Wednesday, March 22, 2006

A clarification for Mr. Kent

The article about the validity of Candace Parker's two dunks and their effect on the game (and its naysayers) included an interesting--yet brief--comment about the audience of women's basketball. Here is the paragraph from Milton Kent's article:
Truth be told, there's a market for women's ball, namely families with
young children, older fans, African-American families, that may not be the
standard, listen-to-talk-radio, live-for-SportsCenter sports fan.
Um--Mr. Kent--you forgot the lesbians. Lesbians form a significant portion of the fan base for women's basketball. I know you know that--the WNBA knows it. It's just that no one wants to talk about it. Did Swoopes's (whom Kent mentions in the article) coming-out this year do nothing to show that it's ok to talk about lesbians and basketball? Apparently.
It's disappointing. Sure all of us with toasters know the score--know the high numbers of closeted players and recognize one another in the stands. It's time for the Others to provide that nod of recognition too.

2 comments:

Pilarcita said...

Or was he perhaps trying to move away from the old stereotype that *only* lesbians are interested in women's sports?

Just a thought.

ken said...

If that was his intent then he could have acknowledged lesbians as a loyal fan base to which these other constituencies have been added. No, I truly believe there is a very loud silence around the presence of lesbians (as athletes, coaches, administrators, and fans) in basketball--and of course most women's sports. (See Strong Women, Deep Closets.)