The Sideline Fix

After my deep dive into the ESPN comment section on the YouTube community tab, this is what I so far. Women’s basketball receives the most negative/off topic engagement in the comment section, but it is not a problem specific to that sport. Similar patterns were seen on other sports (women’s college gymnastics, women’s soccer. But posts with some athletes and sportspersons (Naomi Osaka, Venus Williams, Stephanie MacMahon, Mikaela Shiffrin) received positive or at least on topic comments.

After I had done all that research, I went back and saw a post on Maya Moore’s retirement announcement full of respect.

And on a post in memory Pat Summit, past coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team and the most winningest coach, respect abounded again.

There was another post that presented Dawn Staley’ s Gamecocks as top of the AP Poll.

This time the comments were mostly on topic, until someone mentioned waiting for people to get off topic. But still there was the good ol’ Chipotle comment.

It appears, then, that those who comment on women’s basketball posts are capable of treating them with respect. More to the point, some in the community explicitly signal to others to give respect. The problem then is that women’s sports (still) by and large don’t have their respect. Only certain players and coaches are deemed worthy of on topic commentary and real engagement.

This makes me wonder: What do these figures (Maya Moore, Dawn Staley, and Pat Summit) have in common? What is it about them specifically that leads to a greater level of respect in the comment section? Is the weight of their careers, the power of their personalities? Do they just have larger fan bases to comment more in their favor? Or is there something else to this?

I am still looking to understand this comments phenomenon. This is dangerous, I know, but I am heading back into the comments section yet again.