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Thread. One thing that always bothers me is when people talk about why @theAUDL (and others) happened before women's leagues and say it's because "it's a business," and that men's leagues are just more successful than women's leagues. The problem is that lacks so much context. 1/ https://twitter.com/ETSU_Ultimate/status/1285609825993469953
First, let's just look at history, like literally the time that has passed since leagues started. The NBA was started in 1946. The WNBA? 1996. 50 YEARS later. How about soccer? MLS: 1996. NWSL: 2013. Only a 17 year difference, but that's for a sport not beloved in the US. 2/
So just the time that the leagues have been in existence leads to more growth in investment and buy-in for men's leagues. If you were to look at men's leagues say, 20 years in, you'd see the same kind of growing leagues and interest that you see now with women's leagues. 3/
In the present day, many men's sports leagues (like @theAUDL) still lose money, and so claiming that it's an investment relies on assuming that men's leagues will be around for a long time and eventually make money. Why don't we give women's leagues that chance too? 4/
Okay, so you say, then why were men's leagues originally created first if we take out the length of time they were around? Well to a large extent, that answer's even easier: sexism and the perception that sports were only a men's realm. Not news, I know, but still important! 5/
I am not a sports historian but there's plenty of evidence for this, some of which is very amusing in hindsight. Like when women started riding bicycles, there were worries about "bicycle face" and the "harm" bikes would have on women's reproduction. 6/ https://www.bustle.com/p/the-feminist-history-of-bicycles-57455
Or the marathon, since people thought women's bodies couldn't manage running 26.2 miles. I don't know if there's a better picture for the struggle for women in sports than men trying to restrain Kathrine Switzer as she ran in the 1967 Boston Marathon. 7/ https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/training/motivation/a773110/qa-kathrine-switzer/
And of course there's Title IX in 1972, which meant that women's sports in schools finally had to be supported in the same way that men's sports were. This law led to the expansion of women's sports, but the old prejudices didn't go away overnight and remain to this day. 8/
This is some, but not remotely all, of the context for the comment that men's leagues are created first because "it's just business." There are and have been consistent structural barriers against women's participation in sports, and that's not counting the social aspects too. 9/
So get out of here with your context-free comments about why @theAUDL and men's leagues were founded first for "business" reasons, and try to recognize the real systemic barriers that women in sports, and women's sports leagues, face everyday. 10/10
