“You just like him because he’s cute.” “Name five players.” “Bandwaggoner.” “Did your dad make you a fan?” “What’s icing?”
I grew up as a figure skater, spending my life surrounded by hockey players. I had my skating practices cut short by the rink so the hockey players could have more ice time over and over again, and any complaint was met with the fact that they brought in the money.
When I became a sports fan back in 2022, I was, admittedly, underprepared for what I was going to face. I was hopeful that the environment I’d find myself in would be different from what it had been as a child, only to be dragged back to reality the first time I mentioned liking Formula One to a man. I mentioned being a fan of Oscar Piastri, and he looked confused, saying, “That’s weird. Most girls go for Lando Norris because he’s hotter.” I remember being stunned at his response, because I wasn’t there for the way he looked. I was there because I liked watching cars drive fast, and I picked him because his helmet looked cool.
He didn’t believe me.
Last week, Sydney Sweeney starred in an ad for the sports betting app Novig. Throughout the ad, Sweeney was pictured in undergarments and different kinds of sportswear, from soccer cleats to hockey gear to nothing at all. Many of the shots feature her holding only a football or tennis racket in front of herself, while one has her sitting naked on a basketball hoop as she asks, “Think you know sports? Prove it.”
The thing is, I have proved it. My friends have proved it too. Every female sports fan has had to “prove it.” Every female athlete has had to “prove it.”
Two-time Olympic silver medalist figure skater Evgenia Medvedeva once said, “Being a 14-year-old athlete, I was told to pad my costume because I doesn’t have breasts, so how are we supposed to earn points for the components?”
Olympic gold medalist figure skater Alysa Liu said, “Men in competitions don’t need to wear makeup, don’t need to do their hair. For women, they have to. Even in practice sometimes.”
The average National Hockey League player makes around $3.5 million a season, a number that is steadily increasing after this year’s team cap increase. The average Professional Women’s Hockey League player makes $58,350 a season. That is 60 times less.
The Women’s Professional Baseball League just started this season. Players are making an average of $6,000 a season. In 1876, when Major League Baseball had its inaugural season, the average salary was $1,000. Today, that would be $31,306.
The Women’s National Basketball Association average salary is $600,000. NBA players make, on average, $12 million.
I could keep going. I could talk about how there isn’t a widely recognized female version of the NFL. I could talk about how men with rape and abuse accusations are free to play in major leagues while female players have sex toys thrown at them. I could talk about the abuse that women suffer at the hands of their coaches and the countless times we’ve been told that it’s “not that deep” for a man to join our teams after committing heinous acts to other women.
I could talk about how we’re called “weaker” than men, yet after all of the things we’re put through, we keep playing. Women will keep playing their sport when “nobody” is watching, because “nobody” is watching for 46 billion minutes.
We don’t have to “prove it.” We already have.