It’s one of the saddest facts of life that female public figures endure distasteful, horrific and sometimes scary harassment online for no reason other than that they are female. Even among women online, female sports writers get some of the worst abuse. Legions of sports fans have proven themselves to be hateful at anyone who’s seen as criticizing their beloved teams, but when a male writer gets abuse, they’re called idiots or assholes. Women get it much worse, from gender-based slurs to outright threats of sexual violence. This is a fact, and you should be suspicious of anyone who denies it.
The optimists in us hope that most people are simply unaware of what female sports writers go through, which is why the #MoreThanMean campaign sat some men down to read some of the abuse that’s been spewed at two sports writers in particular, Julie DiCaro and Sarah Spain. The video has a simple and powerful message: Online, it’s easy to say whatever you want without witnessing the impact it has on your target. In person, it’s impossible to ignore exactly what your words mean. The guys were as uncomfortable and upset by the words they were given as you or I would be, and that’s why this campaign is so meaningful — we need to combat such dehumanizing tactics with even more humanizing tactics of our own.