Women's sports

If you watch any women's sports on television, you quickly realize how female athletes are treated like second class citizens. Two recent local examples.

A couple years ago, the Portland State men's basketball team went to the big dance for the first time. They were a local sensation, the media covering the team everywhere. The game was a huge event, hyped, covered, a very big deal here.

This year it was the women's basketball team's turn. Yes, they got some media attention -- but what a difference! The worst part, the game wasn't shown on television. That is, ESPN started with the game then cut and gave the Portland market the Iowa-Rutgers game in its entirety, instead of the Portland State game! This was absurd.

A while back, the Gonzaga men's team gained attention and was a big deal, again fully covered by Northwest media. This year the Gonzaga women's team made the 2nd round in the tournament for the first time, upsetting a #2 seed last night to make the Sweet 16, a dramatic one point win. Yet this was not even mentioned on the 11 o'clock news last night. I couldn't believe it.

Nationally, regionally, locally, women athletes remain victims of media sexism. Period.