As March Madness comes to its end with the University of Connecticut Huskies on top once again, I want to talk a bit about some of the “storylines” that have been manufactured and pushed. While the men’s side was tame, the women’s was quite controversial from beginning to end. With that being said this wouldn’t be a true commentary on women’s sports media if I didn’t start with Angel Reese.
A true villaIn or a misunderstood hero?
Since April 2023, Angel Reese has been a major talking point for sports media especially when related to “sportsmanship.” I remember when I first started to see people seething in Instagram comments calling Reese outside her name, using the words “thug” and “ghetto.” Though I was disturbed, it wasn’t surprising and fitting to the landscape of America at the time and present day. I do not believe the little ring tap hand motion nor the “you can’t see me” sign she did at the end of the National Championship game last year was anything different than some good-natured trash-talking. Angel had already gone viral multiple times at the beginning of the season for blocking a shot with her shoe in hand and doing a TikTok dance after she scored, so antics were nothing new to those who weren’t casuals. Many of her white counterparts had done taunts during the whole season and almost anyone involved in sports has, whether it is a “too small” hand down to the knee, a head tap, or a 2019 Fortnite L dance.
However, Angel Reese hasn’t been given such grace and this was heavily demonstrated in Emmanuel Acho’s take on Reese’s post-game interview on Speak Live. Acho started by stating he was going to give a “gender neutral and racially indifferent take on Angel Reese,” a wildly dense way to start a take on a Black woman, where it is clear how she has been interpreted and portrayed by the media is a consequence of her race and gender. The clip that was shown and what Acho was responding to was completely out of context. Where it appeared, Angel was simply trying to grasp at straws for sympathy while sharing all the struggles she has faced this year while crying. In reality, Angel is already teary-eyed as she just listened to her teammates defending her and championing her as a leader and was asked how the journey from the championship game last year to the Elite Eight game has been.
It makes you wonder if the media willingly do this; do they not care how the young women they are reporting on might feel? They don’t and that was shown with Emmanuel Acho’s apology where he thanked the people who called him out for lukewarm take but didn’t outwardly apologize to Reese. It is undeniable the role Angel Reese has played in bringing women’s sports to the forefront along with stars like Paige Bueckers, Simone Biles, Caitlin Clark, Trinity Rodman, and Juju Watkins.
Wait? That is not the right team!
Another issue with sports media is how unapologetic they are with their favorites, whether it is the number of posts they have dedicated to a specific player or how they describe one team compared to another. This was exemplified through the L.A Times article on the Sweet Sixteen game between UCLA vs. LSU. In this piece, Ben Bolch called the Elite Eight game a “reckoning” of college basketball between America’s sweethearts vs. its villains, describing the teams as “milk and cookies or Louisianna hot sauce.” Many of the more racist and sexist statements made by Bolch have since been retracted but the internet does not forget. Bolch went so far as to create this hypersexual-demonized idea of LSU that likened the image of these young women to “dirty debutantes.” When Googled, it is all porn related. Bolch since has issued an apology but it should not be forgiven when he was willing to conjure up a false image of depravity to characterize LSU women’s basketball.
The media has continued to show their cards since South Carolina Women’s basketball beat the University of Iowa’s basketball and the well-praised Caitlin Clark. As of April 11, 2024, the media has finally caught up to showing love for SC, but if you looked minutes after the game, you would have seen practically all posts about Caitlin Clark losing or Clark’s career despite the loss. A prime example is CNN attaching a photo of Clark and her team when announcing the results of the championship, centering Iowa over South Carolina, or ESPN having the camera follow Clark all the way to the locker room instead of showing SC celebrating. (Fredrick Joseph, author and poet had a great video on this.) As much of a generational talent Caitlin is, South Carolina did something completely outstanding—an undefeated season and National Championship with a whole new starting five—and they should be praised for that.
This is not the first time a stunt like this has occurred as LSU faced a similar challenge when they won the National championship in 2023 against Iowa. Following their win, it is customary for the champions to be invited to the White House. However, this time Jill Biden proposed both Iowa and LSU come because of “sportsmanship.” It was odd and had never been done before in recent memory. Many, including LSU star player Angel Reese and myself, felt slighted by this proposal especially when it was unclear that an invitation would have been extended if LSU lost. (President Biden had Iowa winning it all, and LSU losing in the second round.) This brings me to my next point on how all of these actions influence the audience.
THe Comment Section: where civility dies
The number one rule for social media is do not look at the comments: still, they are impossible to ignore. If you look into any comment section about women’s basketball, you will now see the word “class” or some version of it at least ten times (examples include but are not limited to “classless,” “class act,” “no class,” and “classy”), and it has been like this since Angel Reese did the “Ring Me” sign after winning the NCAA championship last year. Twitter blew up with people reposting the GIF in good faith and others calling Reese a “thug,” “ghetto,” “classless,” and “unsportsmanlike.” It seems to be a competition of sorts for commentators to find the classiest women’s basketball player, comparing on and off-the-court behavior. As I covered earlier everyone trash talks, but to this day Angel Reese is seen as some random girl with no home training and bad manners, which is simply not who she has shown herself to be.
It is not just behavior that is judged but looks and presentation. Since Dawn Staley showed support for transgender athletes at the Final Four conference, the comments have woven a story with misgendering multiple SC athletes calling them men either because they are more masc- presenting or simply because they do not fit their idea of femininity, being not only transphobic but also racist, as they hyper-masculinize a predominately black team. There seems to be a fascination with sexuality and these young players, which is a bit off-putting. It goes beyond just saying “Oh, so and so are pretty.” Think pieces are posted about who they are dating and the sexualization of every action is clipped and put into an edit. This is not something that these players signed up for. As UConn’s own KK Arnold once said, “Keep it cordial.”
Outside of the toxicity of some media channels and bitter fans, it has been amazing to witness the growth of women’s basketball as generations young and old fall in love with the sport and the stars. Nothing brings me to tears more than watching a young fan overcome with emotion as their favorite player signs their shoe or freeze because they are starstruck. If you want to stay informed on women in sports, I recommend creators like Mariah Rose, Coach Jackie, and Splash Squad WBB.