Men’s Health Magazine threw back to another era today with a painfully misogynistic tweet about explaining sports to women:
She sees the game differently than you. Here’s how, and what to do about it: http://t.co/AaQXS1bsWY pic.twitter.com/fh83bb6Zc4 — Men’s Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) October 6, 2014
The tweet linked to a three-paragraph post — The Secret to Talking Sports with Any Woman — that quoted an academic’s claim that women prefer stories to statistics: “Treat your heroes as people and not just players on a field, and you’ll suck her in.”
Of course, there’s some truth to the notion that non-sports fans can be drawn in with human interest stories, but the tone of the post, and especially the tweet, was terribly patronizing to the millions of women who enjoy watching sports.
The reaction on Twitter was swift and strong:
@the_author_ @MensHealthMag omg no they didn’t. Did their editor just time jump from the 1950s? — Kelsey (@kelsinat0r) October 6, 2014
Shut up, @MensHealthMag, you don’t know any women. — Casey, but a Dracula (@Raedances) October 6, 2014
Just talk like you would anyone else? RT @MensHealthMag She sees the game differently than you http://t.co/n3RWzh6p7n pic.twitter.com/IaDVr5N57N — Jimmy GWAPpolo (@MarlonHAAANdo) October 6, 2014
@MensHealthMag Congratulations on being a misogynistic tone-deaf idiot who is completely ignorant of the fact some women like sports! — hannah✯ (@firstheart42) October 6, 2014
@MensHealthMag How about you talk to us like we’re PEOPLE? — Alison Melko (@AlisonMelko) October 6, 2014
@MensHealthMag boy are you dumb! Have fun with the fallout from this!! (Also, to answer your question, the same as guys) — GraduateBlackhawks (@GradHawksBlog) October 6, 2014
@delonte__3ast I’m glad you’ve surveyed most women and know they don’t care about stats or sports — Jill (@six15eleven) October 6, 2014
.@MensHealthMag I can guarantee I know more about sports than whoever wrote this article. Go die in a hole. — Jill (@six15eleven) October 6, 2014
@the_author_ @MensHealthMag had my head in my hands for a solid minute trying to formulate a response. realized that spoke for itself — Dumpy White Boy (@TopGearNY) October 6, 2014
@MensHealthMag try “don’t talk down to her like she’s five”. — McNeill (@lzbthmcneill) October 6, 2014
Postscript: The Men’s Health Twitter account apologized and deleted the original tweet — and Facebook and Google+ posts with the identical language — last night. Although, as many Twitter users noted, the original article remains on the Men’s Health site.
Apologies for our “talk sports with her” story. It missed the mark and the negative feedback is justified. We've deleted it. [part 1] — Men's Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) October 7, 2014
It wasn’t meant to suggest that women are in any way inferior to men, in sports, or anything else. But … we’re sorry that it did. [part 2] — Men's Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) October 7, 2014
Postscript II: Men’s Health editors eventually removed the original post on the website.
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