By now, I would expect that we’ve all seen or heard about Sydney Sweeney’s controversial new ad campaign for Novig, a sports prediction market. The ad drew mass criticism and discourse, inspiring a number of short-lived TikTok trends contradicting the original ad, and highlighting the importance and hard work of “real women in sports.”
I don’t necessarily have anything new to add to the Sweeney-specific discourse. I think that the campaign was gross and insulting, but you don’t have to scroll far to find that exact same sentiment. My take, however, is that Sweeney’s ad is just one more blow in a long pattern of recent weirdness.
In a lot of the ways that matter most, right now is an excellent time for women in sports. I use that term to encompass women in all relations to popular sports, including women athletes, women who work in sports, and women sports fans. Luckily, it looks like the numbers of all three of these examples are on the rise.
The number and popularity of women’s sports leagues have grown significantly in the 2020s. The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was only founded in 2023 but has already sold out Madison Square Garden multiple times. Formula 1 also held the first season of its new F1 Academy that same year, a division which aims to “inspire and support young girls and women worldwide to embark on their own journeys in motorsport.” The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) saw record numbers this past regular season, with average viewership per game up 17% from 2025. And, while the 2026 season is currently ongoing, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) saw a whopping 61% increase in average match viewership for the 2025 season.
It’s not just about the women’s leagues—general sports viewership has seen increases for women, as has sports-related employment in several key leagues. According to Variety, in the 2025 NFL season, “358 women [held] coaching and football operations jobs in the league, up from just 92 in 2020.” The same article cites growing numbers of women watching the league. Formula 1 has shared similar viewership trends, boasting that, out of a 12% overall increase in the sport’s fanbase in 2025, 48% of these new fans were female.
All these sound like good things. Progress can be slow; we know that. So, what seems to be the problem? The unique issue seems to be that, while women in sports are progressing in so many ways, I do think that in terms of culture and media depictions, there’s recently been a significant level of regression. And it’s not just about Sydney Sweeney.
It’s not difficult to think of recent examples of women in sports being belittled—so many examples immediately come to mind. I think of the men’s national ice hockey team during the Olympics, choosing to (rather than focus on their own win) mock the gold-medal winning women’s team on a phone call with President Trump. I think of the viral video of reporter Olivia Cleary being harassed by a group of men while simply trying to do her job—a video that I struggled to relocate when my search instead pulled up a sea of similar occurrences. I think of the F1 movie choosing to have a woman character in the prestigious position of technical director, a position yet to be held by a woman in real life, only to have her end up in a workplace relationship with Brad Pitt’s character.
The issue of women in sports being disrespected is an ongoing one, one that many have been working hard to fight against. But, for progress to be made in practice, it’s important to think about the current messaging that may be contributing to the normalization of such treatment. I’ve noticed some recent patterns, both social media and popular media, that are actively reinforcing and perpetuating some of the very false perceptions about women in sports.
First, while there have been a lot of sports-related shows drawing a lot of attention lately, the vast majority do not actually let women be the athletes. Take Off Campus, for example, wherein the boys play hockey and the girls are permitted more traditionally acceptable womanly hobbies, like music or art. Even when shows do let women be athletes, however, there are often tight restrictions: the recent Netflix show Crew Girl may have girl in the title, but it only introduces us to one female athlete throughout the entirety of the show’s eight episodes. The other women in the show instead spend most of their time on things like planning parties, scheming, and setting fire to their cars. However, the show did suggest that season two will focus (at least somewhat) on the development of a women’s team, which would be a welcome shift. Also, as a side note: my cousin, a rower herself, strongly asserts that it would be entirely unrealistic for a Massachusetts private school with such a developed rowing program to have neither a girl’s team nor enough interested girls to form one.
And, while many sports-centric stories can be heartwarming, it’s easy for many of them—especially romances—to slip into harmful stereotypes. I hate to break it to some of you, but not every woman working in sports is dating a professional athlete. That trope isn’t just evidenced in the F1 movie: in a now-removed post, Piper Shaw, a broadcaster for the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, had to speak out because some felt that her image—including her name, occupation, and appearance—may have been utilized in the hockey romance novel “Power Play.” The self-described “spicy friends-to-lovers” novel depicts a workplace romance between an NHL player and a team reporter. While any connection to Shaw and her real-life position was never publicly confirmed, the situation raised interesting questions about the messaging these feel-good romances promote about real women who may just love what they do.
In addition to fictional depictions, with women becoming more commonly associated with sports, teams, leagues, and associated companies have begun to actively focus some of their content towards women. The thing is, though, it seems that they really have the wrong idea about what we should be caring about.
Just this past May, Apple TV helped host a “Women of F1” event which drew criticism for appearing to focus on the sport’s WAGs (wives and girlfriends) over the many women working in F1, or the F1 Academy drivers. In 2025, Formula 1 history was made after Laura Mueller became the sport’s first ever female Race Engineer (a role sort of like a driver-specific coach), working with Haas’s Esteban Ocon. Formula 1 teams require a lot of personnel, and there are a lot of women working behind the scenes, contributing trackside, as engineers, or more. But, instead, the sport has drawn criticism even from the drivers themselves about how much focus is put on the WAGs, at times, even choosing to broadcast their reactions over, you know, the actual race.
There’s also the devastating example that was Halo. Halo was Sky Sports’s women-focused TikTok channel that lasted for all of… three days. The channel leaned heavily into the “I’m just a girl” side of the internet, sharing real sports content with insane captions like “How the matcha + hot girl walk combo hits,” and of course, putting bows on everything. The backlash the channel received led to its prompt shutdown, but that doesn’t change the fact that so many women had seen and were hurt by Sky’s apparent perception of women who follow its content.
The media we consume frames the way we think about things. And, often, it also reflects the state of the world around us. I don’t think it is a coincidence that the just-a-girl-ification of sports media is so prevalent now, in a time of extreme political conservativism and pushes for more “traditional” ideals around gender roles. Women are permitted to participate and enjoy sports, but there are constraints. You can watch soccer, but within the framework of bows and matcha. You can work your way up to a prestigious sports media role, but in order to find your husband. And you can win gold and play hard and sell out stadiums but know your place while you do it.
It’s important to celebrate the progress being made for women in sports. But, with so much growth occurring, it’s also important to remain on guard. For progress to continue, it’s important to insist on change loudly and early when we recognize things going in directions they shouldn’t. And, in the meantime: if you do care about sports, and you’re not already, please take the time to learn about and support some of the amazing women in sports, because there so many out there that deserve more love and attention during this period. This article contains a great list of where you can watch women’s professional leagues. And, take some time to learn about the women behind the scenes, too. Focus on encouraging more growth, and more progress, because there is so much to be excited about already, and so much potential beyond.
So, don’t let the ragebait get to you. They wouldn’t be doing it if there weren’t so many real and talented women in sports out there to tick off.