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Whether covering the Ravens or any other sports team, Women get #MoreThanMean treatment

By Wola Odeniran
Mpu Dinani
Mpu Dinani
Getty Images

In this day and age of social media, more than ever, people across the globe can reach out to another person via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and others. That can be a blessing and a curse. A blessing because you get to reach out to other people you have seen from afar in a nice way, and a curse because cowards behind a computer screen, tablet or a smartphone can post any stupid thing they want. Women deal with vulgar abuse online very often.

Women in sports typically get stereotyped in horrible ways from their looks to their intentions and get looked down upon because there are others who believe that they shouldn't be where they are. Even the average female fan deals with it.

I've seen plenty of times locally where whether it is covering the Baltimore Ravens, Baltimore Orioles, Maryland Terrapins or even the Washington D.C. area sports teams where females on Twitter get harassed constantly in ways a man wouldn't be insulted.

That isn't to say that men don't deal with insults, because I know someone will reply with, "Men deal with insults too!" They do, just not in the way women deal with insults. It is very different and history says so.

My point is, we are not talking about how men deal with insults. We are talking about how women deal with insults. I'm not a woman, so I'm not going to speak for them it isn't my place to do so. But women have a certain viewpoint that men don't have and everyone should listen to it. In this day and age, people try force everyone to be the same and be equal when we all know that is a lie. It is OK to be different. Everyone has different experiences and that shouldn't be ignored in any way shape or form.

Women deal with different things socially than men and vice versa. So in this case, if people who do this can be so comfortable saying all kinds of garbage behind a screen like a coward towards a woman, how would they feel if it was said to a woman in their face?

ESPN's own Sarah Spain and CBS Chicago Update Anchor Julie DiCaro participated in a segment called #MoreThanMean where men would speak to both Sarah and Julie in their face about what others have said to them via social media. The men in the video are reading from what others have said in response to the two women, and they feel very uncomfortable doing so.

Again, I'm not a woman, so there is little I can say about what women go through when they see and read things like this. But what I can say is, social media these days half the time brings out the worst in people or brings out people who are horrible to begin with.

You wouldn't say these things to your mother's face. You wouldn't say it to your sister or any other female relative you have. Stop being a coward.

#MoreThanMean

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