Recent incidents of fans who throw sex toys on the field during WNBA games have stimulated a wide range of reactions from sports enthusiasts online. But an expert in mental health care has thoughts about what it really transmits for women.
The first reported incident took place on July 29 during a competition in College Park, Georgia, between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries. Someone threw a neongroen sex toys on the field – when the score was tied with less than a minute left in the game – which forced the game to stop temporarily.
Some people online laughed at the incident at that time, with different comparison Until fans then threw sex toys on the field at Buffalo Bills vs. New England Patriots NFL games in 2016 and 2017.
But the debacle-throwing debacle did not end there. The same thing happened on two other WNBA matches, on August 1 and again on Tuesday.
When he was asked about the incident on the match of 1 August between host Chicago Sky and the Golden State Valkyries, Sky Center Elizabeth Williams then told reporters that she thought it was ‘super disrespectful’.
“I don’t really understand. It is really immature. The person who does it just has to grow up,” she said,, CNN reported.
“Arena security?! Hello ??!” New York Liberty Forward Isabelle Harrison later wrote on X, formerly Twitter, later that same night. “Please do better. It is not funny. Never was funny. Throwing something on the field is so dangerous.”
And on Tuesday someone threw a sex toy on the field that went to Indiana Fever Guard Sophie Cunningham during the match of her team against the host Los Angeles Sparks. While Cunningham has seemed to take The incident in jest, other players and fans of the competition on X called the acts “scary,” humiliating and misogynistic.
According to The corresponding pressThe Wnba has said that spectators who throw objects on the field will receive a minimum ban on an annual ban and will be subject to arrest and prosecution. The AP also reported that sex toys were also thrown on games in New York and Phoenix last week, but that the sexually explicit items did not reach the court in those incidents.
Since then, at least two men have been arrested after they were each accused of throwing sex toys in separate incidents at WNBA games.
It is important to consider what these repeated incidents convey, since the target is a women’s sports competition of predominantly black players and A considerable number of women representing the LGBTQ+ community. Not to mention the fact that WNBA players have been arguing for years for better compensation and more respect for women’s sports.
Alexandra CromerA recognized professional counselor with thriveworks, said that people throw sex toys on the floor of a sports game for women “inherently disrespectful, humiliating and convey[s] A misogynistic message. ”
Cromer, who was a university worksheet herself, told Huffpost that she believes that throwing “everything at the court of active play of every sport” communicates a lack of respect for the players and the game “.
“The use of a sex object as something that needs to be thrown on the field communicates a derogatory message to women; that they are unable to exist in an autonomous space without being reduced to a sexual being, an object and something that is unable to be removed from a male perspective/image,” she continued later. “Especially, including the high prevalence of players in the LGBTQ community, this further pushes misogynistic and heteronormative stories and insults.”
Some jokes about the incidents reflect a lack of respect for women, Cromer said.
“I think a lot of humor found in these incidents is due to the lack of respect for women, queer women, women of color and the industry of women’s sports as a whole,” she said, adding: “Women work just as hard, if not, because of racial and gender bias, to make progress in the direction of professional sports levels.
Cromer said that society generally tends to see the performance and success of men as something that needs to be respected. And the fact that these repeated incidents have not occurred at NBA games “emphasizes the discrepancies with regard to male and female sports,” she said.
Cromer emphasized that it is also important to consider throwing a sex toy – especially a dildo – on the field of a sports game for women may cause emotional damage.
“There may be players who have been sexually abused or abused, there may be players with non -known sexual and / or physical traumas, and there is simply the fact that the use of a dildo relegation communicates; that all your hard work and successes are unable to be viewed outside your gender,” she said.
Moreover, Cromer pointed out that throwing an object on the field is dangerous to be dangerous and cause physical damage.
“If you occupy this behavior, you communicate a flagrant contempt for [a player’s] Physical and emotional safety, “she added.
