.
@kitten – Wow, your description of the meteorologist on my news is exact, Tom Skilling lol.
I hope you are wrong too but it’s hard to have hope when we are entering 2022 and it still feels like very little has changed.
I think about all of those shows that had/have average to unattractive men who were either married to or always dating beautiful women. George Costanza, Murray Goldberg, and Doug Heffernan are just a few that come to mind.
This shit is getting old…. There are times that I’d rather watch sports more than my spouse. I’m so sick of these men who think they own the trademark on sports. There are plenty females out there that watch and analyze on our own. And there are plenty of men who don’t know what the f#$K they are talking about when analyzing a game as my husband and I have both noticed when we are watching our local college teams…haha.
@Mellie I’m a football fan too and the reality is the NFL makes a ton of money off of non-male fans these days. I have written in to major networks about the sometimes assinine, flagrantly sexist and even racist commentary of male play by play commentators. Women analysts like Mina are changing the quality of coverage for the better AND helping NFL to maintain audience numbers. Some men seem to be very butt hurt that the fan base is changing and the game is evolving too. Way to go Mina Kimes you rock, still remember your epic call when Seahawks drafted DK Metcalf will never forget that TV magic!
Here’s the link to Mina’s call if you want to see her in action https://twitter.com/i/status/1323138473507762176
I don’t think he was patronizing her about the analytics. When he was a player analytics were not a part of the game as it is now in both football and baseball. Actually people who went to ivy league schools thrive in sports now as it relates to analytics so she certainly has an advantage over many in the world of sports, including fans.
My cousin is a reporter in Florida and get horrible comments all the time. She’s African American so there’s comments about her hair, not belonging on TV and all kinds of crap. It’s amazing the things people feel they can say to those they really don’t know just because they watch them on TV.
The only thing these dudes have to cling to is that women don’t play in the NFL, so they feel that only former players can provide “intelligent” commentary. This is becoming a pretty weird argument now that we know most of those guys have severe brain damage…
I’m an automotive engineer. My 70 person department is 10% female (including non-engineering support staff). I also have a very externally facing job, dealing with suppliers, operators, anyone you can think of in automotive. These contacts are, I don’t know 5-15% women. I’m treated really, really awesome. My point is that this crap is not an eventuality and we should never accept it as such.
what’s that saying?
“Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels”
MerlinsDad is more versed in football and baseball than me and I am pretty good at it having spent Saturday’s and Sundays with my Dad and Uncles watching football and baseball, but I can run rings around him with volleyball, curling and tennis. He doesn’t feel threatened by that at all, nor does he feel that if a woman knows her stuff then she shouldn’t be disregarded for that position.
That tweet is obviously from some moron who drives a too big pickup and swag gets to over compensate for his own short comings and feels threatened
ETA
*swaggers*
Supposed to be swaggers
This might be a small thing, but about his comment on her lipstick and heels- I honestly think that if she were wearing “sensible” shoes and no makeup, that would be a problem for many male viewers. I don’t think anyone really respects her, and he thinks she’s useless, but I’m sure lots of men don’t have a problem because they view her as eye candy.
@crooknnannies Mina is very well respected by many men in broadcasting and I would guess players too. She rocks! Yes there are troglodyte mouth breathers with their gonch in a bunch but the guys who really know their stuff know she is the real deal. She has been invited onto all male NFL podcasts multiple times. They know she rocks!
Mina is fantastic! I watch her almost every day and respect everything she says about sports. She’s also really smart. She helped her friend, David Chang, win a million dollars for charity on Who Wants to be a Millionaire!
It’s good that she shared this time. Not amplifying it in the hopes that they’ll get bored can seem like the safest choice sometimes. Ignoring it makes a person feel and look strong, plus nobody wants to hand out an instruction manual on how to hurt them. For women in the public eye, it probably feels like a “How to hurt me AND get extra attention/power for it” manual. But leaning too far in that direction can give misogynists, homophobes, and racists the hate-friendly “safe space” they want and create a stigma around publicly talking about their behavior.
I doubt Jeff was patronizing her. My husband played football for years and says he still doesn’t understand all the rules or analytics of the game. He just knew what his “job” was on the field.
So sad. I don’t see how it added anything to his life to come at her like that.😑. On a side note, anyone care to explain her Wendy’s reference? I don’t get it.🥴
I’ve always amplified this shit because I mothered boys. And I think some of the most sensitive men were either raised by a single mom or had a bunch of sisters or in my case, had several years between brothers. Close-in-age brothers tend to be a bit rough around the edges and stuck in stereotype growth. Because mine grew up hearing me complain and lecture, by the time, “Me Too,” surfaced, I’d warned them years earlier how social media would transform our culture and shine lights. To this day, one of our favorite YouTube vids is the tea consent video. Everything boils down to respect. One word to live by. Always.