Sarah Spain Speaks Up For Women In Media But Not For Female Athletes
For the past several years, Sarah Spain has been an outspoken advocate for women in sports. The problem, though, is she's not exactly consistent in her support.
The longtime ESPN personality appeared on a recent episode of Pablo Torre Finds Out, where she lamented opportunities for women in sports media once they reach a certain age. Spain chatted with Meadowlark Media host Charlotte Wilder, who said she feels more confident, established and "less f-ck-withable" as she advances in the industry.
Spain, who is older than Wilder, said she hates to "burst her bubble," but things will get harder as she gets older.
"The problem is, your career now feels like you’re in charge of it, you’re unf-ck-withable, you get to decide," Spain said. "I was getting better at my job every day, I was getting more knowledgeable, I was meeting more people, I was bringing new stuff to the company I worked for, and I started to feel what every woman in her early 40s starts to be told to feel, which is you’re going to be squeezed out."
Spain explained how women's value in media tends to decline — at least in the eyes of decision makers — as they age. When they're no longer young and hot, they are cast aside. Meanwhile, men can continue yammering on TV far into their fat, old and bald years. (She didn't say that last part, but it's true.)
"If you look across the media landscape, there’s a giant divide from about 40 to maybe 65," Spain explained. "Women get to be old, and then we want to hear from them maybe, but in that way that we love Betty White or Gloria Steinem. But between 40 and 65, we kind of don’t want to hear from you anymore because you remind us that aging happens, and we place so much value in women’s aesthetics.
"Even if they’re writers and radio people and people who are ostensibly not connected to their looks, we deeply and maybe subconsciously associate their value with youth, and then we stop listening. And there’s this giant gap where we just don’t hear that much from women of a certain age."
(Sarah Spain. Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
There are, of course, exceptions. But for the most part, Spain is spot on here. And that's why women on TV and in Hollywood resort to measures like Botox, fillers and plastic surgery — to fight aging and to appeal to the male gaze for as long as they possibly can.
Sarah Spain Is Right About Women In Sports Media
This isn't the first time Spain has spoken out about the challenges of being a female in the male-dominated sports industry.
In 2016, Spain teamed up with (the publication formerly known as) Deadspin's Julie DiCaro for a video titled "More Than Mean." In the video, unsuspecting, ordinary men read real, degrading tweets directed to female sports reporters.
This is why we don't hire any females unless we need our d-ck sucked or our food cooked.
Hopefully, this skank is Bill Cosby's next victim. That would be classic.
I hope your boyfriend beats you.
I hope you get raped again.
The tweets are appalling and highlight the sexual harassment, unjust criticism and even rape threats that female sportscasters face online simply for doing their jobs. Again, spot on. Any woman in the sports industry will tell you this is a very real problem.
But there's another very real problem women in sports are facing, and it's one Sarah Spain is dead wrong about.
What About Female Athletes?
You'd think — after reading those horrible tweets — Spain would fully understand why protecting women and single-sex spaces is important. But you'd be wrong.
Last year, USA TODAY's Nancy Armour wrote a scathing piece attacking Sam Ponder — Spain's colleague at ESPN. Why? Because Ponder had the audacity to call for fairness in women's sports.
"Don’t be fooled by the people who screech about 'fairness' to cloak their bigotry toward transgender girls and women, the transgender girls and women who have the audacity to want to play sports, in particular," Armour wrote.
(Sarah Spain. Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images)
But instead of supporting her colleague, Spain "liked" Armour's tweet promoting the column and calling Ponder a bigot. And since then, Spain has actively supported male participation in women's sports — even trying to claim that men don't actually have a biological advantage when it comes to athletic performance. And just denying the problem exists at all.
Like this tweet:
"Trans kids are NOT DOMINATING or STEALING SPOTS and SCHOLARSHIPS from cis athletes," Spain posted on X in August. "Anti-trans laws do not PROTECT kids, but rather ENDANGER them. Trans exclusion is BAD for all athlete participation."
So for female members of the media, Spain will fight for equal opportunity and against sexual harassment and unfair hiring practices.
But when it comes to female athletes, she's OK with forcing girls and women to get naked in locker rooms in front of fully intact males. She's also OK with women losing athletic opportunities and prize money to bigger, stronger, faster males.
An interesting place to draw the line. It's almost as if Sarah Spain only cares about fairness for women when it directly affects Sarah Spain.