Guys Read Real Comments About Female Sports Reporters And Nearly Fall Apart

Men attempt to read mean tweets, can barely get through them

Sarah Spain and Julie DiCaro are women who make their living as sports writers. For some unknowable reason, there are men who simply cannot stand that idea, and constantly harass them online. In incredibly despicable, violent ways.

“We asked real guys to read real comments about women sports reporters to their face,” begins a video by the Just Not Sports podcast. The guys think they’ve been called to read something akin to Jimmy Kimmel’s mean tweets. They clearly have absolutely no idea how bad it is for women sports reporters. As they begin, you can see the guys kind of smirking, thinking they are about to read something funny. Their recitals quickly take a dark turn though, as Spain and DiCaro’s online harassment is so bad, the men nearly fall apart attempting to read it.

Watch:

It starts benign enough, a few insults like, “Sarah Spain sounds like a nagging wife on TV today.” Okay: it’s sexist and dumb — but not bone-chilling. It quickly moves to insults like this: “One of the players should beat you to death with their hockey stick like the whore you are.” Julie and Sarah have seen the tweets, the guys have not. As the video continues, they look visibly distraught reading the comments.

This is why we don’t hire any females unless we need our cocks sucked or our food cooked.

Sarah Spain is a self-important, know-it-all c**t.

F**k this dumb c**t.

I hope your dog gets hit by a car, you bitch.

I hope your boyfriend beats you.

I hope you get raped again.

The men can’t even make it through the comments. They repeatedly stick on words, several times apologizing for the tweets they’re forced to read. The looks on their faces are pretty sobering…

because this is what women deal with. Especially when they are in the public eye and especially when they are in typically “male” fields like sports writing.

“I would have LOVED to have tracked down the guy who ACTUALLY wrote them, so I could look them in the eye while they said that stuff,” DiCaro tells Jezebel. “But alas, most of them use fake names or exist only in egg form.”

“I get told all the time that ‘Twitter isn’t real life.’ But it IS real life. It’s MY life, specifically. And when people fire this shit off without thinking about it for more than a second, they affect MY LIFE. I’ve legit got a joke with my friends that I need one of those ‘X days since I’ve received an online rape threat’ calendars,” DiCaro says.

“While the guys who send this stuff are probably beyond help, maybe the video will make a difference to those who are constantly telling women online to get a thicker skin, ignore the trolls, blah blah blah,” DiCaro tells Jezebel. “Because this stuff does affect our lives.”

The internet has become such a safe place for trolls to endlessly harass. There is a way to help though. Believe women when they tell you that this stuff is happening to them. You can also easily report any violent comments you see on Twitter and Facebook.

These tweets are #MoreThanMean – they’re harassment. Share the video with the hashtag #MoreThanMean to increase awareness about harassment of women in sports.